Reviews

“That Amorphous Me”: A review of Lynne Sharon Schwartz’s A Stranger Comes to Town by Erika Nichols-Frazer
“The world that I had forgotten was indeed a frightening place,” Schwartz writes. She invites readers to consider, who are we if not our memories, our experiences, and the people we surround ourselves with? What makes an identity? “A lot of people live without knowing much about the truth of their lives,” Marzino’s mother says.
“That Open Heart”: Carlene Gadapee's What to Keep reviewed by Andria Williams
But between these silences and within these objects, there is a simmering, shimmering, gathering power, the knowledge that loss, or resentment, or love, could detonate at any moment and blow the human budget.
“Heart-Light”: a review of Denton Loving's Feller by Jake Lawson
Feller
Denton Loving
Mercer University Press, August 2025
336 pp.
Located and informed by natural settings, many of the poems in Feller search beyond geographical boundaries—you’ll find songs of memory and longing, joy, gratitude, a search for peace, and much more. By the end of reading the collection, you’ll feel as if you have made a new, dear friend, someone to laugh with, someone to offer wisdom through hard times.
“Contact Points”: Alive Day by Karie Fugett reviewed by Andria Williams
I shuddered as Fugett read down an itemized list of how much wounded veterans could receive per lost body part, how OxyContin (manufactured by Purdue, now discontinued) was marketed in deceptive ways that downplayed its potential for addiction, how Karie navigated a cheapskate military bureaucracy to make sure her husband got full compensation for his lost limb.
“Expect the Unexpected": Tom Keating reviews Bill McCloud’s The Error of the Stars
The Error of the Stars
Bill McCloud
Expect the unexpected.
“Everytown, USA”: a review of Miriam Gershow’s Closer by Catherine Parnell
Closer
by Miriam Gershow
Regal House Publishing (2025)
It’s an Odyssean journey, filled with modern-day shipwrecks, and by the end, the sodden characters are cast upon shores they never expected to find. Some die, others succumb to temptation, and still others flee.
“Everything she knew she’d read somewhere”: Allison Renner’s review of The Dime Museum by Joyce Hinnefeld
The Dime Museum by Joyce Hinnefeld
Unbridled Books (August 2025)
Spanning decades and crossing continents, from the vaudeville stages of early 20th-century America to the isolation and grief of the COVID pandemic, Hinnefeld’s stories explore the lasting effects of privilege, desire, caregiving, and personal history.
“A State of Mind”: a review of Rachel Hadas’ Pastorals by Gretchen Ayoub
Pastorals
Rachel Hadas
Measure Press
“This is what it is to live in time, to remember what we can no longer feel, to feel what we can no longer remember. And then it bubbles up.”
Alone in the Body: Marsha Recknagel’s review of Bodywork by Eva Tuschman Leonard
Bodywork
Eva Tuschman Leonard
Bored Wolves co-edition with Firehouse Press (San Francisco), 2025
With the turning, turning of her agile mind she contemplates the myriad ways she could manage to live in the thrall of a chronic, inexplicable illness.
Carlene Gadapee’s Review of Patrick Donnelly’s Willow Hammer
Willow Hammer
Patrick Donnelly
Four Way Books, 2025
86 pp.
Donnelly’s deft handling of the personal and universal tragedy of [sexual violence] is profound. He turns to mythology as a vehicle to carry the reader on the path of terrible discovery and to discuss the horror; the speaker’s not being present and not witnessing first-hand the destruction that the violence causes makes it somehow both more terrible and mythic at the same time.
The Power of Individual Moments: A Review of Carlene M. Gadapee’s What to Keep by Gretchen Ayoub
What to Keep
Carlene M. Gadapee
Finishing Line Press
Through a thoughtful and substantive mix of warm visual imagery and heartbreaking scenarios, the question of what stays with us and what we leave behind reminds us of the power of individual moments, past and present, in an overstimulated world.
A Fellow Pilgrim: A Review of David Ferry’s Some Things I Said by Les Schofield
Some Things I Said
David Ferry
Grolier Press
Some Things I Said is wonderfully instructive, a poetic masterclass for any aspiring or seasoned poet.
“Life with the Discrimination That Foreshadowed the Holocaust:” Anna Vallée’s review of This Darkness Will Never End by Edith Bruck, translated by Jeanne Bonner
This Darkness Will Never End
Edith Bruck, translated by Jeanne Bonner
Paul Dry Books, 2025
187 pp.
New generations of readers can pay their respects to victims of the Holocaust by reading and remembering Bruck’s moving collection.
“Straining Forward to Adventures Ahead“: Ruth Edgett reviews Coming Ashore by Thomas O’Grady,
Coming Ashore
Thomas O’Grady
Arrowsmith Press
“What I love about reviewing books is how much I learn—not simply from what the authors have written, but from researching the techniques, influences and ideas that inform their writing. All of this makes me a better writer.”
“Of Legend and Landscape”: Carlene Gadapee reviews Grief’s Apostrophe by Steven Ratiner
Grief’s Apostrophe
Steven Ratiner
Beltway Editions, 2025
91 pp.
Ratiner leads us through the wilderness of grief, using references to sacred text and imagery, mythology, and common experiences as vehicles to plumb the depths of a feeling Self.
“Millions of versions of me”: Allison Renner’s review of Magic Can’t Save Us by Josh Denslow
Magic Can’t Save Us
by Josh Denslow
University of New Orleans Press (May 6, 2025)
176 pages
“The Indignity of Seeing: Two New Poetry Collections from Amber Albritton and Amalie Flynn” reviewed by Andria Williams
If you do not want to see, don’t read [these] book[s]. If you do not want to see, for God’s sake read [these] book[s].
“We are All Sharing the World”: Carlene Gadapee reviews The Soul We Share by Ricky Ray
The Soul We Share
Ricky Ray
Fly on the Wall Press, 2024
159 pp.
The soul in the title of the collection is not just shared between the human and his dog, but more, it is found among humans, nature, and the readers: we are all sharing the world, and we might need to be reminded of this fact.
“All they wanted was sugar in the sun”: Allison Renner’s Review of How to Love a Black Hole by Rebecca Fishow
How to Love a Black Hole
by Rebecca Fishnow
Conium Press (March 4, 2025)
88 pages
What stands out in How to Love a Black Hole is the masterful way in which Fishow blends beauty and melancholy. The writing is introspective, filled with moments of quiet tension and powerful imagery that often leaves an undercurrent of unease.
“The Smallest Skip in a Record”: Allison Renner’s Review of A New Day by Sue Mell
A New Day
Sue Mell
She Writes Press (2024)
200 pp.
Mell’s style feels reminiscent of Lily King’s Writers and Lovers and Melissa Bank’s The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing, blending intimacy and realism with a sharp eye for detail. Her writing captures small but powerful moments. One of the many lines that stuck with me reads: “Sometimes when you meet someone in a passing moment—a moment that’ll never repeat—they’ll share something with you that they didn’t even know they wanted or needed to say.” That feels like an apt description of the book, honestly. These insights pop up throughout the collection, making you pause and appreciate the beauty of the concept.