Review: Singing the Song of Us—The Lost Tribes, by Patrick T. Reardon
Reviewed by Michael Leach Patrick Reardon’s epic poem The Lost Tribes is a cri du coeur as thrilling for our time as Alan Ginsberg’s Howl was for his. It celebrates […]
Interview: Feeling Beatific—Jerry Cimino of the Beat Museum/Beatmobile
Jerry and Estelle Cimino are on the road, spreading the Beat Gospel to the world. As founders of the Beat Museum in San Francisco, they’ve made a mission of keeping […]
Review: Kathleen Rooney’s Where Are the Snows Meets the Present with Wry Humor and Hope
The title of Where Are the Snows, Kathleen Rooney’s new, award-winning collection of poetry, serves as both question and commentary to start off the book. Where are the snows, anyway? […]
Review: Making Friends With a Poet, The Poet’s House, by Jean Thompson
Carla Sawyer is a tall, smart-alecky 21-year-old who’s working for a landscaping company until she figures out what to do with her life. She’s on a job in one of […]
Review: Poetry Jagged and Anguished, A Boy in the City, by S. Yarberry
The pain that S. Yarberry suffers as a transgender person is strikingly described in their new book of jagged, anguished poetry A Boy in the City. It is pain set […]
Poem for Today: Freedom
It happened in Ferris Bueller’s hometown In the Mayberry of the Midwest I first heard about it while listening to WXRT When Terri Hemmert played “All You Need Is Love” […]
Dialogs: Haymarket Books Launches Maya Marshall’s All the Blood Involved in Love
Haymarket Books describes itself as a radical and independent publisher, and in light of current events, I am grateful that they are still in the game. They have a new […]
Review: Myriad Chicagos, Wherever I’m At: An Anthology of Chicago Poetry, edited by Donald G. Evans and Robin Metz
Summer mornings, in my West Side childhood, I would go out on our rickety second-story back porch, and, across the alley, on the worn, gray asphalt of the parking lot/school […]
Book Review: A Kind of Poetry, The Fact of Memory, by Aaron Angello
The Fact of Memory: 114 Ruminations and FabricationsBy Aaron AngelloRose Metal Press In a piece titled “Think,” Aaron Angello tells of two conversations about what makes a poem a poem. In […]
Review: A Glimpse into a Very Different Culture, Rig Veda Americanus, edited by Daniel G. Brinton
Rig Veda Americanus: Sacred Songs of the Ancient Mexicans Edited with a paraphrase, notes and vocabulary by Daniel G. Brinton Amika Press If you pick up a copy of Daniel […]
Review: Guarneri Hall Hosts a Wonderful Lost in Translation
Deep in the canyons of Chicago’s central Loop is a nondescript office building that houses a gem of a performance space. On the third floor of 11 E. Adams St. […]
Review: Ana Castillo Traverses Loss, Grief, and Politics in My Book of the Dead
My Book of the Dead By Ana Castillo University of New Mexico Press We are caught in a time of collective mourning, moving through yet another year of the ongoing […]