I first encountered zydeco on a visit to New Orleans. I was enthralled by the banging beats of Buckwheat Zydeco. The Cajun music I had heard previously in NOLA was good enough, but I could take it sitting down. Zydeco demanded that I get up and dance. Zydeco combines the energy of rock and roll […]
“Creole Soul: Zydeco Lives” by Burt Feintuch and edited by Jeannie Banks Thomas
November 15, 2022 by Leave a Comment
November Read of the Month: “Milk Blood Heat” by Dantiel W. Muniz
November 3, 2022 by Leave a Comment
In Milk Blood Heat (Grove Press, 2021) Dantiel W. Muniz serves up a savory, delicious stew of short stories in an outstanding debut collection. The stories are set in the steamy cities and suburbs of Florida centered on Black residents and their communities. Female voices and themes predominate. This collection is a rare gem in […]
“The Kingdoms of Savannah” by George Dawes Green
October 19, 2022 by 1 Comment
The Kingdoms of Savannah (Celadon Books, 2022) reads like a fine literary suspense novel, a top-tier mystery. But Kingdoms triumphs in extending the boundaries of the genre. George Dawes Green unearths so many long-buried layers of history with such drama, such flair, such artistic skill that readers may not even be aware they are reading […]
“The Whispering Women” by Trish MacEnulty
October 18, 2022 by Leave a Comment
The Whispering Women (Prism Light Press, 2022) by Trish MacEnulty features two lively female investigators who represent distinct social classes. Richly drawn characters, the vibrant historical setting, and a suspenseful mystery create strong currents that pull readers into this delightful novel. But it’s the women’s issues—as relevant today as they were in the early 1900s—that […]
“Alone in the House of My Heart” by Kari Gunter-Seymour
October 5, 2022 by Leave a Comment
Alone in the House of My Heart (Ohio University Swallow Press, 2022) is a rich and varied collection of poems by Kari Gunter-Seymour, Ohio Poet Laureate and founder/executive director of the “Women of Appalachia Project,” an arts organization she created to address discrimination directed at women from the Appalachian region. Divided in to five sections, […]
“The Strange Inheritance of Leah Fern,” by Rita Zoey Chin
October 5, 2022 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Donna Meredith Exquisitely beautiful and eerily wise. Deeply philosophical yet full of magic. An enchanting novel with intriguing characters. Rita Zoey Chin’s The Strange Inheritance of Leah Fern (Melville House, October 2022) is all these things—and more. In other words, a work of literary excellence. The novel begins with a disturbing scene. Leah […]