Odes and LamentsFiona Tinwei LamCaitlin Press, 2019 Review by Cynthia Sharp Odes and Laments is one of three of Fiona Tinwei Lam’s exquisite poetry collections. The cover of Odes and Laments, designed by Vici Johnstone with photography by Janet...
Postscripts from a City BurningSam CheukPalimpsest Press, 2021 Review by Robert Colman Hong Kong has stood as a kind of anomaly for many years: as a city colony of a nation (UK) well past its years of empire, and...
The Drowning HouseJohn Sibley WilliamsElixir Press, 2021 Review by Erica Goss “I dwell in possibility,” Emily Dickinson wrote—but to survive our daily lives, too often we replace possibility with dullness. Both familiar and comforting, routine implies a necessary amount...
The Curious ThingSandra LimW. W. Norton & Company, 2021 Review by Clara Otto The Curious Thing by Sandra Lim explores dreams, writing, and the banality of life. The poems in this collection feel as though the speaker is trying...
Why I Was LateCharlie PetchBrick Books, 2021 Review by Stella Cali Charlie Petch’s debut collection of poetry, Why I Was Late, opens with a love letter to C-3PO. “I always thought you were gay,” says the speaker. “I imagined...
Norma Jeane Baker of TroyAnne CarsonNew Directions Publishing, 2020 Review by Natalie Podaima Anne Carson’s Norma Jeane Baker of Troy, first staged at the Shed Theatre in New York City, is a poetic performance piece that retells Euripides’ Helen,...
Recovery CommunityConor Mc DonnellMansfield Press, 2020 Review by Robert Colman A lot has been written about life in lockdown over the past year and a half—so much so that even new literary journals, including The Quarantine Review, have been...
Nautilus and Bone Lisa RichterFrontenac House Poetry, 2020 Review by Kim Trainor I don’t remember where I first encountered the poetry of Anna Margolin (born Rosa Leysenboym), only that I was drawn to her cycle of Mary poems, in which...
The Language We Were Never Taught to Speak Grace Lau Guernica, 2021 Review by Kate Gorton If it were possible to titrate Grace Lau’s stunning poetry debut down to one line from one poem, this would come closest: “Where is me?”...