Nonfiction
Anis Shivani. Against the Workshop: Provocations, Polemics, Controversies. Texas Review Press.
Against the Workshop: Provocations, Polemics, Controversies, a book of critical essays by writer Anis Shivani, unabashedly tackles one of the central foundations of contemporary American literature: the creative writing program. Shivani critiques this literary mainstay that has so permeated the life of American writers that at times it seems absolutely unavoidable. Very little criticism exists …
Nick Flynn. The Captain Asks for a Show of Hands. Graywolf Press.
If any thing is sacred, the human body is sacred. —Walt Whitman Configurations and reconfigurations of the body permeate Nick Flynn’s newest collection: from the minute components of the individual to the physical circumstances of bodies in conflict, these lyric poems exalt the physicality of our existence in the tradition of Whitman while blurring it …
Lydia Peelle. Reasons for and Advantages of Breathing. Harper Perennial.
In Reasons for and Advantages of Breathing, her exceptional first collection of short fiction, Lydia Peelle addresses the consequences of humanity divorcing itself from nature, using the context of the American South losing its rural traditions as an accelerant for her characters’ existential pain. Within her stories, Peelle develops the idea that individuals resemble what …
Ladette Randolph. A Sandhills Ballad. University of New Mexico Press.
It might be easy when describing Ladette Randolph’s first novel, A Sandhills Ballad, to slip into a summary that sounds a little melodramatic. There is death, dismemberment, and divorce. There is rage and despair, determination and triumph, and ultimately (thankfully) a measure of contentment. The plot is, to say the very least, full. But because …
Something to Marvel At
As Beverly and I walked down the sodden creekside trail, sounds of traffic from Interstate 84 behind us became the sound of Latourell Falls ahead of us. The transition was complete when the creek bent east, opening to a sudden view of the falls. We stopped to watch its 250-foot plunge down the north side …
Dirt Angels, by Donald Platt
Plato’s late dialogue Parmenides recounts the tale of the elder scholar questioning young Socrates about his early philosophical ideas. Can only the just, beautiful, and good be the stuff of ideas, Parmenides asks, or do abstractions apply also to the vile and paltry such as hair, mud, and dirt? Socrates responded that surely ideas do …
Sardis
Easter Sunday and it’s windy and cold for April in the Deep South. To make matters worse, squall lines have been blowing up from the Gulf all morning, hanging tattered clouds so low and thick they look like the soaked inside of a cotton bale. I’m on a three-day book tour—Memphis, Jackson, and Oxford, Mississippi—for …
From the Interim Senior Editor
This issue marks a moment of transition in the print life of Prairie Schooner. For more than twenty years, Hilda Raz served as Prairie Schooner‘s editor in chief, guiding this journal through times that were sometimes challenging but always exciting and rewarding for all who were associated with it during those years. Hilda’s impact here …
Open Between Us, by George Looney
If you google George Looney, you’ll be asked if you meant to google George Clooney. I would love to hear George the Actor read poems from George the Poet’s latest collection, Open Between Us. Pre Up in the Air, Clooney wouldn’t have possessed the maturity of tone to carry off this duty. Now he’s ready. …