Reviews

The Medical Myths of State Violence

The Medical Myths of State Violence

Across twelve chapters, Beliso-De Jesús presents the history of medicalized state-sanctioned violence via excited delirium syndrome through a compelling combination of historiography, ethnography, and memoir. Peppered throughout the text are the author’s personal stories and interactions, which help contextualize the far-reaching implications of the diagnosis and her positionality as an Afro-Latiné woman and scholar researching the spectrum of Black and Brown death within the U.S. carceral system. 

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Review: Is anything the matter? Drawings by Laylah Ali

Is anything the matter? Drawings by Laylah Ali University Museum of Contemporary Art, University of Massachusetts Amherst February 14 to May 9, 2025 As I stepped into the main gallery of the University Museum of Contemporary Art (UMCA), I was confronted with the question—Is anything the matter?—splayed across the entry wall. Instinctively, . . .

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We Are What We Create

We Are What We Create

A Review of Nnedi Okorafor’s Death of the Author “Creation flows both ways” remarks Ankara, the robot and author of the novel embedded within Nnedi Okorafor’s latest speculative masterpiece, Death of the Author. This sentiment, something “humanity could never bring itself to believe,” is a prescient reminder that the act of creation . . .

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“I understand now”: Aria Aber’s Good Girl and Maternal Recognition

“I understand now”: Aria Aber’s Good Girl and Maternal Recognition

A Review of Aria Aber’s Good Girl (Hogarth 2025) “I wanted to take pictures, I thought, because exile made my parents’ lives a mystery to me. I wanted to archive my life, to have irrefutable testimony,” says Nila, the protagonist of Aria Aber’s debut novel, Good Girl. Good Girl tracks the artistic . . .

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The Last Song of the World

The Last Song of the World

A Review of Joseph Fasano’s The Last Song of the World (BOA Editions, 2024) Like a deep breath, like a flower that blooms against the relentless elements of an inhospitable season, Joseph Fasano’s The Last Song of the World begins with “Sudden Hymn in Winter,” a short but powerful poem, functioning almost as the collection’s own . . .

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The Songwriter as Poet. A Conversation with Phil Elverum(Part Two)

The Songwriter as Poet. A Conversation with Phil Elverum(Part Two)

Jon Hoel: The natural world is pretty frequent in your work over the years; in these recent poems, though, there are two terms specifically I wanted to ask you about, “decolonization” and “land back.” Both are ideas many people are likely familiar with, but some might not be. I was curious what . . .

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The Songwriter as Poet. A Conversation with Phil Elverum (Part One)

The Songwriter as Poet. A Conversation with Phil Elverum (Part One)

Phil Elverum, photo by Katy Hancock Poems are songs, songs are poems. This dictum may infuriate anyone who has ever penned an editorial on Leonard Cohen’s songs or anyone who was irate when the Nobel committee declared Bob Dylan was literature. Those familiar with the history of songwriting, however, might be inclined . . .

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