Everybody Here is Kin is a literal storm brewing in the middle of a place called Boneyard Island. This is supposed to be Lucille’s birthday trip onward to Key West, and the island a destination to bury her father’s ashes. Instead, her mother takes off with a new man, leaving a note: See you Wednesday…I’ll […]
“Harbor Lights” by James Lee Burke
April 16, 2024 by Leave a Comment
Harbor Lights (Atlantic Monthly Press January 2024) by James Lee Burke is a collection of eight varied and gripping short stories by the multiple award-winning, bestselling author of the long-running Dave Robicheaux series. While harrowing in places, the stories collectively are stunningly powerful and impeccably crafted. The book includes a previously unpublished novella, “Strange Cargo,” […]
Read of the Month: “Perpendicular Women: Adventures in the Multiverse” by Chris Coward
April 3, 2024 by Leave a Comment
Perpendicular Women: Adventures in the Multiverse (Atmosphere Press 2023) by Chris Coward has a stunning cover design befitting the exceptionally intriguing story inside. Speculative fiction, the novel is divided into three parts, each featuring a different character: “Connection 1: Kara, Dreamer”; “Connection 2: Pandora, Leader”; and “Connection 3: Dawn, Champion.” Each section takes places in […]
“To Free the Captives: A Plea for the American Soul” by Tracy K. Smith
April 2, 2024 by Leave a Comment
Tracy K. Smith had already been awarded a Pulitzer Prize and appointed to a second term as Poet Laureate of the United States when she did a reading at my local library (Arlington, Va.) Although I had read her warm and inviting poetry, I was not prepared for the way she pulled me into a […]
“Valediction: Poems and Prose” by Linda Parsons
April 1, 2024 by Leave a Comment
Valediction: Poems and Prose (Madville Publishing 2023) by Linda Parsons is an achingly lovely collection in which the poet treks through ordinary facets of life weighing marvel against damage. Parsons’ poems and her micro-essays, which she calls visitations, are eminently relatable—the death of a beloved dog, a complicated father-daughter relationship, loving support from older women […]
“Idiot Men” by Scott Gould
March 19, 2024 by Leave a Comment
Scott Gould’s newest collection, Idiot Men, provides the stage for wayward characters who make poor choices in life and love against a backdrop of elegant prose. In “Word of the Day” (winner of the 2020 Larry Brown Short Story Award), a long-haul truck driver’s wife flees to Jamaica with her lover, leaving him to babysit her hairless tomcat, […]