“how small, confronting morning” by Lola Haskins

Poet Lola Haskins’s enthusiasm for her adopted state of Florida is expressed with grace, power, and beauty in how small, confronting morning (Jacar Press 2016; released as ebook 2021), a collection of thirty-five poems. The words and images captured in the book quietly yet passionately evoke a wild and natural Florida that is being lost […]

Claire Hamner Matturro reviews “No Names to Be Given” and interviews the author Julia Brewer Daily

THE BOOK Julia Brewer Daily’s, novel, No Names to Be Given (Admission Press, 2021) is an evocative and sensitive novel about three young women from vastly different backgrounds who face unwed pregnancies in the 1960’s Deep South. Sandy, Faith, and Becca become roommates in a New Orleans maternity home hospital for unwed mothers and gradually […]

Claire Hamner Matturro interviews H. H. Leonards, author of “Rosa Parks Beyond the Bus: Life, Lessons, and Leadership”

Rosa Parks (1913-2005) was a Southern Black woman born into the Jim Crow South who became an icon of the civil rights movement after her refusal to give up her bus seat in Montgomery, Alabama. Author and friend, H. H. Leonards, writes that with that “one simple act, Mrs. Rosa Parks changed the trajectory of […]

June Read of the Month: “Fast Break,” by Terry Lewis

Reviewed by Claire Matturro Ever since Scott Turow re-energized the legal thriller with his critically acclaimed and commercially successful Presumed Innocent, there’s been a bounty of novels written by lawyers about lawyers and legal proceedings. Into this now-crowded field, former Florida circuit court judge Terry Lewis spins a compelling, authentic tale of courtroom intrigue and […]

“Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” by Sean Dietrich

Reviewed by Claire Hamner Matturro Personal, warm, heart-rendering in spots, funny in others, and nearly perfectly written word by word, Will the Circle Be Unbroken (Zondervan 2020) is classic Sean Dietrich. Which is to say, this memoir is good, very good—excellent, in fact. It has the power, the poignancy and emotional impact of Angela’s Ashes, […]

Claire Hamner Matturro Interviews Jeff Hardin, Author of “Watermark: Poems”

Award-winning poet and college professor Jeff Hardin holds an M.F.A in poetry from The University of Alabama. In addition to his four chapbooks, he has six collections of poetry: Fall Sanctuary, recipient of the Nicholas Roerich Prize from Story Line Press; Notes for a Praise Book, selected by Toi Derricotte and published by Jacar Press; Restoring the Narrative, which […]