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Ship of the Line by Penny Boxall
-Reviewed by Richie McCaffery- Sometimes poetry collections are a brief flirtation, a dalliance which lights up the afternoon it takes you to read them but once finished, they do not linger much in the...
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The Contradictions of Flesh by Sonia Hendy-Isaac
-Reviewed by C.A. LaRue- If Sonia Hendy-Isaac’s “soul is a dark forest,” as Anton Chekhov says, she explores the bounds of it with a sharp, gritty axe. The language in her first collection is frank...
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Goldfish by Jennifer Wong
-Reviewed by Lucy Ayrton- Do not talk to trees. At night they dance in ballet shoes, Tell secrets to one another, Put on a ring, wisdom for every year.” (‘Myth’). Goldfish by Jennifer Wong is a...
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Light, Sound, Water and Want: Notes Towards a Common Vocabulary in New...
-Reviewed by C.A. LaRue- In the afterglow of the 28th Annual Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival, I was able to hook up with two of the city’s small press poetry publishers: Trembling...
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Rain Rider by David Briggs
-Reviewed by Angelina Ayers- David Briggs won an Eric Gregory Award in 2002, and his first collection, The Method Men (Salt, 2010), was shortlisted for the London Festival New Poetry Award. His second...
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Fleurs by Jean-Baptiste Cabaud
-Reviewed by Morgane Rémy- Thanks to Le printemps des poètes, an annual French event about poetry, the book Fleurs (flowers), by Jean-Baptiste Cabaud, published by a small and independent press La...
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Posthumous Stories by David Rose
-Reviewed by Rebecca Burns- Posthumous Stories by David Rose, published by Salt, runs to over 200 pages and comprises sixteen pieces of fiction. The title may mislead some readers: these aren’t stories...
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Things to Make and Break by May-Lan Tan
-Reviewed by Eleanor Hemsley- Things To Make And Break by May-Lan Tan is one of the most perfect collections of short stories I have ever come across. From an unforgettable abortion to a young girl’s...
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The Greenhouse by Lisa Gluskin Stonestreet
-Reviewed by Alice Allen- Many people are wary at approaching poetry on the subject of parenthood, fearing perhaps it will be sentimental, overly personal or trite. This is not a charge that can be...
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Fishing in the Aftermath, Poems 1994-2014 by Salena Godden
-Reviewed by Nicole Capo- Salena Godden is a powerhouse. Reading into her irrepressible energy, it’s no wonder that the British vixen of the underground performance poetry scene has a new collection...
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Young Skins by Colin Barrett
-Reviewed by Rebecca Burns- Young Skins is Colin Barrett’s debut collection of short stories. It is published by The Stinging Fly Press and comprises seven tales in total. About 180 pages long, it is...
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1001 Louisiana Nights: Hot New Poetry from the Humid State
-Reviewed by C.A. LaRue- Whether chasing the rhythms of old-school Acadiana, the Wild West rodeo or Scheherazade herself, the latest crop of Louisiana small press poetry is as seductive as hell. Start...
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Museum Pieces by Wendy Pratt
-Reviewed by Claire Trévien- The opening poem to Museum Pieces, and its namesake, tells us that ‘These things are not the quiet keepers / of another time, they are not static’. An appropriate summary...
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Rapture And What Comes After by Virginia Moffatt
-Reviewed by Cath Barton- It is always interesting to see how writers order collections of short fiction. Virginia Moffatt’s idea of pairing stories under the two headings of ‘rapture’ and ‘what comes...
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In The Cinema by Stephen Bone
-Reviewed by Tom Crompton- In The Cinema is in itself a private picture house, a careful framing of moments. In this collection Stephen Bone often undertakes a microscopic procedure, holding objects...
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‘Above Sugar Hill’ by Linda Mannheim
-Reviewed by Nick Murray- It’s like all those snapshots of New York – Brooklyn and Manhattan – in the 70s and 80s that you remember seeing when you were young. Starting with grainy reruns of Sesame...
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Letting Go by Angela Topping
-Reviewed by Emma Lee- The title is from a Cecil Day-Lewis quote: ‘How selfhood begins with a walking away, / And love is proved in the letting go.’ Through the poems within, Angela Topping explores...
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Outside Looking On by Chimène Suleyman
-Reviewed by Charles Whalley- A common workshop exercise is to trim the first lines from a poem, to fend off temptations to introduce or pre-empt. The very beginning is not a very good place to start....
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Beast by Frances Justine Post
-Reviewed by Cecilia Bennett- In ‘Self-Portrait as Beast’, Frances Justine Post’s introductory poem in this début collection, the narrator puts on a series of animal faces. In doing so, she jumps...
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The Hard Word Box by Sarah Hesketh
-Reviewed by Anja Konig- The first thing you notice about Sarah Hesketh’s The Hard Word Box is the title. Is this a box for hard words, or is it a hard box for words. Are words like grandmother’s eggs...
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