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Little Million Doors by Chad Sweeney, reviewed by Matt Hill

Matt Hill

Little Million Doors: An Elegy by Chad Sweeney

Little Million Doors: An Elegy by Chad Sweeney / Nightboat Books / 2019 / 978-1643620008 / 80 pages Lines composed by a disjoint of conscious memory, shards of grief felt in the liminal spaces of … [Read more...]

The Meadow by Kristin Garth, reviewed by Tom Snarsky

Tom Snarsky

Kristin Garth The Meadow poetry

The Meadow by Kristin Garth / APEP Publications / 2020 Towards the end of Shakespeare’s sequence of 154 sonnets, the reader is introduced to a character known as the Dark Lady who plays a … [Read more...]

Residual sonnets by Mark Young, reviewed by Clara B. Jones

Clara B. Jones

Residual sonnets - Mark Young

Residual sonnets by Mark Young / ma press [Finland] / 2019 / 100 pages / $5.00 Residual [re-sid-ual] Adjective: remaining after the greater part has gone “'Bricolage,' more than anything else, … [Read more...]

Investigating Digital Zones: Reading Ed Steck’s An Interface for a Fractal Landscape

Mike Corrao

Interface for a Fractal Landscape - Ed Steck

An Interface for a Fractal Landscape by Ed Steck / Ugly Duckling Presse / 2019 / 978-1-946433-01-5 / 192 pages The corporeal and the digital are not mutually exclusive zones. Often they overlap. … [Read more...]

Lucky by Amy Watkins, reviewed by Lorena Parker Matejowsky

Lorena Parker Matejowsky

Lucky - Amy Watkins poetry chapbook

Lucky by Amy Watkins / Bottlecap Press / 2019 In Lucky (Bottlecap Press, 2019), a new chapbook from poet Amy Watkins, a woman looks back with wonder at the little girl lucky enough to … [Read more...]

The Lonesome Bodybuilder by Yukiko Motoya, reviewed by Margaryta Golovchenko

Margaryta Golovchenko

The Lonesome Bodybuilder - Yukiko Motoya

The Lonesome Bodybuilder by Yukiko Motoya / Soft Skull Press / 224 pages / 978-1593766788 / 2018 “Life’s not worth living if you’re not tending to the whims and demands of a high-maintenance … [Read more...]

A Jewish Refugee in New York by Kadya Molodovsky, trans. Anita Norich, reviewed by Jessica Kirzane

Jessica Kirzane

Book review: A Jewish Refugee in New York by Kadya Molodovsky, trans. Anita Norich

A Jewish Refugee in New York by Kadya Molodovsky. Translated by Anita Norich / Indiana University Press / 978-0253040763 / 2019 / 172 pages. In some ways, the narrator of Kadya Molodovsky’s A … [Read more...]

Transmissions from the Abyss: Sublunary Editions’ Monthly Mailings

Mike Corrao

Sublunary Editions

Sublunary Editions is a publisher focused on highlighting shorter texts. Each month, they mail out an envelope with a set of two written works to their subscribers. Being a relatively new press, they … [Read more...]

Giant Steps: Fifty poets reflect on the Apollo 11 moon landing and beyond, reviewed by Rochelle Jewel Shapiro

Rochelle Jewel Shapiro

Giant Steps: Fifty poets reflect on the Apollo 11 moon landing and beyond

Giant Steps: Fifty poets reflect on the Apollo 11 moon landing and beyond, edited by Paul Munden and Shane Strange /Recent Works Press / Canberra, Australia / 2019 / 101 pages / … [Read more...]

Ill Angels by Dante Di Stefano, reviewed by Neil Leadbeater

Neil Leadbeater

Ill Angels, poetry by Dante Di Stefano

Ill Angels by Dante Di Stefano / Etruscan Press / 2019 / ISBN 9780998750880 / 92 pages. We rarely think of angels as being ill. If we make the assumption that “ill” is being used here in … [Read more...]

