The Morels by Christopher Hacker
The Soho press catalog came my way and aside from all the crime fiction, there was this interesting book about a writer/artist, his family, and how fucked up things get when a certain “novel” is published.…
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Month: February 2013
When We Fell in Love – Lane Heymont
Lane Heymont is the author of The Freedman and The Pharaoh’s Staff (Sunbury Press/February 2013). Inspired by Frederick Douglass and the slave narratives passed down by his parents as well as stories of the Holocaust, Heymont explores the damaging effects of racism in past, present and future, but that also addresses the lack of minority and mixed race characters in the fantasy genre by introducing a diverse palette of characters torn between encrusted beliefs and the healing power of unity when we rise beyond prejudice to fight for freedom, equality, and human dignity against all odds.…
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Forget the Classics… Sort of
Recently, I’ve gone through a personal renaissance of sorts. I wouldn’t say I’m a changed man, just that I’m doing certain things that the high school version of me would’ve absolutely hated.…
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Grandmothers on Deck: Safe Passage by Ramona Ausubel
Dozens of grandmothers find themselves sea-stranded on a cargo vessel. They don’t know how they got there. They got there because they are in the “Birth” section of Ramona Ausubel’s story collection A Guide to Being Born, coming from Riverhead in May.…
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"Cartography" and "Paranoia" by Said Sayrafiezadeh
The first two stories from the collection Brief Encounters With the Enemy by Said Sayrafiezadeh Dial Press 08/2013 Said Sayrafiezadeh wrote a great memoir a while back called, When Skateboards Will Be Free.…
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The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud
“Live all you can; it’s a mistake not to. It doesn’t so much matter what you do in particular so long as you have your life.…
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Leaving Maverly by Alice Munro
I like the emotional reticence with which ‘Leaving Maverly’ in Alice’s Munro’s collection, Dear Life begins. I like it because it’s so unpromising.…
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What The Family Needed by Steven Amsterdam
In Steven Amsterdam’s debut collection, Things We Didn’t See Coming, he entertained me with a dystopian reality that wasn’t quite The Road bleak, but had its moments of despair.…
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