REVIEW: TRACE EVIDENCE BY CHARIF SHANAHAN (TIN HOUSE)
Trace Evidence is intensely complex and immediate, layered and poignant, positioned perfectly as a deeply personal and yet deeply relatable collection. – Ronnie K. Stephens
Trace Evidence is intensely complex and immediate, layered and poignant, positioned perfectly as a deeply personal and yet deeply relatable collection. – Ronnie K. Stephens
Matthew Guenette navigates through past and present tragedies in a way that envisages the future. – Michael Imossan
Margaret Wack’s dexterity is sprawled across the pages of her debut collection which is vivid, intense and heartwarming. – Ejiro Edward
Browne has repeatedly asserted herself as one of the most preeminent voices in America, and her work has always been unflinching and vulnerable. – Ronnie K. Stephens
The reader is transported into the heart of myth by Jessica’s uncanny ability to capture its essence, with such depth that it is both haunting and indelible. – Martins Deep
Jason treats all subject matter with such delicateness that it proves almost impossible for language to account for them. – Michael Imossan
One finds themselves trying to determine if they’re more drawn to the art illustrations or the rhythmic flow but one thing is sure, hope is a silhouette is brilliant. – Ejiro Edward
I hold my breath to tempt the light. This portrait should engage the interest of some decorous and cultivated gent accustomed to the ways of wooing. All my life I’ve sent so many men so many signals, just to be upstaged… From “7” Patricia Smith reasserts herself as one
Armed with surrealism, Stoddard breaks free from the constraints of reality in order to tap into the realm of the irrational and dreamlike. – Martins Deep
Astronauts claim it takes leaving earth to know earth, how alone and woven we are, o zone, how wondrously thin the layer of glow defending us from obliteration. From “March in the Garden of Ghosts” Cynthia Dewi Oka draws on newly classified documents around the 1965 genocide
Told from a standpoint of bed rest, Elizabeth Metzger analyzes how the body pays the price of bearing something as fragile as another self twice as susceptible to vulnerability. – Martins Deep
Join Chris in conversation with author of Stereo(types), Jonah Mixon-Webster, about passions, process, pitfalls, and Poetry!
Poetry is generative and scientifically proven to promote healing, not just cognitively and emotionally, but also physically. – Ronnie K. Stephens
In A Home To Crouch In, Blanton introduces readers to the life of an urban recluse speaker who finds solace in a bottle of cheap liquor and a poetry book in his rundown apartment. – Caleb Jones
It’s so embarrassing
How we used to be friends
To now I don’t care if it ends
Past making amends
– Reggie Johnson
The emotional language and distinct structure in Kevin Powell’s collection will leave you with a new perspective on love, injustice, and devotion to your people that will make your sorrows soothed and your soul uplifted. – Isabella Ciraco
She Has Visions packs quite the punch for the reader in realizing the everyday challenges in learning to overcome grief and loss. – Sydney Norton
This ghost, this fear as depicted by the poet is seen to be ever present; constantly walking through the poet’s bones, becoming alive again in every breath and in every “gust” as the poet affirms “we know the ghost is here”. – Michael Imossan
Through Passin’s use of varying structures, consistent diction, powerful imagery, and unique metaphors, it will seem… you are borrowing her body and feeling it as your very own. – Ciraco
Zeina Hashem Beck quickly and repeatedly establishes herself as one of the most talented formal technicians in contemporary poetry – Ronnie K. Stephens
Join Chris in conversation with Shelley Wong, author of As She Appears (YesYesBooks), about passions, process, pitfalls, and Poetry!
Join Chris in conversation with former United States Poet Laureate and author of Musical Tables (Random House), Billy Collins, about passions, process, pitfalls, and Poetry!
Olzmann’s choice to fully immerse himself in the epistle offers a chance to display his range of voice, to give space to seemingly disparate social inequities, to remain constantly intimate in his conversation with the reader.
Who’s gonna love you
If you can’t love yourself
Because the actions that you did
Were bad for my mental health
– Reggie Johnson
Though book burning may appear historically and practically extreme in comparison to book bans, consider that one of the guiding principles of book burning is public spectacle. – Ronnie K. Stephens
She brought me back to when I was a little girl, feeling very much alone, seeking refuge in books that I didn’t know yet would have been with me while growing up. – Valentina Lenardi
Join Chris in a sitdown with actor, writer, producer, and all-around bad-ass Buddy Wakefield, about passions, process, pitfalls, and poetry!
Join Chris in a sitdown with Maya Marshall, author of All the Blood Involved in Love and an Editor at Haymarket Books, about passions, process, pitfalls, and poetry!
Join Chris in a sitdown with Brian Tierney, the author of Rise and Float (Milkweed), about passions, process, pitfalls, poetry, and a whole lot of music!
Join Chris Margolin in conversation with Mahogany L. Brown, author of Woke Baby, Chlorine Sky, and Vinyl Moon (Penguin Random House), about passions, process, pitfalls, and Poetry!
Dear God. Dear Bones. Dear Yellow. is the divine feminine’s wrath with no apologies, and yes, you should say thank you. – Lyra Thomas
Perhaps we have all, as in the poem, lost someone and looked up, perceived heaven, and asked for a sign, a response, but were left only in our wonder. – Cait L. Young
The way the chips have fallen
Lays simple and plain
I have a duality of someone’s success is being someone else’s pain
– Reggie Johnson
Gotta be
Honest
My attitude
The fondest
Holding back?
Nothing’s promised
Sleeping on me
I’m an alarmist
– Reggie Johnson
For me it’s sink or swim
Too many people I extended branches
And gone out on a limb
The switch up is contagious
Many do it on a whim
– Reggie Johnson
These are poems that do not lend themselves to passive reading, but rather demand deep internal reflection and renewed engagement with the most basic, unanswerable questions of human existence. – Ronnie K. Stephens
Scheelk offers first-hand accounts of the effects of misdiagnosis, queer identity, and the intersections of these as an autistic person. – Caitie L. Young
Don’t give me material
If you’re reading this it’s too late
Don’t end up becoming one of my mistakes
– Reggie Johnson