Category: Reviews & Criticism
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Sign You Were Mistaken, poetry by Seth Landman, reviewed by Ezekiel Black
In my initial reading of Sign You Were Mistaken, I experienced a sensation that I’ve never associated with poetry before. When I drive—and I assume that this happens to everyone—I zone out, and when I regain consciousness, there is the satisfaction of abridging my commute, given that I was only aware for a portion of…
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Instructions for My Mother’s Funeral, poetry by Laura Read, reviewed by Kate Kimball
What if the only compass you had to the past was a series of fragmented images of home? What shape would these images take? What sound? After assembling what you could, how would you determine a beginning, middle, or end? And later, after stepping back, what would be real and what would be imagined? What…
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Necrology, a collaborative text by Gary J. Shipley & Kenji Siratori, reviewed by David Peak
The easiest way I found to approach Gary J. Shipley and Kenji Siratori’s collaborative text, Necrology, was by beginning at the end, or, more specifically, by beginning with the appendix (written by Iranian philosopher and writer Reza Negarestani). I use the word “easiest” here carefully, because I don’t want to convey the idea that there’s…
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“Gabe Durham’s Fun Camp”: Interview and Thoughts by Joseph Riippi
So I did a little research on real-life fun camps. The Parks and Recreation in Webster, New York, offers a couple fun camps in the summertime, one for second and third graders, another for fourth and fifth graders. Camps are offered for older kids, too, but those are no longer deemed “fun.” For the youngsters,…
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Blowout, new poetry by Denise Duhamel, reviewed by Jordan Sanderson
In Blowout, Denise Duhamel jaywalks across the intersections of the personal and historical, narrowly escaping a Mack truck and arriving safely at a picnic with a new lover who has ode-worthy eyebrows. Duhamel takes the collection’s title from a line in “Takeout, 2008”: “It is already 2009 / in Bangkok, where 61 partygoers were killed…
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“Gotta Get a Gimmick: How the Galaxy SIV’s Party Tricks Turned Innovation into a Game”: Tech Essay by Zach Tarvin
Even as a devout lover of iOS, I have to give credit to Samsung—they really know how to endlessly market their product. In the coming weeks, I’m sure we’ll continue to see campaign after campaign of ads telling us why the Galaxy SIV, The Next Big Thing, is here. The problem, though, is like Samsung’s…
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Book Review: Joshua Kleinberg on The Year of the Rooster, a poetry collection by Noah Eli Gordon
Noah Eli Gordon’s newest collection, The Year of The Rooster is like a hyper-intellectual conversation in the midst of a total rager. It’s easy to get lost, but that’s half the fun. Especially as these poems huck themselves around from existential doubt to post-modern denial, especially with this rooster running around giving everyone a hard time.…
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Byzantium, exciting historical stories by Ben Stroud, reviewed by Michael Goroff
I was kind of stunned when I opened Ben Stroud’s Byzantium for the first time to discover that I would be reading a story about a 28-year-old shut-in with a withered hand who lived during Heraclius’ reign over the Byzantine Empire. I don’t read much historical fiction, it’s true, but that doesn’t mean I’m completely…
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The Stone Thrower, stories by Adam Marek, reviewed by Ryan Werner
I recently went to the wedding of a friend I’ve had for over twenty years. Mostly I did the things I do with people I know and enjoy the company of, telling and listening to stories and generally trying to let worthwhile moments be themselves. “My wife’s a shopaholic,” one of my friends who is…
Heavy Feather Review 