Inside our March/April 2021 issue

Foreword Reviews March/April 2021 cover

Since the launch of Foreword more than twenty-three years ago, we’ve been finding front cover images in the pages of the splendid new books we review in each issue. It’s an exercise in riches because we’re always faced with too many ideas, too much fun to be had, and Art Director Barbara Hodge makes it all the more difficult as she mocks up six or eight different versions for us to choose from. Rarely, is it a unanimous decision. Isn’t democracy fun?

That They Lived cover
This issue, we have Wayne State University Press to thank for letting us use the re-created photo of Muhammad Ali from That They Lived: African Americans Who Changed the World. In her review, Karen Rigby calls the book “an elegant collaboration between photographer Cristi Smith-Jones and journalist Rochelle Riley, designed to remind young readers that their role models were once young, too. Growing out of a Black History Month project that went viral, the collection features photographs of Smith-Jones’s daughter Lola and Riley’s grandson Caleb posing as people including Muhammad Ali, Shirley Chisholm, W.E.B. DuBois, Barack Obama, Rosa Parks, and Harriet Tubman.”

The Sweetness of Venus cover
Here’s what else we have planned for the March/April issue, which is headed to press in just a few days:

  • 135 Reviews

  • Features on Science Fiction/Fantasy and Biography

  • Expanded Children’s, Middle Grade, and YA Section

  • Poetry and Graphic Novel Spotlights

And, not to be overlooked, our

  • Women’s Issues Special Section with Fifteen Featured Titles

Managing Editor Michelle Schingler tells us “the cool thing about the whole Women’s Issues section is that it’s unapologetically feminine—across times, cultures, and sexual expressions.”

White Magic cover
She’s particularly excited about The Sweetness of Venus: a history of the clitoris that reclaims centuries of history of women’s pleasure, and that reviewer Ashley Holstrom enjoyed because it was so much more than a dry recitation of facts—“cheeky,” in fact. In addition, Michelle points to the Tin House Books title White Magic, “which is intersectional and recenters elemental feminine powers.”

In the Biography Foresight, don’t miss Michelle Duff’s celebration of Jacinda Ardern’s groundbreaking career so far, and William Still, the first official biography of the father of the Underground Railroad, which is a treasure trove of original source material in addition to being a great narrative. Also, Oxford’s Philip Roth, about the storied author, his complications, and his contradictions. Oh, and graphic novel fans won’t want to miss Monsters, decades in the making, and a startling examination of the lasting impacts of evil.

As always, thanks for your friendship and support. Let us know if the March/April issue suits your eye.

Wine bottle labels image

Photo above: Louis Danziger Collection from How Design Makes Us Think by Sean Adams. Photo used with permission from Princeton Architectural Press.

Matt Sutherland

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