Author Archive

Sensory Experiences in Nina Mingya Powles’s Magnolia木蘭

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Nina Mingya Powles’s newest collection is a sensory feast. Inviting readers into the spaces between language and culture, between country of birth and countries of origin, Powles paints the landscapes and histories that have shaped her.

Facing Pandemic Memories in Mary Jo Salter’s Zoom Rooms

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The poems in Mary Jo Salter's collection invite readers to consider what we will remember from a time that feels unforgettable now. As COVID-19 begins to take up less and less space in our heads, will it be more than distant memory, something almost unintelligible to future generations?

The Wilderness of Language in Atsuro Riley’s Heard-Hoard

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In the collection, language, like nature, is elemental—a way of speaking and being in the world . . . Riley’s inventiveness is an invitation to notice language’s connection to the natural world.

Finding Oneself in Three Rooms

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Jo Hamya’s debut novel is an invitation to reflect not only on where we house our bodies, but also our attention.

Crossing Boundaries in Whereabouts

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Jhumpa Lahiri’s new novel beautifully showcases the way we experience life: the moments that are most important—the turning points—are often only realized in retrospect.

Fugitive Atlas by Khaled Mattawa

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In poems that tenderly call us to action, Mattawa awakens readers to the human and geographical devastation wrought by the tendency to “other” people. Fugitive Atlas is a collaborative prayer for a shattered earth.

The Unreality of Memory & Other Essays by Elisa Gabbert

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Elisa Gabbert’s new essay collection is both an examination of conscience and a cataloging of modern American anxiety. It touches our pressure points with the intention of helping us identify sources of pain in our own lives.

How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C Pam Zhang

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Zhang’s novel is a treasure-trove of questions that devastate even as they beckon readers on.

The Collector of Leftover Souls by Eliane Brum

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Eliane Brum’s journalism is a challenge to those of us living lives of comfort and privilege. Our task is to be the reporter she strives to be: one who mostly listens.

Love and I by Fanny Howe

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In the wilds of associations that Howe’s poems produce, readers are sure to find both niches of rest and, simultaneously, calls to action.