John Sibley Williams’ The Drowning House, Reviewed by Vivian Wagner
John Sibley Williams The Drowning House Elixir Press Reviewer: Vivian Wagner John Sibley Williams’ new collection of poetry, The Drowning House, is a book about personal, cultural, and generational trauma. It explores American violence, racism, and colonialism, telling multiple stories from a variety of perspectives about the intersecting traumas inflicted by this country’s people, as […]
Michael Montlack’s Daddy, Reviewed by Brian Fanelli
Michael Montlack Daddy NYQ Books Reviewer: Brian Fanelli Michael Montlack’s Daddy contains several types of daddies and mothers, important key figures in the poet’s life. This collection is also an exploration of desire, childhood, sex, and gay identity. It praises a loved one in one poem before acknowledging the fallen in another. Through this journey, […]
Chocolate Waters’ Muddying the Holy Waters, Reviewed by Ann Wehrman
Chocolate Waters Muddying the Holy Waters Eggplant Press Reviewer: Ann Wehrman Chocolate Waters’ Muddying the Holy Waters underscores the relevance of her unique first name, a nickname from childhood. Waters offers direct, mature poems about love and life that crack open the reader’s heart with their honesty and, ultimately, satisfy and warm like a cup […]
Amanda Moore’s Requeening, Reviewed by Erica Goss
Amanda Moore Requeening Ecco/HarperCollins Reviewer: Erica Goss “The hive will come to know the new, caged queen. Her scent, alarming at first, will become recognized, comforting.” —“Requeening” Amanda Moore’s new collection explores the consequences of succession, in beehives and in her own family. “Requeening,” or the process of introducing a new queen to an […]
Katerina Canyon’s Surviving Home, Reviewed by Jessica Drake-Thomas
Katerina Canyon Surviving Home Kelsay Books Reviewer: Jessica Drake-Thomas Katerina Canyon’s Surviving Home, explores familial relationships within black families, in particular the speaker’s toxic relationship with her father. “My father is a shark / with a hope chest / clenched between his teeth,” she writes in the title poem, “It holds my heart and brain […]
