Blog / Reviews

House Parties: A Review

October 4, 2023 - By Miriam N. Kotzin

A Review of House Parties by Lynn Levin (Spuyten Duyvil, 2023)

Lynn Levin’s debut collection of short fiction, House Parties, offers the wisdom and humor of a keen eye and a kind heart. An accomplished poet, Levin, author of five collections of her own poetry and one volume of translation, also writes beautiful prose so skilled that it seems unselfconscious and purely spontaneous while being replete with perfectly balanced sentences, brilliant metaphors, and similes. The figurative language always develops character or reveals...

The Sea Elephants

August 28, 2023 - By Ellie Eberlee

A Review of The Sea Elephants by Shastri Akella (Flatiron Books, 2023)

“Once upon a time,” reads sixteen-year-old protagonist Shagun in a book of Hindu myths at the outset of Shastri Akella’s earnest and aching debut novel, The Sea Elephants, “the gods took away the first ancestor of the sea elephants, coveting him for his exceptional...

Home as Found

August 17, 2023 - By Lara Stecewycz

A Review of The Long Field: Wales and the Presence of Absence by Pam Petro (Little Toller [UK], 2023)

In her memoir The Long Field, Pamela Petro reflects on her early adult years, which were spent in Wales redefining old notions of home and rediscovering herself, through a quiet exploration of her own sexuality and a distant, closeted relationship with her parents. The book follows a semi-chronological narrative, which frequently jumps forward to the stories and mindset of a mature Petro, learning how to shape her life and surroundings, and then back to young Petro, still in search of herself. What ties...

In Defense of IPAs: A Limerick Manifesto

August 3, 2023 - By Marsha Bryant

But I like it
Because it is bitter
—Stephen Crane

It’s audaciously hoppy for me!
Bring on bitterest beer ecstasies!
They’re not one big “hop bomb.”
Brewers craft, with aplomb,
The hop spectrum. Such badassery!

Some fear hops and endeavor to slay
Every tongue-biting flavor away
With juicification—
An abomination!
Give me robustly bold IPAs!

If your tongue is too weak, step aside!
I advise that you best not deride
Those of sturdier stuff: For we’re all tough enough
To drink beers where the bitter abides.

1.
Stone’s Delicious is IPA bliss—
Amply hoppy, with citrusy kiss.
O you’ll relish each...

Buoyant Beers & Light Limericks: A Summer Sip-Along

June 16, 2023 - By Marsha Bryant

The incredible lightness of beering,
So refreshing with summertime nearing!
O they’ll flow flavorfully
With their low ABVs
When the afternoon heatwaves start searing.
 

#1
Take an Air Bath when temperatures rise.
Finely bubbled, its bite will surprise
You with tongue-tingling zip
To enliven each sip
Of this Session so brightly devised.
 

#2
A drinkable language that’s clear-
ly straw-colored, delightful Kölsch beer
Is so crushable, fruity,
and lightly hopped: we
Can keep cool in this time of the year.
 

#3
Do you like your beer juicy with haze,
Seek some lightness amidst NEIPA craze?
Just a kiss of the hops...