“… he clarified his intention, which was “beat” as beatific, as in “dark night of the soul,” or “cloud of unknowing,” the necessary beatness of darkness that proceeds opening up to light, egolessness, giving room for religious illumination.”—Allen Ginsberg In some ways, Gregory Corso represented a darkness within a darkness: a beat within the Beat. …
Category: Reviews
May 24
Susan Ward Mickelberry reviews: These Many Cold Winters of the Heart by Ryan Quinn Flanagan
Ryan Quinn Flanagan’s These Many Cold Winters of the Heart begins with an epigraph from Emily Dickinson “I am out with lanterns looking for myself,” a perfect depiction of this collection. You will be riveted from the opening poem, “I Grew Up in a Brewery Town,” where the Molson plant closes down but “people survived, they usually …
Apr 20
Review by Alan Catlin: How to Play House by Heather Dorn
Heather Dorn, How to Play House, Roadside Press, 2023, 116 pages $15 “Heather Dorn is a real mom with real life issues. She’s more Journal of a Mad Housewife than Kate Middleton, though she’s not a stuck at home mom going crazy with her kids but a PhD in English Literature who teaches at the …
Apr 14
Review by Lori Howe: Ain’t These Sorrows Sweet by Lauren Scharhag
In Ain’t These Sorrows Sweet, Lauren Scharhag invites readers into her hand, lifts us across space and time, and offers us the nourishment of memory cached in beans and light, in tomatoes and rosaries and barbacoa. She illuminates the crossroads of time and history and inheritance as they culminate in our own mouths and are …
Apr 10
Review by Linnet Phoenix: Ain’t These Sorrows Sweet by Lauren Scharhag
Today, I finished reading Ain’t These Sorrows Sweet and what a journey we have been on, through dark places, wonderfully described: “Burned out encampments in railroad yards give no scent of myrrh.” This book contains beautiful, heart-wrenching narrative poems which it has been a tearstained pleasure to read. I realised that the book was a …
Apr 03
Review by Anthony Mangos: INNOCENT POSTCARDS by John Pietaro
‘Innocent Postcards’: Progressive poetry reflects 20th-century politics and culture by Anthony Mangos, People’s World Author-poet-musician John Pietaro has been a constant, positive force in the ongoing progressive culture of New York City. Hailing from Brooklyn, Pietaro’s passions are equal parts literature, music, workers’ rights, and social activism. He founded the Dissident Arts and Brecht Lives! …
Mar 26
review by Mala Rai: These Are the People in Your Neighbourhood by Jordan Trethewey
review of THESE ARE THE PEOPLE IN YOUR NEIGHBOURHOOD by Jordan Trethewey, originally published in Miramichi Reader at https://miramichireader.ca/2024/03/these-are-the-people-in-your-neighbourhood-by-jordan-trethewey/ These Are the People In Your Neighbourhood by Jordan Trethewey March 25, 2024 by Mala Rai Jordan Trethewey’s tribute to the people of Fredericton, a city I have never been to, travelled nearly 5400km westward for a curious …
Feb 23
Disposable Darlings Anything but Disposable: a review by Julie Valin
Disposable Darlings Anything but Disposable Todd Cirillo’s new collection of poems, Disposable Darlings, is like a “cosmic jukebox” of the human condition, playing all our favorite songs, depending on our mood. You want a love song? Go to the very first poem, “Magnolias,” and move to the sounds and scents of Spring—a new love blooming. Or …
Feb 22
Independent Book Review: Radio Water by Francine Witte
Radio Water By Francine Witte Genre: Literary Fiction / Short Stories Reviewed by Nick Rees Gardner Francine Witte evokes the sorrow of separation, the fear of alienation, and a snippet of hope in this flash fiction collection. All under 1000 words, most of the 44 stories in Francine Witte’s Radio Water have appeared separately before …