Paper-Thin Skin by Aigerim Tazhi, translated by J. Kates, reviewed by Eric Nguyen

Eric Nguyen

Aigerim Tazhi Paper-Thin Skin translated by J. Kates

Paper-Thin Skin by Aigerim Tazhi, translated from Russian by J. Kates / Zephyr Press / 978-1-938890901 / 2019 Aigerim Tazhi is a difficult poet to pin down. For one, she writes in Russian in … [Read more...]

Penumbra by Kate Behrens, reviewed by Michael S. Begnal

Michael S. Begnal

Penumbra by Kate Behrens (book review)

Penumbra by Kate Behrens / Two Rivers Press / 978-1-909747-46-3 / 2019 “Penumbra” is one of those words that I always think I know the meaning of, but then I realize I need to look it up again to … [Read more...]

out of emptied cups by Anne Casey, reviewed by Rochelle Jewel Shapiro

Rochelle Jewel Shapiro

Out of Emptied Cups - Anne Casey poetry

out of emptied cups by Anne Casey / Salmon Poetry / 2019 / 978-1-912561-74 / 101 pages The title of Anne Casey’s second collection of poetry, out of emptied cups, is drawn from the … [Read more...]

boy/girl/ghost by torrin a. greathouse, reviewed by Danielle Rose

Danielle Rose

boy/girl/ghost by torrin a. greathouse

boy/girl/ghost by torrin a. greathouse / TAR Chapbook Series / 2nd edition reissue 2019 It may be impossible to track down an old quote I once read, somewhere, concerning The Matrix … [Read more...]

not written words by Xi Xi, translated from Chinese by Jennifer Feeley, reviewed by Sherrel McLafferty

Sherrel McLafferty

not written words by Xi Xi, translated by Jennifer Feeley

not written words by Xi Xi, translated from Chinese by Jennifer Feeley / Zephyr Press / 978-1938890123 / 2016 Xi Xi’s not written words is a youthful collection of poems that remind readers that … [Read more...]

The Anna Karenina Fix by Viv Groskop, reviewed by Margaryta Golovchenko

Margaryta Golovchenko

The Anna Karenina Fix

The Anna Karenina Fix by Viv Groskop / Harry N. Abrams / 978-1419732720 / 2018 The Anna Karenina Fix: Life Lessons from Russian Literature is more than your average memoir, beginning with its … [Read more...]

Dots & Dashes by Jehanne Dubrow, reviewed by Maggie Warren

Maggie Warren

Dots and Dashes by Jehanne Dubrow

Dots & Dashes by Jehanne Dubrow / Southern Illinois University Press (The Crab Orchard Series in Poetry) / 978-0-8093-3609-8 / 2017 With chocolates shaped like fighter jets, margarita mix in … [Read more...]

Language Cells: Laura Hyunjhee Kim’s Entering the Blobosphere

Mike Corrao

Entering the Blobosphere: A Musing on Blobd by Laura Hyunjhee Kim,

Entering the Blobosphere: A Musing on Blobs by Laura Hyunjhee Kim / Civil Coping Mechanisms / Paperback / 100 pages / 978-1948700184 / June 17, 2019 Laura Hyunjhee Kim’s Entering the Blobosphere: A … [Read more...]

Decadent Wildfire: A Review of Flowers of the Flesh by Effy Winter

Paul Rowe

Flowers of the Flesh - Effy Winter

Flowers of the Flesh by Effy Winter / Rhythm & Bones Press / 2019 Effy Winter is a captivating writer based in Philadelphia, P.A. Winter’s work explores unfathomable heartache and unbridled … [Read more...]

Bully Love by Patricia Colleen Murphy, reviewed by Rochelle Jewel Shapiro

Rochelle Jewel Shapiro

BULLY LOVE Patricia Colleen Murphy

Bully Love by Patricia Colleen Murphy / Press 53 / 978-1-950413-03-4 / 2019 Patricia Colleen Murphy’s second poetry collection, Bully Love, has already won the Press 53 Award for Poetry, and I’m … [Read more...]

