Book Reviews
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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...
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Reviewed by Judith H. Montgomery Isadora: A Tragedy in Three Acts by Dale Champlin Version 1.0.0 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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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14
Mar
2025
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.
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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.
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Reviewed by Carol Barrett Coming Down the Mountain by Gary Lark Kelsay Books, 2024, 103 pages, $23.00 ISBN 978-1-63980-652-2 Available at https://kelsaybooks.com; https://garylark.work Gary Lark is an Oregon poet through and through. Born here, and...
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30
Dec
2024
Reviewed by John Ruff Raku by Patricia Wixon, edited by Vincent Wixon and Amy Miller Cyclone Press, 2024, 73 pages, $15 ISBN 9798340757456 Available on Amazon Raku, Patricia Wixon's fifth book of poems, was...
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Reviewed by Lana Hectman Ayers I Remember Not Sleeping by Sherri Levine (author), Moises Camacho (Illustrator) Fernwood Press, 2024, 64 pages, $28 ISBN 978-1594981395 Available at https://www.fernwoodpress.com/2024/08/05/i-remember-not-sleeping/ and sherrilevine.com A hybrid of poem, memoir,...
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Reviewed by Cynthia Neely The Autobiography of Rain by Lana Hechtman Ayers Fernwood Press (an imprint of Barclay Press), 2024, 134 pages, $19 ISBN 978-1594981388 Available at https://barclaypress.corecommerce.com/the-autobiography-of-rain.html Lana Hechtman Ayers, in the The Autobiography of...
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Reviewed by Cit Ananda ekphrastics & eccentricities by M. Ann Reed Kelsay Books, 2023, 63 pages, $20.00 ISBN 978-1-63980-400-9 Available at www.kelsaybooks.com On her trek teaching and learning around the world, capturing moments in...
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Reviewed by John Martin Reading Wind by Carol Barrett The Poetry Box, 2024, 49 pages, $14.00 ISBN 978-1-956285-51-2 https://thepoetrybox.com/bookstore/reading-wind So many of the poems that I read these days--including my own--are looking for their...
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Reviewed by Dale Champlin Jacob's Ladder by Rachel Barton Main Street Rag Publishing Company, 2024, $18.00 ISBN 978-1-59948-992-6 Available at https://mainstreetragbookstore.com/product/jacobs-ladder-rachel-barton/ The poetry in Rachel Barton's latest book, Jacob's Ladder, takes the reader, rung-by-rung,...
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Reviewed by Carol Barrett The Ferry Keeper by Judith H. Montgomery Grayson Books, 2024, 43 pages, $12.00 ISBN 979-8-9888186-9-4 Available at https://graysonbooks.com Judith H. Montgomery's latest collection, The Ferry Keeper, opens with a stunning metaphor...
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Reviewed by Ce Rosenow Noble Scratch, Roughly Spoken by Brad Winter and Laura Winter As If Press, 2024, 60 pages Limited edition: 150 copies numbered Order from the authors at [email protected]. Finally! That was my...
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21
May
2024
Reviewed by Shirley Marc The Last Hippy Poet of the Woodstock Generation, a psychedelic memoir and narrative verse by C. Steven Blue Sunset West Publishing Group, 2023, 642 pages, $24.99 ISBN 978-0997997507 Available at: amazon.com...
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Reviewed by Melody Wilson My Kindred by Paulann Petersen Salmon Poetry, 2023 Available: Powell’s Books, Broadway Books, Annie Bloom’s Books, Amazon Paulann Petersen’s My Kindred might seem to be about family, but it’s much more....
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