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Carmen Maria Machado’s In the Dream House, reviewed by Emma Gregory

Emma Gregory

review of In the Dream House - Carmen Maria Machado

In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado / Graywolf Press / 264 pages / November 5, 2019 In the Dream House follows the story of Machado’s own relationship with an emotionally and … [Read more...]

Writing for Human Dignity: Mao’s Town by Xie Hong, reviewed by Tang Qiyun

TANG Qiyun, Sun Jicheng and Hal Swindall

Mao's Town by Xie Hong

Mao's Town by XIE Hong / Whyte Tracks / 978-8-792632-93-7 / 2018 / 204 pages This review is written by TANG Qiyun, and translated from Chinese by SUN Jicheng and Hal Swindall. If Jean-Paul … [Read more...]

Hope Amidst Uncertainty: Subduction by Kristen Millares Young, reviewed by Jessica Gigot

Jessica Gigot

Subduction by Kristen Millares Young

Subduction by Kristen Millares Young / Red Hen Press / 978-1-59709-892-2 / 240 pages / April 14, 2020 What happens when the world as you know it changes course? When your seemingly rock-solid … [Read more...]

Unnatural Habitats & Other Stories​ by Angela Mitchell, reviewed by Michael Caylo-Baradi

Michael Caylo-Baradi

UNNATURAL HABITATS & OTHER STORIES by Angela Mitchell

Unnatural Habitats & Other Stories by Angela Mitchell / WTAW Press / 978-0-9988014-6-9 / 2018 In “Animal Lover,” the first story in Unnatural​ Habitats & Other Stories​, we encounter a post-sex … [Read more...]

Freedom in the Physical and Digital City: Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West

Ben Berman Ghan

Exit West: a novel by Mohsin Hamid

Within the text of Mohsin Hamid’s 2017 novel Exit West, migration is always possible, but the text radically overhauls what the journey involved now entails. Cities across the world are no longer … [Read more...]

Mutinous Jester: The Collage Novels of Akbar Del Piombo

Gregory Stephenson

Is That You Simon? Akbar Del Piombo

Akbar del Piombo — illustrious subterranean luminary, mysterious, pseudonymous author of six darkly comic, wildly satirical collage novels. Akbar del Piombo — preposterous, portentous name, once … [Read more...]

Mouthful of Birds by Samanta Schweblin, translated by Megan McDowell, reviewed by Bethany Darby

Bethany Darby

Review of Mouthful of Birds by Samanta Schweblin, translated by Megan McDowell

Mouthful of Birds by Samanta Schweblin, translated by Megan McDowell / Riverhead Books / 2019 / 978-0399184628 / 240 pages “In the flat darkness of the countryside. There is only disappointment, … [Read more...]

Divided Loyalties by Nilofar Shidmehr, reviewed by Lea Bickel

Lea Bickel

Divided Loyalties by Nilofar Shidmehr

Divided Loyalties by Nilofar Shidmehr / House of Anansi / 978-1487006020 / 2019 / 320 pages With Divided Loyalties, Nilofar Shidmehr takes on the demanding challenge of uniting historical … [Read more...]

Imagine Touching Words: A New Lispector for Readers of English, reviewed by Pınar Türer

Pınar Türer

The Besieged City by Clarice Lispector, translated by Jonny Lorenz (New Directions)

The Besieged City by Clarice Lispector. Trans. by Johnny Lorenz & Ed. by Benjamin MoserNew Directions / Penguin Random House / 2019 Lucrécia Neves “mulls over her inability to reason"; when we … [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...]

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...]

Jean Stafford’s Boston Adventure: Tradition and the Talented Individual

Linda E. Chown

Jean Stafford’s Boston Adventure: Tradition and the Talented Individual by Linda Chown

In 1944, Jean Stafford published her first novel, Boston Adventure, a book which became an unexpected best seller..1 From the start, it was an anomaly, "the book that Stafford wrote before one would … [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...]

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...]

Aching for Meaning: The Work of Novelist Rosamond Lehmann

Kathryn Hummel

Rosamund Lehmann

I read about Rosamond Lehmann’s Dusty Answer years before I was able to locate a copy of the novel. Yet just from reading a short synopsis and critique, I was predisposed to love it, this story that … [Read more...]

