Robert Fillman’s House Bird, Reviewed by Brian Fanelli
Robert Fillman Bird House Terrapin Books Reviewer: Brian Fanelli Robert Fillman has a knack for turning the everyday domestic space into a fascinating subject for his poetry. He drills into home life, mining memory and personal experience. The result is a fine debut collection, House Bird. Even if the spaces Fillman writes about feel familiar, […]
Alexis Jackson’s My Sisters’ Country, Reviewed by Brian Fanelli
Alexis V. Jackson My Sisters’ Country Kore Press Reviewer: Brian Fanelli Alexis V. Jackson’s collection, My Sisters’ Country, is a book with impressive historical scope—integrating numerous influences and references, and underscoring everyone from Gwendolyn Brooks to June Jordan to the four Black Girls, Addie Mae Collins, Carol Denise McNair, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley, who […]
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, […]
Diane Frank’s While Listening to the Enigma Variations: New and Selected Poems, Reviewed by Brian Fanelli
Diane Frank While Listening to the Enigma Variations: New and Selected Poems Glass Lyre Press Reviewed by Brian Fanelli After the last few years of political tumult and after the year that was 2020, Diane Frank’s While Listening to the Enigma Variations: New and Selected Poems truly feels like a much-need respite, a booster shot […]
George Franklin’s Noise of the World, Reviewed by Brian Fanelli
George Franklin Noise of the World Shelia-Na-Gig Editions Reviewer: Brian Fanelli After a year of lockdowns, face masks, and death counts still too great to process, George Franklin’s latest collection of poems, Noise of the World, feels incredibly relevant right now, as the world still reels from the global pandemic and its long-term implications. His […]
