The bloodroot plant with its white flowers that herald spring evokes the deep forests of Appalachia, which are sacred groves for poet Bill King, who grew up in and lived his life in Appalachia. His collection Bloodroot: Poems (Mercer University Press 2023) is a record of this life, one of challenges but sustained joy buoyed by a […]
The World That I Know: Stephen Corey’s “As My Age Then Was, So I Understood Them: New & Selected Poems, 1981-2020”
Essay by Steven Croft The poet, a “poet,” is a crafter of words, and if very successful, maybe a magician of words. A philosopher, if wise, gives great thought to fundamental ideas and questions, even if wisdom knows final answers will remain elusive. Stephen Corey’s volume, As My Age Then Was, So I Understood Them: New […]
“Scaring the Bears” by Gordon Johnston
Reviewed by Steven Croft As Gordon Johnston’s fellow Georgia writer Tony Grooms has said, “Writers are, by occupation, collectors—not just of books—but observations and experiences.” Scaring the Bears: Poems (Mercer University Press, 2021) is a “middle-of-the-journey” consideration by a fifty-something speaker of an entire life: where he has been and where he believes he is going. The […]
Steven Croft
Steven Croft studied creative writing at the University of Georgia with Georgia author Warren Leamon. He is the author of New World Poems (Alien Buddha Press, 2020). His work has appeared in Willawaw Journal, So It Goes: The Literary Journal of the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library, North of Oxford, The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, and other places and has […]



