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Double-Digit 6-Pack: A Holiday Brew Review

December 21, 2022 - By MARSHA BRYANT

Why settle for a beer cocktail when you can enjoy a boozy beer?
 

As the holidays come round again
And you gather with family and friends,
Boozy beers make us merry
With malt, chocolate, cherry,
And spice. Here are six I commend.

1.
For a booze-infused brew you’ll repeat,
Try this toffee-hued ale for a treat.
From oak barrels it comes
To dispel the doldrums,
Dragon’s Milk: strong, yet caramel-sweet.

2.
From Left Hand, this Imperial Stout
Is what blissfully boozy’s about.
Though it’s called Wake Up Dead,
You’ll feel festive instead
And start toasting in sweet roasty bouts.

3.
Dessert in a glass? Well, why...

More than Märzen: Limericks on German Beers

October 26, 2022 - By Marsha Bryant

O Germany, thank you for beer
That we relish this time of the year.
A Sober October?
My dears, that’s a Noper
With so many brews to revere!

Oktoberfest Märzens are fine,
As are Festbiers if you’re so inclined.
Yet there’s more than these styles
For us Germanophiles—
And for you I have sampled these kinds.

1
Foam-headed, light-bodied, and dark
Is this Erdinger Dunkel. Remark-
ably crushable brew
For the chocolate brown hue,
A sweet finish and wheat give it spark.

2
This Weihenstephaner, an amber
And hazy Hefeweissbier—enjamber
Of banana smooth
And a cidery groove!
It’s delightfully Dunkel, a...

Back2School Brews

September 6, 2022 - By Marsha Bryant

Are you ready to go back to school?
Are you ready to follow the rules?
Fall semester draws near—
Why not reach for a beer
To ease into your schedule? Stay cool!

Whether teacher or parent or student-
of-age, don’t you’d think ‘twould be prudent
To stock beer in your fridge
That can serve as a bridge
As your summer pursuits are concludent?

Here’s a 4-pack to help you transition
To grading, reminding, cognition.
There’s variety here
That can bring you some cheer.
Try these recs from an academician.

1

You won’t be just a brick in the wall
With this Bellaire Brown ale, for it’s mal-
ty, yet robustly so:
...

Meaning in a World Without Hope

July 21, 2022 - By Helen McColpin

Moldy Strawberries is an inspiring exercise in hopelessness and futility. Caio Fernando Abreu’s short story collection, translated from Portuguese by Bruna Dantas Lobato, serves as a coming to terms with life under a repressive government, life without a brighter future. Abreu wrote in Brazil in the 1980s, through the country’s twenty-one-year military dictatorship. His queer, countercultural writing made him a frequent target for censorship by the Brazilian government, yet Abreu’s writing ultimately prevailed, making him a cultural icon nonetheless. He died in 1996, two years after testing positive for HIV....

Recuperating a Legacy: 32 Poems/ 32 Poemas by Hyam Plutzik

July 11, 2022 - By Aitor Bouso Gavín

Hyam Plutzik's 32 Poems/ 32 Poemas (Suburbano Ediciones, 2022)

32 Poems/ 32 Poemas (2021) is a fully bilingual (Spanish and English) collection of selected poems by the twentieth-century American poet Hyam Plutzik (1911-1962). The three-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in poetry was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Jewish immigrant parents from Belarus. Plutzik, who was a Professor of English at the University of Rochester until his premature death in 1962, grew up in a non-anglophone household, where Russian, Hebrew, and Yiddish were the languages spoken. Plutzik did not learn English until he attended grammar school in a schoolhouse in Connecticut. His...