Blog / Reviews

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...

Florida Beach 4-Pack #2

July 8, 2022 - By Marsha Bryant

Barque of phosphor
On the palmy beach…
—Wallace Stevens, “Fabliau of Florida”

The summer is now getting hotter,
But your beach beer need not taste like water!
Here are Florida brews
I’ve selected for you
To pursue as a beach blanket squatter.

My recs make a 4-pack and flight,
So I’ve fashioned my sequence just right:
From lager to Tripel,
These sippable tipples
Will brighten your mouth with delight.

1
Let’s begin with this lager, Tates Helles.
From the Big Bend it hails to embellish
Its pale golden drops
With a kiss of the hops.
It pours clear, this crisp beer that refreshes.

2
A...

A Matter of Control

May 24, 2022 - By DeMisty D. Bellinger

Toxic relationships abound in Cherish Farrah, but the rub is not knowing which relationship to watch out for. Bethany C. Morrow’s second novel for adults addresses classism and racism, as well as families and friendships. It’s a slow burn from page one and ends in discomfort for all.

Like Mem, Morrow’s first novel, Cherish Farrah is beautifully written, with poetic language and passages full of vivid, intricate imagery. Unlike Mem, her newest novel puts race in the forefront. Cherish and Farrah are two Black teenage girls in a predominately white and very wealthy neighborhood. Cherish’s parents, Jerry and...

The Birth of an Author

May 7, 2022 - By Michael Thurston

A Review of Hank Drossel. Item: Regarding the Basilisk. SYOM Press, 2022. ix+187 pp.

Hank Drossel worked for decades as the travel agent and logistics manager for various arts institutions, especially music ensembles. From a perch at Eastern Airlines, he supported Cold War-era “hearts and minds” tours: avant-garde artists and groups performing American freedom for audiences behind the Iron Curtain. When both the Cold War and Eastern fell to the global domination of finance capitalism, Drossel worked freelance for art collectives, small orchestras, and early music ensembles, overseeing travel arrangements, venue bookings, contract riders, and the packing and transportation of priceless instruments. He often traveled with his clients to make sure that musicians...