There will never be an endTo this droning of the surf.—Wallace Stevens, “Fabliau of Florida” As Spring breakers, vacationers, snowbirdsHit the beaches of Florida, these wordsIn my limericks hereAre to recommend beersFor your forthcoming excursions seaward. From the Gulf and Atlantic-side makersOf craft brews that pair well with breakers(And the sunshine and . . .
Read More
A review of City of Champions: A History of Triumph and Defeat in Detroit by Stefan Szymanski and Silke-Maria Weineck Sporting events—like tragic accidents or illnesses, early friendships, or financial crises—are ubiquitous human experiences. Many, maybe most of us suffered through team sports as kids, a few excelling, others turning towards books . . .
Read More
A Review of Kyle T. Mays, An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States. Beacon Press, 2021 This book review was written as a part of Black Natives: Anti-Blackness, Indigeneity, and Decolonization, a course at Hampshire College which focused on Afro-Indigenous scholarship and lived experiences, engaged through discussion, readings and guest speakers. Class members include: Nathacha . . .
Read More
A review of Visions of Crumbling Houses and Conversations with the Wind Taking Flight by Gianna Celati. In the “Foreword” to his Conversations with the Wind Taking Flight, Gianni Celati states that: Writing is a conversation with whoever will read us, and conversations carry us like the wind—we never really know what the . . .
Read More
1With its wild fermentation and pour,The Framboise is a beer to adore.It stays true to the berryAnd fizzes so merri-ly. Tongue-tickling tartness galore. 2Malty forward, this silky Milk StoutShows what creamy dark ales are about.It’s primarily roasty(Some chocolate, some coffee),And finishes creamy side out. 3Liquid Springtime, this bright ÉphémèreBlossoms crisply, lets in light and air.With its . . .
Read More
A review of David Diop, At Night All Blood Is Black. Trans. Anna Moschovakis. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020. Lyricism is, strangely, no stranger to the trenches of the First World War. Whether to contain or to inflame the horrors, writers like Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, David Jones and Erich Maria . . .
Read More
Meg Kearney’s All Morning the Crows (The Word Works, 2021). Shelley begins his famous, “To a Skylark”: “Hail to thee, blithe Spirit! Bird thou never wert. . .” Then for the next few stanzas he works hard to show the “birdiness” of the bird, until he finally gives up in a series . . .
Read More
‘Twas the midst of December: there came forth a cryFrom us beer drinkers wond’ring which brews we shall buyFor festivities, feasting, for sitting by fires.It’s the holidays! Taste all the good that transpires.‘Tis the time to be stocking your holiday shelfWith the richly full-flavored beers. (Move over, elf!) First Diwali and Hanukkah . . .
Read More
A Review of Simon Frost’s Reading, Wanting, and Broken Economics: A Twenty-First-Century Study of Readers and Bookshops in Southampton around 1900 (State University of New York Press, 2021). Studies in the field of book history hold a perverse fascination for me. I can never approach them solely as an academic, for the . . .
Read More
(Cover design by Deste Roosa; cover art by Judith Wolfe, detail from Dans la Lumière de Glace 1, from the series Hommage à Charlotte Delbo, 2013.) A Review of Ghislaine Dunant, Charlotte Delbo: A Life Reclaimed, translation and introduction by Kathryn Lachman (Amherst and Boston: University of Massachusetts Press, 2021). The work . . .
Read More