MER Bookshelf – December 2025 Curated by Melissa Joplin Higley New or forthcoming books of note (in order of date of publication). Bonnie Naradzay, Invited to the Feast, Slant Books, October 2025, poetry Bonnie Naradzay’s journey—as mother, professional, teacher, and…
Browsing: Reviews
Review by Mary Makofske From the title poem, “At the Redemption Center,” where the prosaic recycling of bottles and cans slides into “hope…for the redemption of us all,” Anne Sandor demonstrates her skill at turning words and situations over…
Review by Mindy Kronenberg The memoir has become a prominent and innovative literary genre, evolving from conventional prose to graphic and poetic forms, providing poignant and entertaining forays into the lives of authors with complex personal journeys (100 Demons,…
Review by Megha Sood Pramila Venkateswaran, Poet Laureate Emerita of Suffolk County and author of multiple poetry collections, brings forth her latest poetry collection of fifty-one poems, Exile is Not a Foreign Word, which introspects the walls—both figuratively and…
Curated by Melissa Joplin Higley New & notable, recent & forthcoming. Books are listed in order of publication date. Laurel Benjamin, Flowers on a Train, Sheila-Na-Gig, June 2025, poetry Flowers on a Train traverses a natural world both real and…
Review by Rebecca Jane Count On Me untangles knotted emotions, traumas, and stories that connect grandmothers, mothers, and daughters. On its surface, this realistic novel, set during the 2010s in Canada, tells the story of a single mother, Tia…
Marjorie Maddox On Writing Seeing Things Of all my books, the newest—Seeing Things (Wildhouse, February 2025)—proved the most difficult to write, but also one of the most important. The reason is because of you, dear reader. To better understand…
A Literary Reflection by Ellen Meeropol “I long for books about crazy people,” begins Lydia Kann’s luminous graphic novel, Germaine’s Daughter. “Maybe crazy people who have survived the Shoah – The War. There cannot be enough said about growing…
Review by Melanie McGehee Though In the Needle, A Woman is Susan Michele Coronel’s debut poetry book, ‘debut’ feels misleading. Many of the sixty-three poems here were previously published individually, in a wide variety of literary magazines. It may…
Review by Susan Blumberg-Kason Rebe Huntman has enjoyed a long career in dance, directing Danza Viva Center for World Dance, Art & Music out of Chicago, along with its residency dance company One World Dance Theater. Through her work…