Thinking Beyond Colonial Gender: A Review of Manuel Arturo Abreu’s Transtrender
Joshua Jennifer Espinoza01.03.17
With Transtrender, Manuel Arturo Abreu synthesizes thoughts on colonialism, gender, consent, and mourning into a cogent exploration of identity culture. Joshua Jennifer Espinoza reviews.
A Type of Understanding Stripped of Vision is Feeling: On Christopher DeWeese’s The Father of the Arrow is the Thought
Kent Shaw12.29.16
A consistent sense of wonder laced with consequence looms throughout the body of Christopher DeWeese’s vivid second collection of poems, The Father of the Arrow is the Thought. Kent Shaw reviews.
The Rule of Tincture: A Review of Emily Wilson’s The Great Medieval Yellows
Chris Holdaway12.01.16
Emily Wilson’s The Great Medieval Yellows explores systems linking together nature and technology, symbol and tincture. Chris Holdaway reviews.
Three Jawns: The United States, Opus 40, and Dolores
Sarah Rose Etter11.17.16
The latest installation of Three Jawns tackles the latest in democracy, a stone labyrinth built by Harvey Fite, and the paper bag distortion of Philadelphia’s Dolores.
We Can’t Go Back to Yesterday: Jeff Jackson’s Novi Sad
Deirdre Sugiuchi11.03.16
Jeff Jackson’s new novella, Novi Sad, depicts the surreal yet oddly familiar lives of humans gathered together to await the end of the world. Deirdre Sugiuchi reviews.
Let’s Die: The Soho Press Book of 80s Short Fiction
Grant Maierhofer10.20.16
Dale Peck’s curation of important and sometimes neglected avant-garde lit from the 80s–including Mary Gaitskill, Dodie Bellamy, Bret Easton Ellis–stands not to establish a canon, but to undo one. Grant Maierhofer reviews.
Explanations Are Impossible: A Review of Bandit: A Daughter’s Memoir
Gregg Murray10.13.16
Molly Brodak’s Bandit tells the story of growing up the daughter of a multiple felon bank robber in Detroit, and in the process shatters all expectations of how a memoir is supposed to work. Gregg Murray reviews.
All that Exists for the Audience: On Gabriel Blackwell’s Madeline E.
Nathan Knapp10.06.16
In a kind of “literature of bewilderment,” Gabriel Blackwell takes the form of film criticism (that is, a book-length dissection of the mysteries at work in Hitchcock’s Vertigo) and blends it with memoir, philosophy, and memory-maze, to mesmerizing results. Nathan Knapp reviews.
World and War Memories: A Review of Don Mee Choi’s Hardly War
Paul Cunningham09.29.16
Don Mee Choi’s Hardly War collages photographs, equations, and verbal shrapnel tracing the ghostly damage broken open in wartime Korea and Vietnam. Paul Cunningham reviews.
The Loving Heart of Captain Fantastic
Sean Lawlor09.27.16
Sean Lawlor on the familiar “strange” and heart in Matt Ross’s new film Captain Fantastic starring Viggo Mortensen.