Tasha Coryell’s Hungry People reviewed by Kelly Flynn

Kelly Flynn

Hungry People: Stories by Tasha Coryell

Hungry People by Tasha Coryell / Split Lip Press / 978-1721553457 / 212 pages / August 3, 2018 On the cover of Tasha Coryell’s debut short story collection, Hungry People, a … [Read more...]

Nona Caspers’ The Fifth Woman, reviewed by Noah Sanders

Noah Sanders

Nona Caspers - The Fifth Woman: A Novel - book review

The Fifth Woman by Nona Caspers / Sarabande Books / 160 pages / 978-1946448170 / August 14, 2018 The death central to Nona Casper’s incredible new book, The Fifth Woman (Sarabande Books), happens … [Read more...]

A Lucky Man by Jamel Brinkley, reviewed by Michael Welch

Michael Welch

A Lucky Man by Jamel Brinkley , reviewed by Michael Welch

A Lucky Man by Graywolf Press / 978-1555978051 / hardcover / May 1, 2018 In his debut short story collection, A Lucky Man, Jamel Brinkley traces the arch of fractured masculinity through the lives … [Read more...]

Writers on Writers on Writers I: Linda Chown on E.L. Doctorow on Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying

Linda E. Chown

This is the first of a series of short essays. These reviews will interpret writers interpreting each other. This first one specifically addresses what I think E.L Doctorow does with Hemingway and … [Read more...]

Jenny Zhang’s Sour Heart, reviewed by Ryan Kim

Ryan Kim

Sour Heart by Jenny Zhang review

Sour Heart by Jenny Zhang / Lenny (Random House) / 320 pages / 0399589386 / August 1, 2017 In “My Days and Nights of Terror,” Mande, a Chinese immigrant, is made fun of by Korean classmates for … [Read more...]

Marc Olmsted reviews Dime Bag: Stories 1978–1986 by Vincent Zangrillo

Marc Olmsted

Dime Bag: Stories by Vincent Zangrillo

Dime Bag: Stories 1978–1986 by Vincent Zangrillo / Sensitive Skin Press / paperback / 978-1545465004 There are two main differences to Vincent Zangrillo's account, Dime Bag, from the usual … [Read more...]

Book Review – Enfermario by Gabriela Torres Olivares

Michael Kirby

Enfermario by Gabriela Torres Olivares, translated by Jennifer Donovan

Enfermario by Gabriela Torres Olivares, translated by Jennifer Donovan / Les Figues Press / June 2017 / 978-1-934254-65-3 / 144 pages / softcover The level of degradation to which Gabriela Torres … [Read more...]

Book Review – Universal Harvester by John Darnielle

John Burns

Universal Harvester by John Darnielle

John Darnielle is already something of a big deal. As frontman and creative driving force for alt-rock cult figures The Mountain Goats, Darnielle has been crafting beguiling pop lyrics for approaching … [Read more...]

Book Review: 4 3 2 1 by Paul Auster

John Burns

4321 Auster

4 3 2 1 by Paul Auster / Henry Holt and Co. / 2017 / 880 pages / ISBN: 978-1627794466 It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Paul Auster – a writer known for brevity and concision, at least most of … [Read more...]

Book review: Kara Vernor’s Because I Wanted to Write You a Pop Song

Carlotta Eden

Kara Vernor - Because I Wanted to Write You a Pop Song

Because I Wanted to Write You a Pop Song by Kara Vernor / Split Lip Press / 75 pages / ISBN: 978-0-9909035-7-4 "… this is what boys did to girls" My dad used to say there were two ways to enter … [Read more...]

Book Review – Generation Hex: David Noone’s novella, Saint of the City

Christopher Brownsword

Saint of the City - David Noone

Saint of the City by David Noone, introduced by Cathi Unsworth / Murder Slim Press / March 2017 Lunging forwards with a series of rapid-fire blows to the gut masquerading as chapters, Saint of … [Read more...]

Steve Aylett is Creative People’s Drug of Choice

Bill Ectric

Steve Aylett: A Critical Anthology book review

The following is a modified version of the first essay in Steve Aylett: A Critical Anthology (Sein und Werden, 2016), in which various authors discuss and analyze the work of Steve Aylett. The … [Read more...]

