“If I’m going to tell you the story of how I lost two people who were closer than blood to me, I have to begin here in Dennett, Texas, during the summer between the sophomore and junior years of my life. This story begins as it ends, with me, Cirilo Izquierdo, waiting for what all …
Excerpts from my review of Alice Mattison’s new novel Conscience, just published in Consequence Magazine. Consider: A man sets his baby on the sidewalk, walks a short distance away, and sets himself on fire. Does the fact that he’s brought his child to his self-immolation prove he is out of his mind? Or is he …
Poetry for the End of Seasons Hunger for Salt, Elaine Fletcher Chapman Autumn-summer cusp—a breath—a good moment to read “September Begins,” from Elaine Fletcher Chapman’s debut collection, Hunger for Salt. “[O]ne psalm, picked randomly / this morning, one hundred and thirty one: / O, lord, my heart is not lifted up… / I have calmed and quieted my …
Opening up my mailbox to find indie (literary) books I might never otherwise discover is one of the pleasures of reviewing for IMAGE Journal. Each month I get to read and ponder a new one for their digest of delights, ImageUpdate, and recently it was Animal Heart, a collection of short stories by Paul Luikart. Luikart has worked …
Originally appeared in ImageUpdate, a publication of IMAGE Journal. Poems as Temples Orexia by Lisa Russ Spaar Temples exist, possibly, not because the Holy is holier there, but to make us awake to it. A singular hour—one with a lover who is going on a journey, for example—draws up all our attention. Maybe this is why “Temple” and …
Originally appeared in ImageUpdate, a publication of IMAGE Journal. Poems of Violence and Mercy Said Not Said: Poems by Fred Marchant “Imagine a fishbone lodged in your throat. / Imagine it kicks and squirms. / You cough, you hack, you try to heave it out…” writes poet Fred Marchant in his new collection Said Not Said. “[Y]ou try as …
Originally appeared in ImageUpdate, a publication of IMAGE Journal. Making Meaning from the Past Social History: Poems by Bobby C. Rogers “We were there to visit the ruins, the shabby places my father had lived during the Depression,” writes Bobby C. Rogers in the title poem of his collection, Social History. The speaker is six at the time of the …
Originally appeared in ImageUpdate, a publication of Image Journal. Poetry of Visions A Horse with Holes in It by Greg Alan Brownderville Biblical visions, for all their bewildering oddity—Ezekiel’s wheels, Isaiah’s live coal to the lips—can carry a realer-than-real-life quality. A cover tears away; everything sharpens. If you’re drawn to that cocktail of wonder and fear, …
Originally appeared in ImageUpdate, a publication of IMAGE Journal. Living in the Aftermath Among the Living by Jonathan Rabb Before the concentration camps, Yitzhak Goldah was an accomplished young journalist in Prague. Inside the camps, he nearly died at the hands of Nazi scientists. But after the camps, Yitzhak Goldah is still alive, and this is where Jonathan Rabb’s …
Originally appeared in ImageUpdate, a publication of IMAGE Journal. Essays of Rest and Restlessness First Church of the Higher Elevations: Mountains, Prayer and Presence by Peter Anderson Things that many of us hope for in prayer and pilgrimage, even if we don’t admit it: “quiet peaceful serenity,” “out-of-the-ordinary contemplative skill,” “great mystical insight.” What we often get, …