Libby Maxey Contrafactum “Every house has its particular orchestra.” —Sylvia Townsend Warner in the woods, a bear bell’s chunnering drone the flickers’ enfilade in the garden, a chiming gamelan wind wash in the leaves inside, outside’s company now that…
Review by Carole Mertz It’s a welcome experience to discover so fine a collection of contemporary poetry written entirely in sonnet form. Kairos is a remarkable volume whose voice also reflects the training and inclinations of a classical musician.…
Review by Libby Maxey A Stone to Carry Home, Andrea Potos’s seventh poetry collection, is the perfect read for mothers seeing children off to college this fall. Although the airy, Mediterranean cover photo might suggest that these poems will…
Reviewed by Libby Maxey At seventy pages, Show Her a Flower, a Bird, a Shadow is too long to be a chapbook, but it has that feel: focused, intimate, slight yet substantial. Peg Alford Pursell’s stories tend toward poetic…
Review by Libby Maxey Christine Stewart Nuñez published three poetry collections prior to Bluewords Greening, yet this latest book feels like a life’s work. It encompasses years of motherhood clouded by the struggle to understand and cope with both her…
Review by Libby Maxey – Amelia Martens has published three chapbooks, but this is her first full-length collection of poetry. It’s a beautiful book in every respect, a true work of art. Her prose poems are short, most covering less…
Review by Libby Maxey – I’m rather new to the world of small fiction (also known as flash fiction, micro fiction, short shorts, sudden fiction, quick fiction—and there may be more names that I’ve yet to run across). As…
Review by Libby Maxey Some poetry begs to be understood; some challenges the reader to understand. Then there’s the poetry that doesn’t ask us for anything; it seems complete in itself, regardless of what we understand. In general, Emily Wolahan’s…
Review by Libby Maxey – I expected to graze on Nicole Callihan’s Superloop (Sock Monkey Press, 2014), but I ended up devouring it —or, to make use of the titular metaphor, I went to Callihan’s classy midway and didn’t want…
Review by Libby Maxey – I love the concept of four chapbooks published in one volume, four poets brought together in a conversation that only the reader can hear. Apparently, this kind of “quartet” is a specialty of Toadlily Press,…