ASW: Just yesterday I was reading The White Bird and now I’m finding myself engaged with your second and just-released poetry collection, The Ocean’s Edge. Your weaving of themes that tie to family, and self identity, dovetail flawlessly alongside the weaving of popular culture and classical allusions in these poems. Collectively, these elements create quite […]
“Retarded Girl Raised in Dog Pen,” by Lauren Leigh
Reviewed by Amy Susan Wilson Disabilities, a family murder, Mississippi, a mental institution, and the spirit of redemption all appear in Lauren Leigh’s debut novel, Retarded Girl Raised in Dog Pen. Every chapter, while often bearing brutal abuse in the household of a rural Mississippi family, rings like a bell, clear and resonant with no […]
November Read of the Month: “The White Bird,” by William Bernhardt
Reviewed by Amy Susan Wilson Entering William Bernhardt’s debut poetry collection, The White Bird, is entering into the heart of human community. Always rich, often humorous, and at times poignant, these poems, which are diverse in style, guide us through the maze of parenting, longing, loss, working, traveling, and, among other things, falling in and […]
“Southern Gothic: New Tales of the South,” Edited by Brian Centrone With Art Design by Jordan Scoggins
Reviewed by Amy Susan Wilson Southern Gothic: New Tales of the South is a much needed anthology of American Southern literature that calls attention to a diverse range of American Southern experiences and issues—primarily contemporary issues and experiences. Edited by Brian Centrone with art design by Jordan Scoggins, these stories and poems by both established […]