Category: Reviews & Criticism

United States of Japan, a novel by Peter Tieryas, reviewed by Nick Sweeney

We owe Philip K. Dick a lot. With every sentence he wrote, Dick helped many writers and readers break through the doors of imagination and ask “what if?” He made us think, and he sparked a new generation of writers to jump high, write fast, and explain things later. Dick, in many ways, has influenced…
Nothing but the Dead and Dying, stories by Ryan W. Bradley, reviewed by Leland Cheuk

The title of Ryan W. Bradley’s eighth book, Nothing but the Dead and Dying, pulls no punches. Set in Alaska, these two-dozen stories are about a dead and dying part of the world, thanks to climate change, and the dead and dying white working class men that have become a media talking point in this…
Fiction Review: Stephanie Marker on Emily Capettini’s Thistle: Ghosts, Memories, & Ashes

Within the language of Emily Capettini’s work, there exists a subtle sense of gentle quiet that allows the reader to sink into it, to ruminate over the delicate nature of each sentence as it works to connect one moment to the next. There is a calmness, even in anger, even in chaos, that seeps tenderly…
Nonfiction Review: Amy Long Reads Pretentiousness: Why It Matters by Dan Fox

In a recent think piece on the Vice-owned music site Noisey, music journalist Dan Ozzi asks “Is the Album Review Dead?” In it, music journalist Dan Ozzi argues that, as print media has declined in prominence and even taste-making websites like Pitchfork have lost their gatekeeper status, screaming “amateurs” on Twitter have replaced the professional…
Poetry Review: Chris Muravez on Songs from a Mountain by Amanda Nadelberg

“Self portrait near / morning had time / to figure the intricate / rules of the sea, why / we’re here, a negation / of stars, idea without / weather or knowing / the train will stop, send / the world.”—Amanda Nadelberg, “Big Data” I was sitting on a train to Chicago, slightly hungover,…
Fiction Review: Eric Nguyen on Alexandra Naughton’s American Mary

In 2014, Sophie Katz wrote “We Don’t Have To Do Anything.” In it, Katz detailed a trip to New York as a young writer in the Alt Lit (Alternative Lit, an internet-based literary subculture that is often associated with progressive experimentalism) community and how she was sexually assaulted by an editor pseudonymously named “Stan.” Later,…
“They Killed Portland, You Know”: Culture Essay by Tabitha Blankenbiller

Three years ago, I met Chloe Caldwell for lunch. I was two weeks away from moving out of Oregon for my husband’s job transfer. I was reluctantly going along because that is what spouses do and what marriage is about and all that bullshit. Caldwell’s essay collection Legs Get Led Astray was a pivot point…
Phil Spotswood on Shadow of the Colossus by Nick Suttner

Boss Fight Books, created in 2013, is a publishing house for creative nonfiction books on video games from classics like Galaga to games with a more cult following like ZZT or Super Mario Bros. 2. In the past five or so years, it seems like the gaming world and the literary world have been slowly…
The Loss of All Lost Things, short stories by Amina Gautier, reviewed by Erin Flanagan

Winner of the Elixir Press 2014 Fiction Award, Gautier’s collection The Loss of all Lost Things centers, not surprisingly, around loss. These stories are populated with characters navigating the losses accrued in their pasts and dealing with their echoing effects in the present. Gautier doesn’t waste her time on the small losses—keys, pocketbooks—but goes for…