When Thomas Rabbitt’s first acclaimed book of poetry, Exile (1975), won the prestigious Pitt award, he was a relatively young man. At that time, he was charged with starting a Masters of Fine Arts in creative writing program at The University of Alabama, a program he led to national prominence before retiring in 1998. Rabbitt’s […]
“The Boundaries of Their Dwelling” by Blake Sanz
May 17, 2023 by Leave a Comment
The Boundaries of Their Dwelling by Blake Sanz is an assortment of fiction short stories of high literary quality, with impressive details and imagery. The stories take place between Mexico, Florida, Louisiana, and Texas. The author is a master at fleshing out characters and effective in pulling and moving the hearts of his audience with […]
Treasures in the Dirt: Rachel Custer’s “Flatback Sally Country”
May 17, 2023 by Leave a Comment
With the blue-collar grit of Philip Levine, the maternal feminism of Lucille Clifton, and the dexterous formalism of Howard Nemerov, Rachel Custer’s Flatback Sally Country is a hybrid of all things enjoyable in a book of poems. From line one of this collection, “All day the sky is a closed fist,” the poet begins taking […]
A conversation about “Teaching Black History to White People” by Leonard N. Moore
May 17, 2023 by Leave a Comment
Teaching Black History to White People (University of Texas Press, 2021) by Leonard N. Moore is an important book that joins the ranks of Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste, Henry Lewis Gates’s Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow, and James W. Loewen’s Lies My Teacher Told Me in assuring that all […]
May Read of the Month: “Only Oona” by Tamatha Cain
May 3, 2023 by Leave a Comment
Tamatha Cain’s Only Oona (Orange Blossom Publishing, 2023) is not only a remarkable woman’s story; this outstanding historical novel shines as a glittering Who’s Who in the 1940s. With impeccable research, Cain brings Oona O’Neill Chaplin to life, stretching from her early years in the Bermuda countryside to teen years roaming the streets of Manhattan […]
“Alight: Flights of Prose” by Rachael Peckham
May 1, 2023 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Cat Pleska Rachael Peckham’s memoir in essays circles readers around the tragedy that befell her family. Her maternal grandfather and two uncles perished in a plane crash not far from their Clearwater, Michigan, farm in 1976. Alight: Flights of Prose (Uncollected Press, 2022) examines the long-term effects of this loss. On a short […]