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In Review: The Week of June 11th
This week Father’s Day was on our brains, debut fiction was in our hands, and rum swizzle punch was the side to our poetry.
On the Blog
~ With Father’s Day coming up, our dads and dad-type figures were top of mind this week. Check out what books we’re choosing as the perfect book gifts.~ The Femme Playlist & I Cannot Lie to the Stars That Made Me (Playwrights Canada Press): “You must eat well. Sleep. Congratulate yourself. You made it through one more day, this act of resistance by simply existing.”~ Welcome the warmer weather with our rum swizzle punch inspired by Kayla Geitzler poetry collection That Light Feeling Under Your Feet (NeWest Press).~ Cue up the dad jokes and peruse our top 10 list of books for all kinds of dads this Father’s Day.~ Small Predators (ARP Books) is part Rachel Kushner’s The Flamethrowers, part Donna Tartt’s The Secret History with a dash of Michael Ondaatje’s The Collected Works of Billy the Kid.Around the Web
~ “E.T. phone home” might not be out-of-this-world impossible. According to some linguists, if extraterrestrials exist “universal grammar” might be the thing we share in common. ~ This author took to Twitter and Choose-Your-Own-Adventured the plot of his new dystopian novel.~ Sometimes short and sweet will win you an International Dublin Literary Award.What Else We’re Reading
Will is “re-re-re-reading Broom Broom by Brecken Hancock (Coach House Books) again again again. I think I’ve read this incredible book four, maybe five times? Seldom has a book of poetry done me in so completely as Broom Broom has; and funny enough at first I was lukewarm on the book. But there was something that compelled me to keep reading—like I knew I wasn’t giving it a proper chance. And I’m so glad I kept reading. Poetry about mental illness is, unfortunately, not an unfamiliar subject, but few plumb the depths like Hancock does. She tackles a complex, fearful, loving relationship with not only the speaker’s mother, but mental illness; and she does it so fearlessly, so honestly, so impeccably. The first time you read it you’re absolutely floored and with each subsequent re-read you gain a further appreciation for Hancock’s incredible craft; how she so effortlessly flows between styles, how each image percolates, how she so expertly plays with cacophonous sound and relates it so well to mental illness. Ugh. It’s so good. IT’S SO GOOD.Also, seldom have I seen a reader so perfectly read their work. Broom Broom be the most heavy, weightful collection of poetry I’ve read in a long, long time, and every time I’ve heard Brecken read from the collection I am just absolutely floored. Man, what a book.
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