Reviewed by MW Rishell In The Language of Vision: Photography and Southern Literature in the 1930s and After, Joseph R. Millichap mines a rich stock – the literature of the South – and finds a comparatively new vein, that of photography supporting the cultural aura of kudzu and long memory. Bringing visual rhetoric and the […]
“Ill-Mannered Ghosts,” by Nicole Sarrocco
June 7, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Bestsy Randolph Nicole Sarrocco’s Ill-Mannered Ghosts is literary fiction at its finest. Sarrocco manages to combine verisimilitude (she herself claims to have seen ghosts) and the paranormal in a freakishly awesome effort to render the semi-credible story of a southern woman (her sometimes real self) who has the uncanny ability to see, hear, […]
June Read of the Month: “Abraham Anyhow,” by Adam Van Winkle
June 1, 2017 by 1 Comment
Reviewed by William Bernhardt I am particular about how Oklahoma is portrayed in fiction. Perhaps I’m unduly defensive, but at this point, having written more than almost thirty novels set in Oklahoma, in a variety of time periods, I think I’ve earned the right. I chafe when I hear editors, upon hearing that the novel takes […]
“Letters from Paris,” by Juliet Blackwell
May 30, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Johnnie Bernhard Juliet Blackwell’s Letters from Paris is solid reading entertainment with a lovable protagonist, Claire Broussard, whose small-town Louisiana beginnings lead to tragedy. Blackwell builds suspense without sacrificing seriousness or believability, two common victims of the mystery genre. Perhaps that’s the key to Blackwell’s novel – everything about it is “just right.” […]
“The Myth of Water,” by Jeanie Thompson
May 25, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Claire Hamner Matturro Award-winning writer Jeanie Thompson is a brave, bold poet. In The Myth of Water (University of Alabama Press 2016), she presents a remarkable and evocative series of thirty-four poems to tell a deeply personal story of the iconic Helen Keller. And if the concept of historical persona poems wasn’t daring […]
“Brutal Silence,” by Margaret Dardess
May 18, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Donna Meredith Hidden in plain sight, human trafficking occurs in American neighborhoods where few expect that such a crime could exist, in the world of shopping malls and classy restaurants. But someone—a banker, a motel owner, a health care worker—surely suspects what is happening and fails to speak out. Margaret Dardess gives voice […]