The University of Arizona Press, 2006 Review by Kimberly L. Becker I Write, You Listen Sara Littlecrow-Russell is Anishinaabe (Ojibway) and Han-Naxi Métis, a single mother of two, a lawyer, an anti-racist organizer, and a professional mediator. Her first book, (italics)The Secret Powers of Naming(/italics), won the Independent Publisher Book Award (Bronze in Poetry) and [...]
Small Murders by Carrie McGath
New Issues Press, 2006 Because of DNA DNA everywhere. Hair follicles, eyelashes, hidden hot pink toenails, scraped knees, bruised fingers. Carrie McGath’s debut collection, Small Murders, looks for evidence with a trained, meticulous, inexhaustible eye. From indentations in beds to material inside a glove box, from the bent back of an assiduous artist to the [...]
Rising, Falling, Hovering: A Poetry of Ethics and Responsibility by C.D. Wright
Review by Shannon K. Winston For many reasons, C.D. Wright’s newest collection of poetry, Rising, Falling, Hovering, is breathtaking. Stylistically, Wright’s poems are delicate, deceptively simple, and replete with striking imagery. For example, she opens “Like Having a Light at the Back You Can’t See but You Can Still Feel (1)” with the following lines: [...]
Correction of Drift: A Novel in Stories by Pamela Ryder
Fiction Collective 2, 2008 Nonlinear Flight Review by Elizabeth J. Colen What do you remember of the Lindbergh affair? That lost baby? Perhaps you heard once about how the man who flew the “Spirit of St. Louis” across the ocean lost his baby to thieves through the second-story nursery window. Older generations could never forget [...]
The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Review by Grace Andreacchi It is impossible to take this book seriously. It professes to be a re-telling of the great Indian epic ‘The Mahabharata’, from the point of view of a female protagonist, the Princess Panchaali. But the writing is so awkward and the sentiments so hackneyed and cloying, we know immediately we have [...]
A White Girl Lynching by Elizabeth P. Glixman
Pudding House Publications, 2008 Review by Kimberly L. Becker Color Theory Elizabeth P. Glixman is a poet and writer, as well as interview editor at Eclectica. Her work appears in many journals and anthologies, including Frigg, The Pedestal, Wicked Alice, and Women of the Web: A Poetry Anthology. An animal lover, she also has a [...]
“If they had known about the book, they might have behaved.” – Memoirist Robert Rummel-Hudson
That quote is spot-on the mark for its simple truth. Writers of all stripes are natural spies, unconsciously absorbing their environment, picking up details and dialogue for a story they have yet to write. And quite often, a story is inpsired by a slice of conversation between a couple we overhear in the next restaurant [...]
Which came first – The writer or the mama?
In the south, it’s not uncommon to hear this expression: “Don’t you have people?” This refers to the hired help a woman might have to help keep up with her domestic bliss. Nannies. Lawn Service. Housekeeper. I don’t have people. However, I have kids (ages 3 and 4), a house, a lawn, and dust bunnies [...]
Overheard at a booksigning
Hello, HerCircle friends. As you might recall, my debut novel Janeology launched last month and I have been out and about promoting the book. So today, I’d like to share some of the most memorable exchanges that have taken place at my various book signings. Enjoy! Of my books on the signing table. “Are these [...]
The Best Women’s Travel Writing 2008 edited by Lucy McCauley
Travelers’ Tales, 2008 Review by Suzanne Kamata The traveler’s tale my husband and I tell most often is about the time an arsonist set fire to our Vancouver hotel and I was rescued by hook and ladder. It was a small fire, no one was injured, and we got a story out of it that [...]