Book Review – Swimmer in the Secret Sea by William Kotzwinkle

Eric D. Lehman

Swimmer in the Secret Sea - William Kotzwinkle

Known more for fantasy and children’s books, William Kotzwinkle made his name with novelizations of hit movies like E.T: The Extra Terrestrial. His forays into more serious fiction are often ignored, … [Read more...]

Book Review – Stranger Days: A Novel by Rachel Kendall

Bill Ectric

Stranger Days Rachel Kendall

Hemingway praised Paris as “a movable feast.” Henry James, in his preface to the 1903 edition of The Ambassadors, described a cliché that may or may not be true. He said “the moral scheme breaks down … [Read more...]

Book Review – The Last First Day: A Novel

Michael Caylo-Baradi

The Last First Day: A Novel by Carrie Brown

The Last First Day: A Novel by Carrie Brown / Pantheon / 304 pages / 978-0307908032 Carrie Brown’s prose sucks you into a kind of lull. Images of rooms without bodies, twilights in small … [Read more...]

Book Review – Vacant Lot by Oliver Rohe (trans. Laird Hunt)

Joshua Preston

Vacant Lot by Oliver Rohe

Vacant Lot by Oliver Rohe, translated by Laird Hunt. Counterpath Press, 2011. “Then I was king and now I’m no more than a ghost,” says the narrator in Oliver Rohe’s novel Vacant Lot. Now “I pass … [Read more...]

“The Invention of the Past”: An essay on the novel Ancient Light by John Banville

Niranjan Casie Chitty

Ancient Light - John Banville

When fifteen-year-old Alexander Cleave first catches sight of Mrs. Gray – the mother of his best friend – what he sees is a reflection of a reflection. As he waits in the hallway of her house, he sees … [Read more...]

Book review – The Book of Duels by Michael Garriga

Chris Hardesty

The Book of Duels by Michael Garriga

The Book of Duels by Michael Garriga / Milkweed / 2014 / ISBN: 9781571310934 Code Duello; or, How an Author Teaches You to Die, Rise, and be Born Again He greets you with a sly smile and a … [Read more...]

The Novel as History: An essay on the book Homer and Langley by E.L. Doctorow

Niranjan Casie Chitty

Homer and Langley by E.L. Doctorow

The novel Homer and Langley is part history and part fiction: a distinction without a difference within its pages. Doctorow has gained a reputation for taking considerable liberties with recorded … [Read more...]

Book Review: Alice In tumblr-Land (And Other Fairy Tales For A New Generation)

Richard Marcus

Alice in tumblr-Land by Tim Manley

Alice In tumblr-Land (And Other Fairy Tales For A New Generation) by Tim Manley / Penguin Books / 2013 / 978-0143124795 / 272 pages "Curiouser and curiouser" was Alice's commentary on the world she … [Read more...]

Review – An Invisible Flower by Yoko Ono

Denise Enck

Yoko Ono - Invisible Flower

An Invisible Flower by Yoko Ono / Chronicle Books / 52 pages / 978-1452109114 An Invisible Flower was written and illustrated by nineteeen-year-old Yoko Ono, years before she met John Lennon, or … [Read more...]

Book review: Beatitude, a novel by Larry Closs

Denise Enck

Beatitude by Larry Closs

Beatitude by Larry Closs / Rebel Satori Press / 2011 / 978-1608640294 / 272 pages Empty Mirror received a copy of Beatitude from the author, with no obligation. Larry Closs' debut novel focuses … [Read more...]

Book Review – Time Adjusters & Other Stories by Bill Ectric

Eric D. Lehman

Time Adjusters and Other Stories by Bill Ectric

The modern fables that make up Bill Ectric's new collection of stories, Time Adjusters, are difficult to classify, in the best way possible. They seem a comic-book mishmash of science fiction and … [Read more...]

Tamper by Bill Ectric, reviewed by Eric D. Lehman

Eric D. Lehman

Tamper - Bill Ectric

Tamper, the new book by Bill Ectric, frames itself as a boy named Whit's effort to comprehend his past. Did he have a prophetic dream about a bag of bones on the side of the road? Did his friend … [Read more...]

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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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