Reviews
My Tarantella Poems by Jennifer Martelli
Review by Janet McCann Do you like poems about America’s past that evoke a Rockwellesque landscape, then curl up and scratch the back of your neck? I do. But if that’s what you are looking for, this collection isn’t it.…
Efflorescence by Dawn Marar
Review by Katrinka Moore In Efflorescence, Dawn Marar navigates borders — between America and the Middle East, between family and political life, between art and nature — and even crosses a border of language, inserting Arabic words among the…
DiVida by Monica A. Hand
Review by Christine Stewart-Nuñez Before I opened Monica A. Hand’s DiVida to review it, I felt a particular responsibility; Alice James Books published this collection posthumously. Poets work hard to promote their work, and in this regard, DiVida seemed…
Suspension by Paige Riehl
Review by Judy Swann With its polyvalent title, Paige Riehl’s Suspension is the perfect hierophant for an exploration of the bridges between the self and the world. Many of the poems are about an international adoption, itself an image of…
An Incomplete List of My Wishes by Jendi Reiter
Review by Meghan O’Neill Jendi Reiter’s debut short story collection, An Incomplete List of My Wishes, is a model of tension. The push and pull of one’s own sexuality, family relationships or friends and enemies, but most poignantly the tension…
Course by Athena Kildegaard
Review by Lisa M. Hase-Jackson The poetry of Athena Kildegaard’s fifth book, Course, ranges from sparse to ample, vivid to subtle, and somber to lightly humorous. Leaning heavily toward the narrative, the collection’s apparent aim, to lead the reader…
In the Early Morning Calling by L.B. Williams
Review by Mindy Kronenberg I had become acquainted with L.B. Williams’ work for an earlier review in Mom Egg with her chapbook The Eighth Phrase, and learned how she deftly entwined place, rite of passage, angst, and ecstasy to create…
Riot Days by Maria Alyokhina
Review by Ros Howell “They are used to us being afraid of them. Don’t be afraid” (45). Maria Alyokhina was one of three members of the Russian feminist protest punk-rock collective Pussy Riot who were arrested in 2012…
Louise Bourgeois, Midwife to the Queen of France: Diverse Observations, Translated by Stephanie O’Hara, Edited by Alison Klairmont Lingo
Not Your Mother’s Midwife Review by Judy Swann This skillful translation and the well-written, consciousness-expanding essays and appendices in which it is nestled, are a landmark contribution to the scholarship of early modern times. In a certain sense, Louise Bourgeois…
Dirt and Honey by Raquel Vasquez Gilliland
Review by Deborah Hauser Dirt and Honey, Raquel Vasquez Gilliland’s debut poetry collection, is a celebration of women as agents of creation in Mexican culture that challenges the patriarchy and assert the power of women to conceive, create, and run…
The Gates of Pearl by Jill Hoffman
Review by Christine Stewart-Nuñez An intense love transcends most mother-daughter relationships no matter how fraught, tangled, and dynamic they may be. Jill Hoffman’s latest book, The Gates of Pearl, chronicles this intensity with heart-breaking veracity. In her preface, Hoffman—a poet,…
Woman, Running Late, In A Dress by Dallas Woodburn
Review by Christine Thomas Alderman “I’ve pretended a lot of things the past sixteen years, but I can’t pretend to feel that” (11). With those words, a woman who has just almost lost her husband to sudden illness, knows she…