J. Drew Lanham’s "Joy Is the Justice We Give Ourselves" is a stunning amalgamation of literary prose and poetry. Biology connects Lanham’s two worlds of wildlife and Black being. His entries are close studies of the rhythms and... Read More
Joe Baumann’s "Where Can I Take You When There’s Nowhere To Go" collects surrealist short stories with grotesque physical manifestations of people’s emotional lives at their centers. Predicated on extended metaphors, their effects... Read More
The unnamed narrator of Sheena Patel’s edgy novel I’m a Fan is a woman of color and a stalker. Although she lives with her doting boyfriend, the writer is having an affair with a rich, prominent, emotionally unavailable man who is... Read More
Edginess, unsettlement, a sense of foreboding: what weather can come to bear and a skillful poet with some thoughts on mortality to share. Jeannine Hall Gailey’s ability to turn it up—or down, thankfully—is what makes reading her... Read More
Trevor J. Houser’s inventive literary novel "The Prumont Method" crisscrosses a country scarred by constant mass shootings, bringing black humor to bear on the present-day dystopia of rampant gun violence. Former health care marketer... Read More
A retired English teacher learns to hope and love again while he helps his daughter face a devastating illness in "Outer Sunset", Mark Ernest Pothier’s graceful, wise, and tender novel. Jim retired early from teaching; he seems to have... Read More
An unhappy housewife learns to cope with loss and trauma in Maki Kashimada’s novel "Love at Six Thousand Degrees". One day, for no apparent reason, a woman leaves her child at the neighbor’s and runs away. Her morbid fascination with... Read More
A prodigal son comes home in the wake of tragedy in Jabbour Douaihy’s compelling novel "The King of India". After several years and a storied life abroad, Zakariya returns to Lebanon. Surrounded by an air of melancholy, he interacts... Read More