Sonata in K by Karen An-Hwei Lee Sonata in K is the debut novel by San Diego based poet Karen An-Hwei Lee. Naturally, much of Sonata in K feels exceedingly poetic at times –…
Blood on Blood, by Devin Kelly There is an awkward, uncomfortable history of politicians seeking to utilize the work of Bruce Springsteen to rally support during their campaigns. Most notable was Ronald Reagan, most…
Black Bubblegum and William Gonzalez’s Los Angeles Salvadoran-American poet William Gonzalez is intimately connected to the streets of Los Angeles. A product of the MacArthur Park, Pico-Union neighborhood, the man is an award-winning author, son,…
Sing the Song, by Meredith Alling Review by Linda Michel-Cassidy Meredith Alling’s Sing the Song collects twenty-seven strange and muscular flash fictions. My second take on these stories was how well they are crafted,…
Meet Me Here At Dawn, by Sophie Klahr One of the things about poetry that will never cease to fascinate me is its potential to activate all of the senses. I am not referring…
Fish in Exile, Vi Khi Nao Many people have their own techniques for dealing with trauma. Some of these techniques are learned in the mouth of the dragon, born out of necessity and scars. …
The Braid, by Lauren Levin Review by Raul Ruiz You don’t know me, so what’s my opinion worth to you? What could I possibly do to qualify my belief that this new book, The…
The Warren, by Brian Evenson For a consumer of science fiction, the genre has become an increasingly bloated thing saturated with the grandiose and the absurd. Most movies in the genre are shameless reproductions…
Baloney by Maxime Raymond Bock Translated by Pablo Strauss Baloney is a new novella by emerging French-Canadian writer Maxime Raymond Bock, translated from the original French by Pablo Strauss. The book presents a fascinating…
Bottom’s Dream, by Arno Schmidt Translated by John E. Woods I have always been wary of books that demand attention. Garish covers, deliberately awkward page or font sizes, titles that sound like lines from…
Flowers Among the Carrion: Essays on the Gothic in Contemporary Poetry, by James Pate If you mention the word “Gothic” in many circles today, there is usually an automatic association with architecture such as…
You Ask Me To Talk About the Interior, by Carolina Ebeid It is perhaps most difficult to see beauty when it lives in and around something horrid. But the focus of vision does not…