At long last, I’m finally sitting down to write a piece that I promised ages ago. This will be an admittedly partisan review, responding to the latest book by Tabish Khair, who is both a friend and on the MR masthead. Yet, given that it’s Hallowe’en today, on several levels it does seem the . . .
Read MoreA Review of Divine Blue Light (for John Coltrane) by Will Alexander (City Lights (Pocket Poets Series, 63), 2022) Some poets, the best among them, make you learn to read their work. Sure, some structures and narratives inform their poems, but these are not familiar ones (the pentameter line, the regular stanza, the myths . . .
Read MoreI hear you’re having a sober October?That option, for me, is a Noper.But for you I’ve pursuedAn assortment of brewsSo your boozeless pursuits can be proper. 1.Translucent, refreshing, and lightIs this Upside Dawn Golden. So bright-ly concocted it zipsAs it passes your lipsWith a fizz on your tongue that delights. 2.Just the Haze is . . .
Read MoreCalvino fa la conchiglia [Calvino/Italo Calvinomakes/does/imitatesa/theseashell/shell/spirals] La costruzione di uno scrittore [The making/building/construction of a writer] Editor’s note: To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Italo Calvino on October 15, 2023, the journal California Italian Studies has published a special issue, edited by Anna Botta and Lucia Re, titled Calvino’s Memos: Between the Old . . .
Read MoreA 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 . . .
Read MoreA 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 . . .
Read MoreA 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, . . .
Read MoreBut I like itBecause 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 slayEvery tongue-biting flavor awayWith juicification—An abomination!Give me robustly bold IPAs! If your tongue is too weak, step aside!I advise . . .
Read MoreThe incredible lightness of beering,So refreshing with summertime nearing!O they’ll flow flavorfullyWith their low ABVsWhen the afternoon heatwaves start searing. #1Take an Air Bath when temperatures rise.Finely bubbled, its bite will surpriseYou with tongue-tingling zipTo enliven each sipOf this Session so brightly devised. #2A drinkable language that’s clear-ly straw-colored, delightful Kölsch beerIs so crushable, fruity,and lightly . . .
Read MoreA Review of perennial fashion presence falling by Fred Moten (Wave Books, 2023) A Review of perennial fashion presence falling by Fred Moten (Wave Books, 2023) I’m going to be straight with you: in important ways, this book might not be for you. You might be, as I suspect I sometimes am, inadvertently but consequentially, . . .
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