A Review of Under Our Skin, by Joaquim Arena, translated by Jethro Soutar (Unnamed Press, 2023) I like to say that Joaquim Arena’s memoir/travel narrative Under Our Skin, translated by Jethro Soutar and published by Unnamed Press, arrived to me at the perfect time, because I had been learning about extraordinary historical figures from . . .
Read MoreA Review of I’ll Give You a Reason by Annell López (The Feminist Press, 2024) Annell López’ short story collection, I’ll Give You a Reason, brings us to the heart of the Ironbound, an immigrant neighborhood in Newark, New Jersey. These stories explore race, colorism, Blackness, identity, sex, and gentrification, among other topics. López gives . . .
Read MoreEditor’s note: The full version of this essay will be published in a new collection of essays: Natalia Ginzburg’s Global Legacies, edited by Stiliana Milkova Rousseva and Saskia Elizabeth Ziolkowski (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024). [1] For a long time Natalia Ginzburg avoided talking openly about her Jewish origins. She interrupted her silence, or rather, her . . .
Read MoreReview of Countée Cullen’s Harlem Renaissance by Kevin A. Brown. Forthcoming in 2024 from Parlor Press. Will our life’s work be considered a lead melody or an accompanying harmony in the symphony of history? Does it matter if one plays first or fourth chair in the orchestra if we are talking about a piece . . .
Read MoreOne must have a mind of winter . . . —Wallace Stevens Have a beer in cold weather—just seeHow it counterintuitivelyWarms the blood with cold fireAs the winter transpires.If you try one of these, you’ll agree. 1.Here’s a bottle-fermented delight,For ’tis Trappist and English bedightWith rich, flavorful maltsThat Tynt Meadow exaltsWith a sweetness and spice . . .
Read MoreA Review of The Singularity by Balsam Karam, Translated from Swedish by Saskia Vogel (Feminist Press, January 2024) Split into three parts, all formally different, Balsam Karam, in The Singularity, writes a lyrical, moving, formally inventive narrative of motherhood in the wake of loss—of child, of home, of self. In the first part, a mother . . .
Read MoreA Review of Myriam J.A. Chancy, Harvesting Haiti. Reflections on Unnatural Disasters. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2023. If I weren’t invariably late with everything, this review would have been posted at 4:53 p.m. yesterday, January 12, 2023. Like most events that break time and begin a new calendar for some portion . . .
Read MoreA Review of After World by Debbie Urbanski (Simon & Schuster, 2023) Artificial Intelligence is the narrator is Debbie Urbanski’s novel After World—a relevant theme since the debut of Chat GPT in late 2022 and the broadening discourse about AI in writing. Urbanski’s consideration of AI predates the controversies over students using . . .
Read MoreLike liquid gold the wheat-field lies,A marvel of yellow and russet and green…—Hamlin Garland ‘Twas Demeter that gave the world wheat;And Triptolemus took to his feetTo bring grains to us all.They enrich beers for Fall,As autumnal observance completes. 1.This Floridian Wheat Beer is lightWith a citrusy sweetness that bright-ens refreshing mouthfeel.It’s an ale that’s . . .
Read MoreAt 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 . . .
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