Category: Reviews & Interviews

In conjunction with reading, I find it extremely important to be able to talk about what I’ve read to a greater extent than “I liked this book” or “I didn’t like this poem.” I find it important to delve deeper, into themes, into intentions, into meanings. I like to refer books more extensively in this matter so that the review is less about whether I liked the book or not, and more about the WHY of the matter. Those reviews will be posted here.

Via the main REVIEWS page, you can view ALL reviews that I have posted. However, for ease, these reviews are also categorized by genre. If you are searching for, say, reviews of poetry collections, simply hover your mouse over the REVIEWS button and select the “Poetry Collection” option.

— Poetry Collections, Reviews & Interviews —

“Black Light / Her Name in a Cup”: Scenes & Impressions: Reading David Dodd Lee’s Animalities

November 5, 2016

David Dodd Lee has been there with me since the beginning—not since the beginning of my reading and loving poetry, but of my writing poetry and taking that progress seriously. Of taking poetry seriously, and the idea that there was something to be taken from poetry, to be understood, to be had. Like a… Read More “Black Light / Her Name in a Cup”: Scenes & Impressions: Reading David Dodd Lee’s Animalities

— Memoir, Reviews & Interviews —

Her Heart of Hearts & The Art of Discovery: Reading Jackie Haze’s Borderless

February 18, 2016

When I think of highways, I think of other cars, the open road, corn fields. I think of how limitless, how borderless these highways can be, allowing us to go straight, turn left, or turn right, as we please. But there are also barricades: toll roads, No U-Turn signs, and Detour Turn Left/Right; these… Read More Her Heart of Hearts & The Art of Discovery: Reading Jackie Haze’s Borderless

— Poetry Collections, Reviews & Interviews —

‘This is Not a Pipe’: The Powers of Nature & Grief over Perception & Definition: Reading Ross Gay’s Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude

February 8, 2016

I don’t know about you, but in my mind, perception and grief are united. This is not to say that one cannot exist without the other, but only that our perceptions vary based on our state of mind—especially when we are talking about grief. On an average, typical day, we know very well that… Read More ‘This is Not a Pipe’: The Powers of Nature & Grief over Perception & Definition: Reading Ross Gay’s Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude

— Poetry Collections, Reviews & Interviews —

Dialogue of the Body, Dialogue of a Storm: Reading Sandra Marchetti’s Confluence

November 7, 2015

Sometimes I find myself thinking so much about what poetry is or what it can do that I forget to think about how it can make me feel. Perhaps that is the sign of a lesser poetry, a poetry with holes in it: one that goes through the motions, the mechanics, of writing, but… Read More Dialogue of the Body, Dialogue of a Storm: Reading Sandra Marchetti’s Confluence

— Poetry Collections, Reviews & Interviews —

“Look Where That Has Gotten Me”: The Potential Self-Awareness & Honesty of Poetry: Reading Tracey Knapp’s Mouth

October 21, 2015

Let me begin by playing a round of Two Truths and a Lie… We all know how this works, right? The speaker shares two truths about themselves, and a lie, but the lie must not be easily distinguished from the two truths, and the other players are supposed to guess which statement is a… Read More “Look Where That Has Gotten Me”: The Potential Self-Awareness & Honesty of Poetry: Reading Tracey Knapp’s Mouth

— Poetry Collections, Reviews & Interviews —

The Rhythm of Reading & Hearing Poetry: Reading Three Beautiful Collections by Susan Lewis

October 10, 2015

Do you ever find yourself in a reading slump? Or too unreasonably busy to even consider finding a way to fit reading in? And when you finally do have the time and energy, do you find yourself searching for that writing style that just throws you back in, every time? Well, this summer, as… Read More The Rhythm of Reading & Hearing Poetry: Reading Three Beautiful Collections by Susan Lewis

— Christian, Reviews & Interviews —

The Division of History & Fiction: Reading Kristy Cambron’s A Sparrow in Terezin

June 11, 2015

In Kristy Cambron’s A Sparrow in Terezin, the second novel in the A Hidden Masterpiece Novel series, two central female characters, Sera James and Kája Makovsky, bridge the gap between a past genocide and a present-day criminal investigation. Kája previously fled her home, escaping the Holocaust; Sera is dealing with a situation that may… Read More The Division of History & Fiction: Reading Kristy Cambron’s A Sparrow in Terezin

— Poetry Collections, Reviews & Interviews —

“The Way Poetry Evokes Things / Only Potentially There”: Perception, Identity & Heritage: Reading Allan Peterson’s Precarious

April 18, 2015

In the quiet moments, when we stop to take a breath and think, we may realize that all of our thoughts, our questions, our hopes, are connected—that is to say, back to two main ideas: Where am I going? and Where have I been? Again, as if to say something toward longevity, What am… Read More “The Way Poetry Evokes Things / Only Potentially There”: Perception, Identity & Heritage: Reading Allan Peterson’s Precarious

— Fiction, Reviews & Interviews —

To the New York Times Book Review, Domestic Violence is Never Funny: A Response Review of Jill Alexander Essbaum’s Hausfrau

March 28, 2015

Readers, let me explain first that I am not one to contest reviews, whether overly positive, unconstructively negative, or anything in-between. But when a review makes a claim that is societally problematic, I have to respond—not to the review as a whole, but to its thematic issues. A week ago, a review appeared for… Read More To the New York Times Book Review, Domestic Violence is Never Funny: A Response Review of Jill Alexander Essbaum’s Hausfrau

— Poetry Collections, Reviews & Interviews —

The Waking, Danger & Consent of the Body & Love: Reading Lisa Mangini’s Bird Watching at the End of the World

March 28, 2015

When we spend a lot of time reading poetry, I know we can become critical of the pursuit of love and the defining of boundaries in poetry—but sometimes, a poet chooses to address these exact topics, and they get everything right: they create something new, something meaningful, something entirely worth reading, whether it is… Read More The Waking, Danger & Consent of the Body & Love: Reading Lisa Mangini’s Bird Watching at the End of the World