One summer a man fell while rappelling in the Narrows//We could hear him moan up on a cliff/his…
“The Over/Under: A Triptych,” fiction by Melissa Benton Barker
1. The Solid and the Vapor I was sitting on the sofa in my yoga clothes when the phone…
FURIES: THUS SPOKE, O’Brian Gunn’s first novel in a series, reviewed by Ann Davis-Rowe
Furies: Thus Spoke, by O’Brian Gunn. Denver, Colorado: Spaceboy Books, March 2019. 370 pages. $14.95, paper. 2019 brought no shortage…
DRIVING IN CARS WITH HOMELESS MEN, Drue Heinz Literature Prize winner Kate Wisel’s debut story collection, reviewed by Noreen Hernandez
Driving in Cars with Homeless Men, by Kate Wisel. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: University of Pittsburgh Press, October 2019. 192 pages. $23.00,…
ESSAYS ONE, the first nonfiction essay collection by fiction writer and translator Lydia Davis, reviewed by Marcus Pactor
Essays One, by Lydia Davis. New York, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, November 2019. 528 pages. $30.00, hardcover. Lydia…
Callista Buchen’s debut prose poetry collection LOOK LOOK LOOK, reviewed by Christen Kauffman
Look Look Look, by Callista Buchen. Black Lawrence Press, October 2019. 60 pages. $16.95, paper. Look at the mother—the way…
BECAUSE WHAT ELSE COULD I DO, the tenth poetry collection by Pitt Poetry Series Author Martha Collins, reviewed by Sarah Sarai
Because What Else Could I Do, by Martha Collins. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: University of Pittsburgh Press, October 2019. 64 pages. $17.00,…
“Love, Loss, and Nazis in Norway”: Gay Degani Interviews HOMING Author Johanna Robinson
Johanna Robinson’s flash novella, Homing, is a revelation not only in its form—flash chapters pinpointing specific moments in time in…
An Excerpt from SOUTH SIDE VENUS, Mary Ann Cain’s biography of activist, curator, and artist Margaret Burroughs
The extraordinarily productive life of curator, artist, and activist Margaret Burroughs was largely rooted in her work to establish and…
RELIEF BY EXECUTION, a visit to Mauthausen by Gint Aras, reviewed by Emily Webber
Relief by Execution: A Visit to Mauthausen, by Gint Aras. Mystic, Connecticut: Homebound Publications, October 2019. 94 pages. $12.95, paper.…
What We’re Reading: November 2019
We editors love reading at HFR—and talking books, writing, and publishing around the clock—so we decided to catalog our selections every…
Bonnie Billet: “Dr Larry Nassar,” a poem for #NoMorePresidents
CW: sexual assault
