Reviews

Open the pages of The Four Ugliest Children in Christendom and enter another world. In this intriguing, provocative poetry collection, Welsch confronts societal expectations, the ethics of research, the pressures…

“Most people believe that raising children is tantamount to settling down, living conventionally, and avoiding danger,” Ross explains in her brisk and bracing tone. “That is not the vision Todd…

Cati Porter’s latest poetry collection, The Body at a Loss, deals with the devastating toll of illness, not only on the body, but also on the mind of…

Many women know from a young age that they want children. But for those of us who have not felt the call, or have felt the call complicated by other…

Little Million Doors by Chad Sweeny is an elegy mourning the death of his father. In this lyrical book-long poem, Sweeny breaks traditional barriers of language to draw a multifaceted…

“This is what I love about travel—how it heightens my senses. Some say travel is a vanishing act, disappearing down a rabbit hole, but for me it’s appearing, coming into…

Fruit of the Earth offers a sincere and intimate glimpse into both personal and cultural stories that guide the reader through a broader narrative of fragmentation and belonging. … Each…

Biss doesn’t detail the specific efforts of the mothers with whom she spoke, but she does address the chilling consequences. “When I asked a friend how she would feel if…

A woman in a mental institution wants to walk into the ocean. Another is desperate to marry off her daughter, just as her own mother was desperate to marry her…

Lily and Marvena are an odd couple on the surface. Lily has a comfortable lifestyle, is shapely and pretty, and has been formally educated. In contrast, Marvena lives in a…

Over and over, she shares the inherent trauma of being raised by such an emotionally unstable woman. Depression, grief, insecurity, disapproval—pick your poison. Worse is the magnetic pull her mother…