Book Reviews

  Review by Penelope Scambly Schott The Parachute Jump Effect by Judith Arcana Uttered Chaos Press (www.utteredchaos.org) ISBN 978-0-9823716-9-5 2012, $10.00 Unless you are of a certain age and grew up in Chicago, you won’t understand the title of this chapbook until you get to the final poem, a shared recollection of a long-gone ride in […]

Review by Eleanor Berry Rending the Garment by Willa Schneberg Box Turtle Press ISBN 978-1-893654-14-3 2014, 103 pp., $16 The couple in the cover photograph compel our gaze. “Should I recognize them?” we may wonder, thinking they must be stars in a classic film of the 1940s. As we read, we discover that they made

Review by Penelope Scambly Schott Controlled Hallucinations by John Sibley Williams FutureCycle Press ISBN 978 – 1938853227 2013, 78 pp., $14.00 http://johnsibleywilliams.wordpress.com This book is well-titled. It contains the poetry of allusion. Williams’ go-to symbols are such elements as the sea, mirrors, birds, or even gravity itself. These appear frequently in this poetry of transparent mystery.

Review by Kelly Eastlund Still Life with Judas and Lightning by Dawn Diez Willis Airlie Press ISBN 978-0-9821066-8-6 2013, 71 pp, $15 http://airliepress.org/still-life When the title of a poetry book feels like a poem in itself, you know you are in for an enriching read. Still Life with Judas and Lightning, Dawn Diez Willis’s first

Review by Tim Pfau TOMORROW TOO: The Brenda Monologues By Don Colburn Finishing Line Press, Georgetown KY ISBN: 978-1-62229-395-7 Scheduled publication November 8, 2013. $14 (Pre-orders through finishinglinepress.com) doncolburn.net/tomorrow/ www.finishinglinepress.com Don Colburn is an award winning journalist and poet from Portland, Oregon. His newest book, TOMORROW TOO: The Brenda Monologues, is a deeply moving collection

Review by John Sibley Williams Understory: Poems   By Paulann Petersen Lost Horse Press  2013, 196 pp., $21.95 Paulann Petersen’s web site / Powell’s Books Before even opening Paulann Petersen’s latest collection, Understory, I was greeted with a haunting question: what is an “understory”? My mind raced with potential metaphors, each speaking directly to the core of all Petersen’s