News & Notes - Tarpaulin Sky Magazine

News & Notes | Tarpaulin Sky Magazine

Seth Landman’s Sign You Were Mistaken reviewed by Connor Fisher

[D]istinct sentences are placed into arbitrary relation by the poem; this forces the reader to identify (or create) points where meaning adheres in the text and where it slips away or fails to accrete. Landman’s frequently abrupt style also operates as a formal extension of the book’s thematic concerns; it mirrors the nervous energy displayed throughout Sign You Were Mistaken.

Marthe Reed’s Gaze reviewed by Chantel Langlinais

"From political misgivings to redefining the traditional definitions of the gaze to exotic posing in art, the poems call upon us as readers to open a 'pentimenti of carved doors,' to see what lies behind them. To question. To pay attention to the world around us. To travel beyond the Western world."

Denver Quarterly’s fiction, V47 n3&4, reviewed by Maria Anderson

Volume 47 marks a turning point for the Denver Quarterly and represents new editor Laird Hunt's first hand at curating the content rather than overseeing work chosen by his predecessor, the poet Bin Ramke. When asked about his goals for the Denver Quarterly, Hunt says he aims to increase the drive for excellent fiction. "I am a novelist, and while the Quarterly has long been friendly to fiction writers, I think it is fair to say that it is better known as a venue for the best of contemporary poetry. I would love to see if we can make people rip open issues to get at the fiction in the way I know many do to get at the poetry."

Vanessa Place’s The Guilt Project: A Conceptual Review

"I am a criminal defense appellate attorney. I represent indigent sex offenders and sexually violent predators, all on appeal from felony convictions in the State of California. I have also supervised or otherwise assisted a number of other attorneys representing indigent appellate defendants. All told, I've been involved in about a thousand felony cases.... It’s a cliché that that a society is judged by how it treats its most despicable members, a cliché that mindful people accept in the abstract and reject in practice. But freedom of speech is relevant only when the opinions are vile, and due process meaningful only when applied to the daddy who rapes his son."

Elizabeth Robinson’s Counterpart reviewed by Holly Simonsen

"Robinson gives us a hell as reflective as the sea, and a golem as innocent as the night we surrender to. Such that her question might be framed, how does one carve a shapeless mass into the creature behind the mirror? Rather than reduce this mystery to a simple binary, Robinson deconstructs the notion of otherness and highlights the nagging presence of that which we label other. Neither side is exalted nor debased for its mystery or morality. As ambitious and slippery as the questions that guide the book, Robinson’s language follows suit. Words become shadows of themselves; white space heeds to the meditative echo of her lines...."

Lara Glenum’s Pop Corpse reviewed by David B. Applegate

"Teenagers are the ideal audience for this book. Muddled sexuality, self-harm, becoming an individual and artist; the themes and confusions present throughout speak to forming consciousness and would undoubtedly resonate with young readers. Send a copy to your local high school's library."

Shira Dentz’s door of thin skins reviewed by Brenda Sieczkowski

"One of the most striking and compelling features in door of thin skins is Dentz’s ingenious re-patterning of language into “jumbles” that are anything but random, anything but involuntary. One interpretation: symptom. A truer interpretation: poetry. In the fracture of language, Dentz opens the door to brilliant possibility, activating recombinatory arrangements of striking power and beauty."

Michael Begnal’s Future Blues reviewed by Billy Mills

"A fascinating book that foregrounds one of the main questions to confront younger Irish poets; what does it mean to self-identify as Irish in an increasingly globalised world and in a time when many of those poets will not live, or will only partly live, in Ireland itself?"

Vanessa Place interviewed by Eireene Nealand

After talking with former prisoners about how beside-the-point their presence in court felt; after being called up and not selected for jury duty; after wondering about the metaphysics of court trials Eireene Nealand wrote to Vanessa Place, a poet and defense appellate attorney, who specializes in sexual offense cases.

What I’m Reading Now… by Erica Baum

Erica Baum on The Genius of Birds by Jennifer Ackerman (Penguin Press 2016); Margaret the First by Danielle Dutton (Catapult Press 2016); Spontaneous Particulars: The Telepathy of Archives by Susan Howe (Christine Burgin / New Directions 2014); Three Strong Women by Marie Ndiaye (Alfred A. Knopf 2012); and Ways to Disappear by Idra Novey (Little Brown and Company 2016)

Post Tenebris Aurora: Books Received & Available for Review

Books by 32 authors and translators on 27 presses, including Ahsahta, Black Radish, Brooklyn Arts Press, Burning Deck, Civil Coping Mechanisms, Dancing Girl, Denver Quarterly, Dusie, Kore Press, Letter Machine Editions, Little Paper Press, Plays Inverse, Ricochet Editions, Tarcher Perigee, and more.

What I'm Reading Now… by Joseph Massey

"I'm currently reading at least twenty books at the moment (I'm just eyeballing the stacks on my nightstand), from Wake Up and Roar by Papaji to The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy — but there are books that have lingered on the nightstand for a few months because I continue to return to them."

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."