Reviews
Latch by Jen Stewart Fueston
Review by Tasslyn Magnusson I have a special place in my heart for “definition poems.” It’s what I call poems that take the idea to lay out the meaning of a word and repurpose that definition for their poem and…
Defining by Tasslyn Magnussun
Review by Sherre Vernon Tasslyn Magnusson’s chapbook Defining opens with “dreams of obliteration” (1) and closes with the short declarative sentence, “I speak” (22). Defining does not offer itself as a typical poetry collection. Framed by four lyric micro-poems, two…
Evensong for Shadows by Shanna Powlus Wheeler
Review by Michelle Wilbert As I read the first poem in this lovely collection by Shanna Powlus Wheeler, I was struck by two things: the sometimes harrowing pain of loss and grief that permeates the daily reality in which these…
Blackbird Blues by Jean K. Carney
Review by Ellen Meeropol Although she dreams of being a jazz singer, entering the convent feels like a way for eighteen-year-old Mary Kaye O’Donnell to escape her dysfunctional family. That is, until she learns that she’s pregnant. The one person…
Take Daily as Needed: A Novel in Stories, by Kathryn Trueblood
Review by Nancy Gerber “I’m done,” announces Maeve, the narrator of this compelling novel written in thirteen linked stories. And what mother hasn’t felt this way? Motherhood, the most demanding and impossible juggling act in the world—tending to the complicated,…
Model Home by Eve F. W. Linn
Review by Laura Dennis The title of Eve F.W. Linn’s chapbook, Model Home, along with the dollhouse-like furniture on its cover, evokes coldness, mass production, lack of individuality. Then one looks at the cover again. Do the chairs and…
Book of Minutes by Gemma Gorga, Translated by Sharon Dolin
Review by Barbara Ellen Sorensen In Gemma Gorga’s Book of Minutes, prose poems enlighten with mystical ease and seem to shimmer with radiance. Each poem is a self-contained invocation distilling a deeply felt spirituality found in the…
Motherish by Laura Rock Gaughan
Review by Emily Webber The title of Laura Rock Gaughan’s wide-ranging and engaging debut collection Motherish comes from the short story, “Woman Cubed.” Dale is a contortionist preparing for an upcoming performance where Cirque recruiters will be in the…
The Not Wives by Carley Moore
Review by Lara Lillibridge Carley Moore is an essayist, novelist, and poet. The Not Wives is her debut novel. (Last year, Mom Egg Review reviewed Moore’s debut essay collection, 16 Pills). The Not Wives, set in New York City just…
Following Sea by Lauren Carter
Review by Christine Stewart-Nuñez Lauren Carter’s second book of poetry, Following Sea, summoned crisp winter air into the humid heat of my July afternoons. As Carter chronicles her ancestors’ journey into the Canadian wilderness and reflects on experiences with infertility,…
Gray is the New Black by Dorothy Rice
Review by Lara Lillibridge Dorothy Rice earned her MFA in creative writing from UC Riverside, Palm Desert, when she turned 60. Gray is the New Black is a coming of age memoir for those of us who took a…
Travellin’ Mama, Edited by Charlotte Beyer, Janet MacLennan, Dorsía Smith Silva, and Marjorie Tesser
Travellin’ Mama: Mothers, Mothering, and Travel Edited by Charlotte Beyer, Janet MacLennan, Dorsía Smith Silva, and Marjorie Tesser Review by Stephanie May de Montigny In Travellin’ Mama each of us likely will find something that resonates with our own…