Dispatches from the Mushroom Kingdom by Noel Pabillo Mariano, reviewed by Margaryta Golovchenko

Margaryta Golovchenko

Dispatches From the Mushroom Kingdom, Noel Pabillo Mariano

Dispatches from the Mushroom Kingdom by Noel Pabillo Mariano / Hyacinth Girl Press / 31 pages / $6.00 Questions of the spoken/external and unspoken/internal sort are at the heart of Dispatches from … [Read more...]

12 Points: Love Me, Anyway by Minadora Macheret

Nate Logan

Minadora Macheret, Love Me, Anyway Porkbelly Press

1. Love Me, Anyway was published by Porkbelly Press in 2018 in Cincinnati, Ohio. 2. This is Minadora Macheret’s first chapbook. 3. The speaker in these poems details three main subjects: the … [Read more...]

Earthly Whispers: On Ocean Vuong & Erick Sáenz

Michael Huguenor

Ocean Vuong On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous and Erick Saenz Susurros a Mi Padre

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong / Penguin Press / 978-0525562023 / June 4, 2019Susurros a mi Padre by Erick Sáenz / The Operating System / 978-1946031259 / July 15, 2018 Early in … [Read more...]

Shiny Dark Mind Candy: Mayhem & Death by Helen McClory, reviewed by Laura Morgan

Laura Morgan

Mayhem and Death by Helen McClory, reviewed by Laura Morgan

Mayhem & Death by Helen McClory / 404 Ink / 978-1912489022 / 208 pages There are seas where the dead lie so thick they are pressed into a layer of silt the colour of yoghurt that sits at the … [Read more...]

The Experiment of the Tropics by Lawrence Lacambra Ypil, reviewed by Kendrick Loo

Kendrick Loo

The Experiment of the Tropics by Lawrence Lacambra Ypil review

The Experiment of the Tropics by Lawrence Lacambra Ypil / Gaudy Boy Imprint / 2018 / 72 pages. It is difficult to unpack the impact of imperial power from culture. Some facts are historical: Asian … [Read more...]

The short story of you and I by Richard James Allen, reviewed by Rochelle Jewel Shapiro

Rochelle Jewel Shapiro

The short story of you and I by Richard James Allen

The short story of you and I by Richard James Allen / UWA Publishing / 2019 / 112 pages / 9781760800215 “My poems are sleeping in these pages / waiting for you to rouse them,” Richard James Allen, … [Read more...]

Lizzie, Speak by Kailey Tedesco, reviewed by Catherine Garbinsky

Catherine Garbinsky

Lizzie, Speak - poems by Kailey Tedesco

Lizzie, Speak by Kailey Tedesco / White Stag Publishing / 2019 / 978-1732399235 Lizzie, Speak by Kailey Tedesco is a séance in the form of a book, a conjuring of the spirit of Lizzie Borden, … [Read more...]

POET by Clark Coolidge, reviewed by Steve Dalachinsky

Steve Dalachinsky

Poet - Clark Coolidge

POET by Clark Coolidge / Pressed Wafer Press / 2018 Last spring I had the privilege of hearing Clark Coolidge read from his manuscript POET in San Francisco at Bird and Beckett to a capacity … [Read more...]

Explorations in Form: New Small Press Releases

Mike Corrao

Bound by Candice Wuehle

It’s the goal of small presses such as Inside the Castle, Dostoyevsky Wannabe, Schism, and others like them to publish unconventional forms of literature, those in the expanded field --- whatever that … [Read more...]

Please Find Us by Wendy Oleson, reviewed by Sarah Wiggers

Sarah Wiggers

Please Find Us - stories by Wendy Oleson

Please Find Us by Wendy Oleson / Gertrude Press / 47 pages / 2017 Please Find Us contains thirteen stories of survival. In the fifty-page chapbook, Oleson’s carefully crafted characters struggle to … [Read more...]

Re- by Andrea Blancas Beltran, reviewed by Carolyn Ogburn

Carolyn Ogburn

Andrea Blancas Beltran - Re- (cover)

Re- by Andrea Blancas Beltran / Redbird Chapbooks / 2018 Andrea Blancas Beltran’s chapbook, Re-, is a beautiful, textured collection of poems centered around her grandmother’s memory loss, and … [Read more...]

