Crown Publishing Group, February 2006 Review by Vanessa Dora Murray It Ain’t Over Till It’s Over! Cupcake Brown, an attorney who worked at one of the 25th largest law firms in the nation, has traveled all over the country to deliver a motivational speech. “My goal is to hopefully inspire as many people as I [...]
Finishing Line Press, 2007 Review by Rachel Dacus Can memories be passed down through generations? This is the question at the heart of Lesley Wheeler’s fascinating new chapbook of linked poems on the theme of her mother’s World War II era Liverpool. The book begins with a poem whose title challenges ideas of thought and [...]
Les Figues Press, 2007 Review by GA. A. Banks-Martin True Birth Voice of Ice, a collection of prose poems, by Alta Ifland, an ambitious group of poems in which the speaker seeks to discover her true self. The poems are highly descriptive and many times highly surrealistic often leaving us with the sense that we [...]
by Shannon K. Winston I write To shout To live You write To shout To live But who will silence The shouting between us? -Habiba Muhammadi, trans. Ibrahim Muhawi Habiba Muhammadi was born in Algeria and attended the University of Algiers where she studied philosophy. She then moved to Egypt where she earned a degree [...]
The Arizona University Press, 2007 Review by Kimberly L. Becker The Greening If, as Diane Glancy observes, “Writing is a conversation,” then we are fortunate to listen in on her latest collection of poems, Asylum in the Grasslands. Author of more than thirty books, Glancy is also novelist, essayist, and playwright. Her many literary prizes [...]
2006, 34 minutes Review by Nicolette Westfall Lori Benson potently documents her abrupt transition from new mother to a patient with breast cancer. Although the work is only 34 minutes long, it is an emotionally charged film that reveals great insight into her struggle with a mastectomy and life afterwards. Footage of peaceful time with [...]
Ballantine Books, 2000 Review by Mary Senior Harwood Hidden Truths The brutal murder of a white woman whose body washes up on the beach in the small village of Otahiti in Trinidad – the result of “man-woman business” say the men — sets this book in motion. Zuela, the Venzuelan wife of a Chinese grocer, [...]
Athena Press, 2007 For lovers of Russian Literature. – By Cheryl A Townsend Natalie Muller’s story of Demetrius Ulyanov is a heart wrenching saga of most unfortunate events, beginning in youth and continuing to his painful death. After his mother dies giving birth to his sister, who also dies, Demetrius’ grief-stricken father commits suicide. Demetrius, [...]
ANNA FELICIA SANCHEZ ISHIKAWA or Anna Ishikawa, as she is known professionally, was born in August 1981 and graduated from St. Scholastica’s Academy High School in 1998. She gained admittance to the top University of the nation – the University of the Philippines, Diliman – where she majored in Creative Writing, eventually earning her BA [...]
David Robert Books, 2005 Review by LouAnn Muhm If I were to define an overarching theme of Rachel Dacus’ 2005 poetry collection, Femme au Chapeau, (David Robert Books), I would use the title of a poem describing her reaction to seeing an x-ray of her broken fibula , Elegance of the Hidden. So many of [...]
Lauren Sardi interviews Patricia Leavy, feminist sociology professor and author. Leavy has become known for advocating innovative and artful approaches to conducting social research as a means of getting at the complexity of lived experience and linking the “inner worlds” of women to the social contexts in which they live.
Heidi W. Durrow discusses her novel, The Girl Who Fell From the Sky—winner of the 2008 Bellwether Prize for Fiction.
It is hard not to believe we’re in a time of empowerment of those less powerful, and to be swept up in the fervor escalating the world over. In 2011, we witnessed the Arab Spring, the Occupy Wall Street protests and most recently, one of the largest protests of women in Egypt’s long history against the [...]
Caroline Palmer looks at the motivations of Minneapolis-based choreographer Ananya Chatterjea and the work of Ananya Dance Theatre (ADT).
Natsuo Kirino’s novels are not for the faint-hearted, nor are they for westerners loath to abandon the cultural stereotype of the Japanese woman as a delicate and beautiful “oriental flower”. Wendy Nakanishi explores the role of women in Japanese culture and society through Kirino’s popular works of crime and suspense.
