Herman Melville—mystic, orca oracle, and madness miner—left treasures of material for poets in Moby-Dick, and Steve Mentz found his muse in the idea of an Ahab-less Pequod—a multiracial, queer, and cruisier ship on a bountifully... Read More

In Jacquelyn Benson’s adventure-filled novel "Empire of Shadows", a British bluestocking teams up with a dashing American surveyor in hopes of finding an ancient secret. In the nineteenth century, spirited, impulsive Ellie harbors... Read More

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

In Christophe Bernard’s novel "The Hollow Beast", a patriarch’s fervent pursuit of revenge has intergenerational consequences with the emergence of a mysterious beast that haunts one of his descendants decades later. During a fateful... Read More

“Reader, I married him”—–yes, Corey Van Landingham did. Jane Eyre acknowledgements aside, looks to the heavens to help comprehend just what that makes her. As her sidekick, we’re in for a dazzling ride of allusion, wit,... Read More

The life of Mary Myers takes flight in this captivating biographical picture book about a barrier-busting woman scientist. Mary Myers—who later took on the name Carlotta—was a pioneer in aeronautics, though her contributions have... Read More

Rachel Trethewey’s "Mothers of the Mind" is a studied, reflective analysis of the relationships between three literary icons and their mothers. Virginia Woolf’s mother, Julia, is presented as a woman of remarkable beauty who rejected... Read More

In Michael J. Malone’s supernatural thriller "The Murmurs", a hidden family history in the Scottish Highlands carries a terrible cost. A drowning and a suicide shatter the childhoods of Annie and her twin brother Lewis. Annie loses... Read More