Tag: Coffee House Press

“Back Alleys and Hidden Corners”: Marcus Pactor Interviews Brian Evenson, Author of The Glassy, Burning Floor of Hell

Brian Evenson has for many years been one of America’s chief practitioners of innovative dark fiction. His work regularly adopts and breaks free of sci-fi and horror tropes. It captures our oldest fears and bleakest futures in admirably hard, detached, concise prose. It freaks me out, and I love it. Among the numerous plaudits for…
Review: Nick Sweeney on The History of the Future by Edward McPherson

I made the mistake of reading The History of the Future before I went to bed. It was a mistake not because of anything Edward McPherson said in particular, it was the mere notion of thinking of place. I thought about my hometown, of minor celebrities who went to the local high school, the nearby…
“Your Tongue Will Berate You”: An Interview with Vi Khi Nao by Hillary Leichter

When you open the first pages of Fish in Exile, it is clear: you are conversing with a poet. Language is effortless and strange, glorious in its dexterity and rhythm. Each sentence has the capability to corner you, kiss you, crush you. This is story of Ethos and Catholic, a husband and wife who are…
“It ain’t the middle of life / but I’m still / caught in the woods”: Leonard Kress Reviews Anselm Hollo’s Poetry Collection The Tortoise of History

I first encountered Anselm Hollo at one of the legendary poetry readings held at Dr. Generosity’s Pub in Manhattan in the early 1970s. He had recently arrived from his native Finland (after a long stint working for the BBC in London.) Hollo cut an imposing figure—tall, bearded, wild-haired, his teeth chipped, his pleasingly accented voice…
Book Review: Vivian Wagner on Chloe Caldwell’s Essay Collection I’ll Tell You in Person

In her new book of essays, I’ll Tell You in Person, Chloe Caldwell has the voice of a best girlfriend confiding all of her deepest, darkest secrets—about acne and drugs, sex and binge eating. Caldwell makes it seem easy to speak with such a lively and intimate voice, but that’s only because she’s a masterful…
John Brown Spiers on Cynan Jones’ Novel Everything I Found on the Beach

It is possible to say that Everything I Found on the Beach is a novel of rabbits. They enter, innocuously enough, as food; the restaurant manager of a seaside hotel asks Hold, his fishmonger, if he can hunt down a dozen or so for the kitchen. Before the hunt, Hold tries to convince the mother…
Review: Zachary Kocanda on Amateurs, a novel by Dylan Hicks

Amateurs, the sophomore novel by Minneapolis-based singer-songwriter and novelist Dylan Hicks, is about the consequences of shooting for the moon—or at least the New York Times Best Sellers list. A twenty-first-century novel of manners in the Austenian tradition, Amateurs spans the mid-to-late aughts, and after a short prologue, its sections are structured as prenuptial and…
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,…