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As we might expect, a wistful, retrospective tone runs through many of these pieces, sometimes subtly and under the surface, and sometimes quite explicitly. In one 1952 essay, “ ‘You Have the Floor, Young Seer of Things…’”, Breton laments his inability to appreciate the new trends in postwar painting and contrasts that with the enthusiasm he felt in his youth for new art.
Each of the texts also explores the interrogation and violence of language. In Daphne, language is presented as violent, erotic, and philosophical. The text plays with and warps definitions (this is especially evident in the analysis of the words “ravish” and “tonic”) to reveal embedded power structures within the way we use language. Blood Feather uses phonetic play such as Adam/atom, multilingual references, and fluidity to add depth, emotional resonance, and irony to the poems. Phantom Number explores how language is commodified under capitalism.
Inga Simpson writes books for all ages, and I’ve loved many of her books for adults, but her new book, The Peach Tree, is one of those picture books will become a classic and be read and re-read, kept and handed down.
For me, the book resonates on a deeply personal level. Having studied Austen in graduate school, I’ve long been fascinated by the quiet radicalism beneath her polished surface. While she never staged open rebellion against Regency norms, her fiction hums with a subtle critique of its social constraints—expressed through irony, narrative silence, and the moral gravity of her heroines’ choices. Mullan illuminates this with expert precision, showing how Austen’s critical eye is woven into every level of her storytelling.
In all, Daniel Meltz accomplished what he set out to do with his collection of poems: to love, be kind, forgive, keep growing, even as an adult, and to have a dry sense of humor no matter how many times life knocks you down. I applaud him on his sincere frankness, and his book is a testament to his life.
The influence of Dracula on both popular and literary culture goes on and on. That there are tons of awful movies out there, and many novels not worth mentioning, goes without saying. Yet every so often, a book comes along that is a true wonder. It glimmers with a unique identity while leaving little doubt as to its thematic pedigree. One such work is the Austrian poet Alexander Lernet-Holenia’s 1955 short novel Count Luna, which New Directions has released in a fine translation by Jane B. Greene.
Through the Trapdoor is full of such vivid characterisation, engaging dialogue and enjoyable plotlines around overbearing ambitions, competitive siblings, domineering parents, and the difficulty of intermarriage, that its easy to miss how powerful the statements these pieces make, but there is a strong political current that runs through the work, engaging, subtly of course as is Nandan’s way, with misogyny, binary thinking, colonialism and racism.
Comin’ ‘Round captures Sherry’s expansiveness, reflecting an artist’s breadth of vision, while dedicating himself to fostering literary community both in his ethos of connection through his own writing and in his support of fellow writers through his Segue reading series and publishing work. Sherry’s circularity invites, questions and encourages.
Jones’s poems are all told from the perspective of either Cain, Abel, or Eve. Bloodmercy is made up of six parts, including Cain’s opening prelude. Part two is mainly in the voice of Cain, except for one poem in Eve’s voice, “Contempt Towards Eden,” which begins, “Milton gets the tale about me wrong. Paradise is boring.” Part three contains ten poems, all in Abel’s voice. Part four switches between Cain and Abel, and Eve has one poem, “First Drought.”
I love how “lacrimae rerum” opens with a visual image and immediately blends observation with emotional resonance. Like all of Altman poems the imagery is very rich and with meditative and elegiac tones. This poem creates a sense of memory beyond words.