Archives for October 2015

Rod Davis

Rod Davis is the author of a number of works including the Southwest/PEN Award-winning novel Corina’s Way, and most recently the critically praised South, America.

“Untying the Moon,” by Ellen Malphrus

Reviewed by Daniel James Sundahl It’s been four decades since Harold Bloom published The Anxiety of Influence. Bloom’s theory is that creative writers are hindered in their work because they maintain ambiguous relationships with precursor writers. He’s enlarged his theory these days by referencing precursor writers as “daemons.” I mention this because in his foreword […]

“The Splendor of Ordinary Days,” by Jeff High

Reviewed by Donna Meredith With the third novel in the Watervalley series, Jeff High’s talent has matured as he captures the rich tapestry of small-town life – as few contemporary authors have – in The Splendor of Ordinary Days. The author plumbs the depths of the most important bonds of our lives in this heart-warming […]

The Primary Lessons that Created a Writer: Ann Cefola Interviews Sarah Bracey White

When the Jim Crow South welcomed Sarah Bracey White with a hard slap, the plucky if bewildered young girl found her power in books and, later, in writing. Here’s an interview with the memoirist whose Primary Lessons (Cavan-Kerry Press, 2013), in its fourth printing, is helping heal the wounds of segregation in a small — […]

Ann Cefola

Ann Cefola is author of Face Painting in the Dark (Dos Madres Press, 2014), St. Agnes, Pink-Slipped (Kattywompus Press, 2011), Sugaring (Dancing Girl Press, 2007), and the translation Hence this cradle (Seismicity Editions, 2007). A Witter Bynner Poetry Translation Residency recipient, she also received the Robert Penn Warren Award judged by John Ashbery.  Her work […]

October Read of the Month: “Reading Life,” by Michael Pearson

Reviewed by Elisabeth Aiken In Reading Life, Michael Pearson paraphrases a famous writer’s definition of an essayist as “a self-liberated man with the childish belief that everything he thinks about, every one of his experiences, will be fascinating to others.” While that definition is not wholly flattering, it is applicable to Pearson as the author […]