Finishing Line Press, 2021, 42 pages $14.99 ISBN  978-1646627240 Available at Amazon Bruce Parker’s Ramadan in Summer transports us to physical and emotional places with spare authenticity. The first example is in the title poem, “Ramadan in Summer,”...

reviewed by George Vennredbat books, 2022, 73 pages, $16ISBN 978-1-946970-08-4Available at www.redbatbooks.com, Ingram, Bookshop.org, Amazon.com, Powells.com To appreciate David Memmott’s achievement in Small Matters Mean the World (2022), readers might start with the front cover....

Finishing Line Press, 2020, 40 pages, $14.99ISBN: ‎ 1646622901Available at https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/small-feather-by-jade-rosina-mccutcheon/https://www.amazon.com/Small-Feather-Jade-Rosina-McCutcheon/dp/1646622901The cover of Jade Rosina McCutcheon’s chapbook immediately caught my eye. Within a kaleidoscope of doodled line and color, a thought bubble speaking for the soul...

The Poetry Box, 2022, 87 pages, $18.00ISBN: 978-1-956285-17-8Available at The Poetry Boxhttps://thepoetrybox.com/bookstore/lightness and Amazon In This is the Lightness,her new collection from The Poetry Box,Rachel Barton takes us on a spiritual and imaginative journey, starting...

The title of Mark Thalman’s chapbook, Stronger Than the Current, emerges from the dominant character trait of Helen McCready, a native Oregonian. When the rising Siuslaw River drowns McCready’s prize tulips, she keeps her rowboat...

I have known Maggie for almost thirty years, having met shortly after her return from living in Japan. I found several of the stories in Firefly Lanterns to be familiar tales she shared while we...

As a poet astutely aware of the challenges facing 21st century America, Emmett Wheatfall has never shied away from the in-your-face-truths all of us need to hear. With Extreme Prejudice, Lest We Forget is his...

In Transition Thunderstorms, Beth Bonness offers breathtaking insights into life events we find hard to talk about with the people we love most. This book is a tender and honest lifeline to reconnection.

Fans of Michael Hanner’s earlier work, Alice—What I Heard, will be pleased with this charming and inventive sequel, More Alice—Further Fragments. The main character, Alice, is a chimera whose mini adventures coalesce to form a...

Dervish Lions is divided into three sections: “Kingdom of Wind,” “Countries of Origin,” and “Province of Saints.” The first two sections land themselves more firmly in the environment: the first section mostly in Oregon and...

Pattie Palmer-Baker knows how to tell a story. In The Color of Goodbye, the story begins with her parents dancing while her father is home on leave in 1943. Yes, he’s going to war. He’s...

AE Hines’s first collection, Any Dumb Animal, is a heartful lyrical memoir that centers around three pivotal “Phone Call” poems that open sections entitled “Revival,” “Regret,” and “Rebirth.” Hines revives a myriad of memories: growing...

Gary Lark has long been a favorite poet of mine, starting over 20 years ago when I heard him at a reading. Lark read one of his poems “Fishing” and another by Clemens Starck. I...