Category - Reviews

Malaika Aleba Reviews

Review: The Things I Heard about You

Reviewed by Malaika Alex Leslie’s The Things I Heard about You is an experiment in language, editing, and meaning. The book of poems is divided into thirteen sections. Each section begins with a prose piece that Leslie edits down into a single phrase and in one case, just one word: “Thumbprint.”...

Reviews Vivek Shraya

Snapshots of a Girl Coming Into Herself

Reviewed by Vivek Shraya   Beldan Sezen’s new graphic novel, Snapshots of a Girl, opens with this definition of coming out: “The decision to step out of the unseen, the unspoken, the unnamed. Telling others, loved ones, dear ones, about one’s so-called ‘sexual preferences’ … something you know...

Adèle Barclay Articles Reviews

The Argonauts a Powerful, Exploratory Vessel

by Adèle Barclay   In The Argonauts, Maggie Nelson crafts a new kind of text, an exploratory vessel, out of philosophy, theory, art criticism, and memoir to house discussions of motherhood, transitioning, queer family, romance. An innovative work that is exacting and enthralling, The Argonauts...

Articles Reviews Trevor Corkum

Michael V. Smith’s Body is Yours to Read

by Trevor Corkum   There are books that come along once in a blue moon that split you open. Not simply because of the subject matter, although Michael V. Smith’s My Body Is Yours covers ground I am familiar with—struggles with masculinity; growing up queer in a small, secretive town; feeling...

Articles Lisa Timpf Reviews

Rita Mae Brown Following a Different Trail

BY LISA TIMPF Since I enjoyed many of Brown’s earlier works, including Sudden Death, I decided to check out one of her more recent offerings, a mystery entitled Let Sleeping Dogs Lie. Released in November 2014, this book is the ninth in a series that revolves around silver-haired...

Articles Rachna Contractor Reviews

Rae Spoon and Ivan Coyote fail beautifully

Ivan E. Coyote and Rae Spoon, Gender Failure (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2014.) Paperback, 256 pp., $17.95 Reviewed by Rachna Contractor Based on their live multimedia show which toured across Canada, the US and UK, Gender Failure is a collection of work about rejecting the gender binary and retiring...

Amber Dawn Articles Reviews

Brave the weather for Casey Plett’s debut collection

Casey Plett, A Safe Girl to Love (Topside Press, 2014.) Paperback, 216 pp., $16.95. Reviewed by Amber Dawn Let’s hear it for being at the right place at the right time. In early June, I found myself at the right place, which was Blue Stockings Books—Manhattan’s Lower Eastside stronghold indie...

Andrea Routley Articles Reviews

Friend. Follow. Text.: Read. Reflect. Review

Shawn Syms, Editor, Friend. Follow. Text. (Enfield & Wizenty, 2013). Paperback, 296 pp., $19.95 Reviewed by Andrea Routley In Friend. Follow. Text., editor Shawn Syms offers a comprehensive exploration of all things online. Through 27 short stories, ranging from new writers to award winners...

Articles DJ Fraser Reviews

Vancouver’s Litany reading thrills audience

This review posted with permission from Coastal Spectator. Litany Reading Series Gallery Gachet,  Vancouver Sunday, April 7 Reviewed by Dorothy June Fraser The first Litany Reading of the year (back in January) was so well-attended it almost burst the small comfy surroundings of the Rhizome Cafe on...