Held together by references to Chicago, Keenan Norris’s "Chi Boy" is a memoir, a social history, a eulogy for his ancestors, and a tribute to inspiring literary men. Jim Crow racism drove Norris’s family north, landing them in... Read More

In his visionary memoir-in-essays "Without Saints", Christopher Locke freezes the past, covering enforced religiosity, self-destructive habits, his marriage and fatherhood, and teaching. In a framework that mimics the nature of memory,... Read More

In Mary Clearman Blew’s novel "Think of Horses", a disheartened, middle-aged romance novelist returns to her native Montana to reevaluate her life choices. It’s summer in Sun Creek, the mountainous ranching country that skilled horse... Read More

An often sad and always compelling novel in short stories, Thomas H. McNeely’s "Pictures of the Shark" follows Buddy, tracking the echoes of his parents’ broken marriage as they reverberate through his coming-of-age. In “Snow,... Read More

In "Linea Nigra", a fragmentary work of cultural commentary, Jazmina Barrera investigates pregnancy as both a physical reality and a liminal state. The linea nigra, a stripe of dark hair down a pregnant woman’s belly, is a potent... Read More

The Pacific Crest Trail winds its way between the Mexican and Canadian borders, challenging and inspiring trekkers with its deserts and streams, dense forests, and rugged mountain slopes. In "Crossing Paths", editors Rees Hughes and... Read More

"Translating Myself and Others" is an academic collection of Jhumpa Lahiri’s musings on language and translation. Lahiri, a reader and writer in multiple languages, focuses on the translation of Italian, with insightful references to... Read More

A young man experiences a crisis of faith and stirrings of love in the graphic novel Jacob’s Apartment. Jacob and Sarah are California roommates with contrasting lifestyles and worldviews: Sarah is an atheist with a history of... Read More