Tag: Jacob Collins-Wilson

“If I Had to Read It Again for the First Time, I Would”: Jacob Collins-Wilson Reviews Behind the Tree Backs by Iman Mohammed

Behind the Tree Backs by Iman Mohammed (translated by Jennifer Hayashida and including the full original Swedish version) is a short book of short poems that highlights imagery, nature, memories, and the strength of word-choice to create a cross-stitch of life during and after destruction. It is a book about growing up in war and…
“All Your Base Are Belong to Us”: Jacob Collins-Wilson on Roger Reeves’ second poetry collection Best Barbarian

Best Barbarian is Roger Reeves’ second book of poetry and it is a beast, as it wants to be. It pulls inspiration from fables, history, poetry, and literature (past and more present). In its core, Best Barbarian seeks to not just be a part of the literary canon, but to rewrite the canon, to create…
“ATLiens and ‘american’ Identity”: Jacob Collins-Wilson Reviews Kamden Ishmael Hilliard’s MissSettl

MissSettl, Kamden Ishmael Hilliard’s debut book of poetry, unfurls language—it’s a book that seeks to play with sound, words, meaning and form all while trying to fight, to throw haymakers and knock “yt” America into a manifestation resembling respect and ethics, or at least acceptance. It is also a book of love poems, directly and…
Poetry Review: Jacob Collins-Wilson Reads Women in Public by Elaine Kahn

Women in Public, by Elaine Kahn, is a book that pairs well-crafted poetry with sucker-punch direct statements. Think surrealism but instead of image juxtaposed with image, it’s image juxtaposed with concept/idea/point. It’s an interesting pair, one that follows, in concept, surrealism, but ultimately does the opposite because surrealism never tries to make a point aside…
Paper Doll Fetus, poetry by Cynthia Marie Hoffman, reviewed by Jacob Collins-Wilson

Paper Doll Fetus, by Cynthia Marie Hoffman, is a short collection of poems about fetuses (think a larger-scale “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird,” by Wallace Stevens). Some poems discuss fetuses directly while others approach the subject obliquely. However, while this book is sixty-four pages of one subject, not once does it drag or feel repetitious.…
Poetry Review: Jacob Collins-Wilson on Post Subject by Oliver de la Paz

Post Subject is Oliver de la Paz’s fourth collection of poetry. Structurally, the book has five different sections, the first and last having only one poem apiece, but every single poem is titled “Dear Empire” and is followed usually by “These” or “This is your …” The first three poems, for example, are titled, “Dear Empire:…
All Talk, Rich Smith’s debut book of poetry, reviewed by Jacob Collins-Wilson

Rich Smith’s first book of poetry, All Talk, from Poor Claudia, is over a hundred pages filled with play: form, sound, repetition, meta-poetry, character, setting, image and language are all put into the hands of a poet looking to have fun. The first poem, “The King of the Babies”, is a poem that introduces us…
The Dottery, a poetry collection by Kirsten Kaschock, reviewed by Jacob Collins-Wilson

The Dottery by Kirsten Kaschock is the 2013 Donald Hall Prize in Poetry winning book of poems that explores the beginning of identity, gender and humanity. The Dottery refers to a building where beings with semi-consciousness learn to become good dotters (daughters) and is the focal point or planet around which the poems orbit. The…
Keeper, poetry by Kasey Jueds, reviewed by Jacob Collins-Wilson

Jueds’ first full-length collection of poetry won the 2012 Agnes Lynch Starrett poetry prize from University of Pittsburg Press. The poems meander through nature, mysteries of language and trying to understand it, family and art. Nature is the most prevalent topic, touching on butterflies and birds as well as mythical Selkies, half-man half-seal. Most of…