by prfire | Sep 4, 2018 | Book Reviews, Fiction
In Bill Gaston’s short story “Hello:,” the narrator tells us that, according to some Tibetan Buddhist teachings, guardian spirits called Protectors exist, whose “sole purpose is to promote our wakefulness” and like to do so by “giving us a slap.” This original, vivid,...
by prfire | Aug 17, 2018 | Book Reviews, Fiction
The Heavy Bear is Tim Bowling’s latest novel and like In the Suicide’s Library (2004) its focus is on the ghosts of great male artists. Where In the Suicide’s Library meanders around the lives of Wallace Stevens and Weldon Keese, The Heavy Bear tracks the ghosts of...
by prfire | Aug 9, 2018 | All Reviews, Book Reviews, Poetry
Shirley Camia’s eleven spare, imagistic poems are so very slight—wispy, flickering at the edges of what children perceive and remember. Filled out by title pages, epigraph pages, and Cindy Mochizuki’s graceful, taut, drawings, they still make a very slim volume. The...
by prfire | Jul 25, 2018 | All Reviews, Book Reviews, Fiction
The author’s subtitle, “60 Sudden Fictions,” illuminates much of what a reader experiences in delving into Midwife of Torment: having entire life-narratives sprung fully grown upon the sensibilities, like Athena’s delivery from her father Zeus’s head to relieve a...
by prfire | Jul 13, 2018 | All Reviews, Book Reviews, Non-Fiction
In a time of truth and reconciliation, One Bead at a Time: A Memoir by Beverly Little Thunder, is a book that should be read. This memoir is an oral account of her life stories that have been transcribed by Sharron Proulx-Turner. Beverly’s story originates with her...
by prfire | Jun 22, 2018 | All Reviews, Book Reviews, Poetry
Written with searing clarity and massive heart, Slow War is narrative poetry at its best. The first collection from Benjamin Hertwig, a veteran of Afghanistan, it chronicles the experiences of an unnamed soldier. We follow this soldier as he’s primed for war, plunged...
