The Stafford Challenge Anthology: 2024-25 Anthology, Reviewed by M. L. Lyons
Reviewed by M. L. Lyons The Stafford Challenge Anthology: 2024-25 Anthology Edited by Brian Rohr Wild Poet Press, 2025, 257 pages, $22.95 Print ISBN: 979-8-9985119-0-5 Ebook ISBN: 979-8-9985119-1-2 Available at https://wildpoetpress.com/anthology/ Some anthologies are like bouquets: artfully arranged around a theme to create a desired effect. Others explore a new field of interest, giving a […]
Isadora: A Tragedy in Three Acts by Dale Champlin, Reviewed by Judith H. Montgomery
Reviewed by Judith H. Montgomery Isadora: A Tragedy in Three Acts by Dale Champlin Just a Lark Books, 2022, 111 pages, $15.00 ISBN-13 : 979-8887573540 Available at https://www.amazon.com/Isadora-DaleChamplin/dp/B0B7HF2XCH/ref=sr_1_6? “The poem,” writes Robert Frost in 1939, “begins in delight and ends in wisdom.” Dale Champlin offers both in this fabulously imagined series of spirited “conversations” […]
Contradictions from an Uncertain Silence by Emmett Wheatfall, Reviewed by Carol Barrett
Reviewed by Carol Barrett Contradictions from an Uncertain Silence by Emmett Wheatfall Fernwood Press, 2025, 40 pages, $28.00 hardbound ISBN 9781594981524 Available at fernwoodpress.com From the incisive opening poem, “When the Time Comes for You to Speak,” to the concluding “America’s End,” Emmett Wheatfall urges us to resist and refuse the battlements of racism and […]
THESE HOLLOWED BONES by Amelia Díaz Ettinger, Reviewed by Brenna Crotty
Reviewed by Brenna Crotty Previously published in Calyx, March 30, 2025 THESE HOLLOWED BONES by Amelia Díaz Ettinger Sea Crow Press 2024, 107 pages, $18.00 ISBN 9781961864009 Available at www.seacrowpress.com I am not a bird person. Reading through each of the nearly fifty poems named after a different bird in These Hollowed Bones, Amelia Díaz Ettinger’s fourth […]
REVOKE by Joy Manesiotis, Reviewed by Carol Barrett
Reviewed by Carol Barrett REVOKE by Joy Manesiotis Airlie Press, 2023, 67 pages, $18.00 ISBN 978-1-950404-12-4 Available at www.airliepress.org Growing up, I often heard the phrase “betwixt and between.” It seems an apt way to describe the themes of Manesiotis’ poems in REVOKE. The subjects of this work include the poet’s contending with infertility and […]
Splitting Open the World by Carolyn Martin, reviewed by Carol Barrett
Reviewed by Carol Barrett Splitting Open the World by Carolyn Martin The Poetry Box, 2025, 95 pages, $18.00 ISBN 978-1-956285-93-2 Available with free S/H at [email protected] Carolyn Martin’s sixth book of poems claims its title from a famous quotation by Muriel Rukeyser: “What would happen if one woman told the truth about her life? […]
The Goodbye Kit By Daneen Bergland, Reviewed by Carol Barrett
Reviewed by Carol Barrett The Goodbye Kit by Daneen Bergland Airlie Press, 2024, 64 pages, $18.00 ISBN 978-1-950404-15-5 Available at www.airliepress.org Daneen Bergland’s first book of poetry is a beautiful assembly of evocative poems, almost all of which have appeared individually in literary magazines. The first thing that greets the reader is gorgeous cover art […]
even my dreams are over the constant state of anxiety by Irene Cooper, Reviewed by Carol Barrett
Irene Cooper’s second book of poetry provides a stunning exploration of form, with the poems organized by section titles drawn from various psychological theories and experiments.
Dining Al Fresco with My Dog, by Sue Fagalde Lick, Reviewed by Carol Barrett
Sue Fagalde Lick’s book, Dining Al Fresco with My Dog, is the most distinctive collection of poems confronting the realities of widowhood that I have ever read.