Her Circle Ezine seeks TWO interns to coordinate guest bloggers in cities across the U.S. and abroad for “The Writer’s Life” blog series. Working virtually, interns will undertake directed and independent research on established and emerging women authors, correspond with authors, publishers, and publicity teams, and assist with the production of editorial content. Interns must [...]
In Defense of … What?
Guest blogger, Catherine McKenzie When my publicist told me that an ezine was looking for someone to write a defense of chick lit I have to admit my first reaction was to cringe. Why would I want to defend a genre that it irks me to belong to? But then I thought, as I have [...]
Weapons Grade by Terese Svoboda
The University of Arkansas Press, Fayetteville, 2009 Review by Georgia Ann Banks-Martin Weapons! Everywhere! In her latest book of poems Weapons Grade, Terese Svoboda takes on issues of war, politics, and everyday life. These are themes common to poetry, but Svoboda’s work asks the reader to consider events both as wholes and within context, and [...]
Leftovers by Laura Wiess
MTV Books, 2008 Review by Mary Senior Harwood The title sets the tone for this novel. Who really likes the leftovers? Don’t we all want to have first pick, the turkey fresh from the oven? The leftovers in this book are two best friends, Blair and Ardith, two fifteen year old girls from very different [...]
Woman on a Shaky Bridge by Millicent Borges Accardi
Finishing Line Press, 2010 Review by Georgia Ann Banks-Martin The Human Experience Millicent Borges Accardi has been awarded fellowships by the National Endowment for the Arts, the California Arts Council, and the Barbara Deming Foundation, and her poems have been published in many well respected magazines, journals, and anthologies. However, her latest collection of poems, [...]
Lena Vanelslander, co-author of Quills of Fire
by Shana Thornton In the summer of 2009, a poetic correspondence occurred between two women over the course of three weeks. The result of their speedy discourse was the poetry collection, Quills of Fire. A continent separated Marilyn Campiz and Lena Vanelslander. They had never met in person and still have not shared a face-to-face [...]
Half Girl by Stephanie Dickinson
Spuyten Duyvil Press, 2008 Review by Elizabeth J. Colen Characters like Angelique don’t like to settle down. The story moves best when she’s on the move. Trapped inside a cold farmhouse, with an unkind stepfather of questionable morals and by turns a doting and neglectful mother, and the ghosts of fetal pigs dead from hog [...]
Serpents in the Garden of Dreams by Robin Messing
The Permanent Press, 2008 Review by Mayra David Abruptly and without warning the reader finds themselves in the middle of Tildy’s crisis. A fitting start, since Tildy herself is blindsided by the death of her marriage to Ray. In Tildy’s behaviour following this event, Robin Messing expresses a beautiful sentiment: the need to record our [...]
The Seduction of Moxie by Colette Moody
Bold Strokes Books, 2009 Review by Hannah Eason Violet London is a New York stage actress scheduled to leave on the morning train for her role in a Hollywood production; Moxie Vallette is a buxom singer at the speakeasy where Violet and friends celebrate the night. From her exchanges with her friends—who are riotous from [...]
A Parisienne in Chicago: Uncovering Madame Grandin’s Personal Journey
Guest blogger Mary Beth Raycraft My recent translation of Madame Léon Grandin’s A Parisienne in Chicago, Impressions of the World’s Columbian Exposition, turned out to involve much more than simply rendering the author’s conversational tone into English. From the very beginning of the translation process, I was charmed by Madame Grandin’s witty observations and sketches [...]
