Few would deny that Hanson is an exceptional wordsmith. The prose in her memoir, The End of Tennessee (U of SC Press), regularly slips into the poetic as she details her tragic coming-of-age that resulted in estrangement from both of her parents and even her siblings. That Hanson was dealt a poor hand early in […]
“Boy With Wings” by Mark Mustian
Is Johnny Cruel an angel or a demon or just an ordinary boy with an unusual birthmark? In Mark Mustian’s literary novel Boy With Wings (Koehler Books 2025), characters often struggle to make sense of Johnny Cruel’s unusual wings—and readers may feel the same. At times, Johnny is heroic; at others, vengeful. In this novel of […]
“2000 Blacks” by Ajibola Tolase
2000 Blacks (University of Pittsburgh Press 2024) by Ajibola Tolase is a powerful poetry collection that has garnered significant recognition, winning the Gold Medal for Poetry in the 2025 Florida Book Awards as well as the Cave Canem Poetry Prize. Tolase’s poetry is deeply evocative, blending personal history with broader cultural and political themes. The […]
“Flight of the Wild Swan” by Melissa Pritchard
Flight of the Wild Swan (Bellevue Literary Press 2024), a historical fiction novel written by Melissa Pritchard, portrays the complicated and inspiring life of Florence Nightingale. Written in a chronological manner, Pritchard showcases Nightingale’s ambitious nature and gritty determinedness from her childhood years in Derbyshire, England, to her adult years as a nurse in Constantinople, […]