Book Reviews | Tarpaulin Sky Magazine
TELLING YOU WHAT TO THINK SINCE 2003 | IMAGE: NOAH SATERSTROM

Book Reviews | Tarpaulin Sky Magazine
TELLING YOU WHAT TO THINK SINCE 2003 | IMAGE: NOAH SATERSTROM
Janaka Stucky’s “Ascend, Ascend” reviewed by Chris Muravez
"We thrive on the dead – animal and plant carcasses, fossilized energy, microbial environments in our guts – and in this sin, we are allowed to continue breathing, fucking, shitting, living, becoming." Chris Muravez explores "negative ecstasy, incantations, and ritualistic destruction of the ego" in Janaka Stucky's Ascend, Ascend, from Third Man Books.
“I Cannot Resist the Terror”: Essay by Olivia Cronk
"Dizzy time-travel alienation self/ selves sadnessexhilaration. To walk 'the edge of the abyss.'” Olivia Cronk examines multiple selves, Scenes from a Marriage, The Double Life of Véronique, and books by Dionne Brand, Amanda Goldblatt, and Maria Negroni.
Jordan Davis’ “Shell Game” and Drew Gardner’s “Defender” reviewed by Tyrone Williams
Davis's Shell Game and Gardner's Defender "demonstrate the discursive poles of naïveté and cynicism underpinning avant-garde practices." -- Tyrone Williams
Stephanie Strickland’s “The Universe Is Made,” reviewed by Terese Svoboda
Always, a darting sharp intelligence dares the reader to follow, impatient with empathy, refusing prompting, overlaid with a grave concern for women in a catastrophic world." -- Terese Svoboda on Stephanie Strickland's How the Universe is Made: New and Selected Poems
Nicholas Gulig’s “Orient” reviewed by Marlie McGovern
"To listen is to inhabit a liminal space — to vibrate in the synaptic hum between neural firings" -- Marlie McGovern on Nicholas Gulig's Orient.
Kim Hyesoon’s “A Drink of Red Mirror,” reviewed by Ryan Bollenbach
"A Drink of Red Mirror becomes a catalyst that fires every neuron in your brain simultaneously.... It leaves you in this intoxicating condition, somewhere between love and abjection, from which you may never (want) to recover."
Janaka Stucky’s “Ascend, Ascend” reviewed by Chris Muravez
"We thrive on the dead – animal and plant carcasses, fossilized energy, microbial environments in our guts – and in this sin, we are allowed to continue breathing, fucking, shitting, living, becoming." Chris Muravez explores "negative ecstasy, incantations, and ritualistic destruction of the ego" in Janaka Stucky's Ascend, Ascend, from Third Man Books.
“I Cannot Resist the Terror”: Essay by Olivia Cronk
"Dizzy time-travel alienation self/ selves sadnessexhilaration. To walk 'the edge of the abyss.'” Olivia Cronk examines multiple selves, Scenes from a Marriage, The Double Life of Véronique, and books by Dionne Brand, Amanda Goldblatt, and Maria Negroni.
Jordan Davis’ “Shell Game” and Drew Gardner’s “Defender” reviewed by Tyrone Williams
Davis's Shell Game and Gardner's Defender "demonstrate the discursive poles of naïveté and cynicism underpinning avant-garde practices." -- Tyrone Williams
Stephanie Strickland’s “The Universe Is Made,” reviewed by Terese Svoboda
Always, a darting sharp intelligence dares the reader to follow, impatient with empathy, refusing prompting, overlaid with a grave concern for women in a catastrophic world." -- Terese Svoboda on Stephanie Strickland's How the Universe is Made: New and Selected Poems
Nicholas Gulig’s “Orient” reviewed by Marlie McGovern
"To listen is to inhabit a liminal space — to vibrate in the synaptic hum between neural firings" -- Marlie McGovern on Nicholas Gulig's Orient.
Kim Hyesoon’s “A Drink of Red Mirror,” reviewed by Ryan Bollenbach
"A Drink of Red Mirror becomes a catalyst that fires every neuron in your brain simultaneously.... It leaves you in this intoxicating condition, somewhere between love and abjection, from which you may never (want) to recover."