News & Notes - Tarpaulin Sky Magazine

News & Notes | Tarpaulin Sky Magazine

Lissa Wolsak's "Of Beings Alone" Reviewed by Katie Hibner

Katie Hibner reviews Of Beings Alone (Tinfish Press, 2016): "With the ability to technologically manicure and customize every element of our existence, from our profile pictures to our potential lovers, to maybe even our children in the near future, I fear that Wolsak’s dystopia will expand outside of her text and into reality. Of Beings Alone is a jolting reminder to surrender to imperfection: appreciate the bruises on your 'windfall pears.'"

Kim Hyesoon’s “Sorrowtoothpaste Mirrorcream” reviewed by Lisa A. Flowers

Lisa A. Flowers reviews Sorrowtoothpaste Mirrorcream by Kim Hyesoon, translated by Don Mee Choi (Action Books): "A collection that intelligent children and adults alike will trip on and all-up-into. It’s the kind of book that’s as suited for DMT/LSD as it is for a vividly imagination-stimulating preschool storytime; and, of course, it’s a must for any occult-obsessee."

Melissa Buzzeo's "The Devastation" Reviewed by Katie Ebbitt

Katie Ebbitt reviews The Devastation by Melissa Buzzeo (Nightboat Books, 2015). Buzzeo "writes disaster into being, building form and language from memory and absence—pulling concealed, dormant, and suppressed language from her own body, which she seeks to transfer into the body of her book."

Noelle Kocot’s ‘Phantom Pains of Madness’ Reviewed by Erin Lyndal Martin

In his 1917 essay "Art as Device," Viktor Shklovsky wrote: “the purpose of art is to impart the sensation of things as they are perceived, and not as they are known. The technique of art is to make objects ‘unfamiliar,’ to make forms difficult, to increase the difficulty and length of perception because the process of perception is an aesthetic end in itself, and must be prolonged.”

prospicio qui concursus futuri sint: Books Received & Available for Review

Books by 30 authors on over two dozen presses, including Ahsahta Press, Black Radish Books, Burning Deck, Calamari Archive, Commune Editions, Dusie Press, Hummingbird Press, Llewellyn, Milkweed Editions, New Michigan Press, Plays Inverse, Ricochet Editions, Solid Objects, Subito Press, Ugly Duckling Presse, and more.

Monica Ong’s “Silent Anatomies” Reviewed by Miriam Rother

Miriam Rother reviews Silent Anatomies by Monica Ong, selected by Joy Harjo for the 2014 First Book Award from Kore Press: "penetrating my anatomy, going through my skin and muscles down to my bones."

Soma Magica: Claire Donato, The Second Body

Making its debut in Assiah is TS Press novelist Claire Donato's stunning first collection of poems, The Second Body, brought to you by Poor Claudia. Watch this space for a review, and in the meantime, we encourage you to read an essay by Claire at the Poetry Society of America, meditating on the title poem from The Second Body.

Shira Dentz curates: six reviews, an interview, and a tribute

Melanie Jordan’s Hallelujah for the Ghosties reviewed by Barbara Duffey; Ander Monson’s Letter to a Future Lover reviewed by Kelly Lydick; Nicholas Mosley’s Metamorphosis reviewed by Michael Mejia; Wendy S. Walters’ Multiply/Divide reviewed by Aisha Sabatini Sloan; Tom Williams’ Among the Wild Mulattos reviewed by Matthew Kirkpatrick; Marina Zurkow’s The Petroleum Manga reviewed by Michael McLane; Nathan Meltz and Shira Dentz interview Tomm Moore; and the late Stephen Rodefer is paid tribute by Martin Corless-Smith.

Wendy S. Walters’ “Multiply/Divide” Reviewed by Aisha Sabatini Sloan

Some days, it doesn’t feel right to risk, as Rankine describes it, “falling right into some white folk’s notion of black insanity.” What Wendy S. Walters demonstrates in Multiply/Divide is that we need not turn away from that notion, merely. We can plumb down deep beyond insanity by one-upping this kind of white id.