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 […]
“Chief Corn Tassel” by Mitzi Dorton
April 17, 2023 by Leave a Comment
With thorough research, Mitzi Dorton brings the inspiring story of Chief Corn Tassel to life. Much of Chief Corn Tassel (Finishing Line Press, 2022) is told through the Cherokee chief’s own words and recorded speeches. An impressive section of illustrations appends the book. Known as “the best statesman” and “the greatest orator of the late […]
“These Particular Women” by Kat Meads
April 11, 2023 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Edwina Pendarvis These Particular Women (Sagging Meniscus 2023) offers a composite of particulars about eleven women who earned celebrity, large or small, in the 20th century, either through their own accomplishments—in one case a murder—or as wife or mother of a notably accomplished someone. Most of the women will be familiar and […]