Author: Heavy Feather
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The Isle of Youth, short stories by Laura van den Berg, reviewed by Erin McKnight
“It was a terrible flaw, our inability to see where our lives were leading us,” reflects one of Laura van den Berg’s characters before everything is terribly and irrevocably brought to bear. Indeed for the young women of this highly anticipated sophomore story collection who are living on the fringe, where mystery and intrigue are…
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The Disordered, poetry by Anhvu Buchanan, reviewed by David Peak
The publication of a revised edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is always a curious event. When I was in college forever ago, we studied the fourth edition. The fact that there is now a fifth edition was brought to my attention some months ago by my friend.…
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Soul in Space, new poems by Noelle Kocot, reviewed by Jordan Sanderson
Soul in Space, Noelle Kocot’s sixth full-length collection of poetry, calls us to the world and the world to us. At the end of the acknowledgements, Kocot thanks “the late Randall Jarrell—it is his gorgeous poem “Seele im Raum” that inspired the title for this book: as translated, Seele im Raum means Soul in Space.”…
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the shared properties of water and stars, poetry by Kristy Bowen, reviewed by M. Forajter
Kristy Bowen’s newest poetry collection, the shared properties of water and stars, tells the story of trapped people. Told in interconnected prose poems that look and feel like the pages of a miniature story book, Bowen creates a poetic landscape for which her fairy tale archetypes may play. Set in an idyllic suburbia, Bowen’s characters…
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This Darksome Burn, a novella by Nick Ripatrazone, reviewed by Jeremy Behreandt
Maybe, before I start talking about This Darksome Burn proper, I’ll touch on Gerard Manley Hopkins’ “Inversnaid,” from which Nick Ripatrazone’s novella takes its title. The poem takes a straightforward Romantic approach to nature as scene of the sublime revelation. To quote William Cronon from “The Trouble with Wilderness,” sublime landscapes were those rare places…
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Book Review: Misha Rai on Woke Up Lonely, a novel by Fiona Maazel
Espionage with its usual mayhem of shady deals, body suits a la Tom Cruise in various productions of Mission Impossible, misunderstood cult leaders, communes, clubs with speed dating masquerading as confessionals, North Korea, Cincinnati vice uncovered literally under the city’s ground all make their nefarious presence felt in Fiona Maazel’s Woke Up Lonely. In Maazel’s…
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All We Want Is Everything, stories by Andrew F. Sullivan, reviewed by Kelsie Hahn
Andrew F. Sullivan’s debut collection, All We Want Is Everything, revolves around characters who started off badly and have been trapped in a steep decline ever since. The cast predominantly features characters who are down on their luck, struggling working class, or both. These are characters who experience powerlessness. They enact violence, and violence is…
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“Call It the Melodrama of Starting Out”: An Interview with Jack Christian by Gabe Durham
Most of my favorite booky conversations with Jack Christian took place on a disc golf course connected to a dog park that was a couple miles away from our respective homes in Northampton, MA. The quiet of the woods plus the beers in our backpacks really encouraged the kind discursive arts conversation I can only…
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Sam Price on Chelsea Martin’s Even Though I Don’t Miss You: “Love Songs Are Always Written in Solitude”
And good poems are often written from bad places. This book of poems by Chelsea Martin is both a re-examination of a failed relationship and a kind of addendum. Martin’s protagonist isn’t working to get the last word like a selfish lover hoping to exonerate herself, but more like a sociologist interested in her behavior…
Heavy Feather Review 