Constant Stranger: After Frank Stanford, reviewed by Jared Benjamin

Jared Benjamin

Constant Stranger: After Frank Stanford, edited by Max Crinnin & Aidan Ryan

Constant Stranger: After Frank Stanford, edited by Max Crinnin & Aidan Ryan / Foundlings Press / 2018. In the early 1970s, a poet from the Mississippi heartland, expatriated to the Ozark scenery of … [Read more...]

The Wrench and Reach of Grace: Feet of the Messenger by H.C. Palmer, reviewed by Wm. Anthony Connolly

Wm. Anthony Connolly

Feet of the Messenger: Poems by H.C. Palmer

Feet of the Messenger by H.C. Palmer / BkMk Press / 9781943491100 / 2018 Everything is here and now --- childhood, beauty, war, peace --- all apiece of a tapestry woven by the expert hands of the … [Read more...]

A perimeter by rob mclennan, reviewed by Ali Znaidi

Ali Znaidi

A perimeter - poetry by rob mclennan

A perimeter by rob mclennan / New Star Books / 978-1-55420-128-0 / paperback / 80 pages / 2016 In A perimeter rob mclennan has ordered the poems which were written between 2010 and 2014 in a way … [Read more...]

Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style by Benjamin Dreyer, reviewed by Beth Spencer

Beth Spencer

Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style by Benjamin Dreyer

Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style by Benjamin Dreyer / Random House / 320 pages / 9780812995701 / Jan 29, 2019 Stop the presses! Stop submitting to them, that is, … [Read more...]

The Exile Illuminated as the Native Returned: Steve Dalachinsky’s Where Night and Day Become One: The French Poems / A Selection 1983-2017

John Greiner

Where Night and Day Become One: The French Poems / A Selection 1983-2017 by Steve Dalachinsky

Where Night and Day Become One: The French Poems / A Selection 1983-2017 by Steve Dalachinsky / great weather for MEDIA / 978-0998144030 / 2018 The American artist's fascination with France has … [Read more...]

House of the Cardamom Seed by Penelope Scambly Schott, reviewed by John Yohe

John Yohe

House of the Cardamom Seed by Penelope Scambly Schott

House of the Cardamom Seed by Penelope Scambly Schott / Cherry Grove / 2018 / 978-1-62549-270-8 One of the pleasures of making a pilgrimage to Powell's Books in Portland, Oregon is sometimes … [Read more...]

Raena Shirali’s Gilt, reviewed by Daschielle Louis

Daschielle Louis

Gilt by Raena Shirali

Gilt by Raena Shirali / YesYes Books / 978-1-936919-41-3 / 2017 I remember the conditioning well. Women teaching me the ways of being woman. Being clean. Most importantly, unseen. Gilt opens a … [Read more...]

The Mathematics of the Breath and the Way: On Writers and Writing by Charles Bukowski

John Yohe

The Mathematics of the Breath and the Way: On Writers and Writingby Charles Bukowski

The Mathematics of the Breath and the Way: On Writers and Writing by Charles Bukowski. Edited by David Stephen Calonne / City Lights Books / 978-0-87286-759-8 / 2018 I kind of don't know how they … [Read more...]

Apocalyptic Language: Reading Brooks Rexroat’s Thrift Store Coats

Mike Corrao

Thrift Store Coats by Brooks Rexroat

Thrift Store Coats by Brooks Rexroat / Orson's Publishing / 978-0991446391 Brooks Rexroat’s debut short story collection, Thrift Store Coats explores the harsh and often unforgiving landscape of … [Read more...]

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R.I.P. Michael McClure 1932-2020

Empty Mirror

Established in 2000 and edited by Denise Enck, Empty Mirror is an online literary magazine that publishes new work each Friday.

Each week EM features several poems each by one or two poets; reviews; critical essays; visual art; and personal essays.

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