January 24, 2020
The Cosmopolitan Magic of Christine Wunnicke’s The Fox and Dr. Shimamura
Translated by Philip Boehm. New York, NY: New Directions, 2019. 160 pages. $15.95. Christine Wunnicke’s The Fox and Dr. Shimamura, translated from the German by Philip Boehm, is a cornucopia […]
January 17, 2020
The Color of Injustice: Richard Rothstein’s The Color of Law
New York, NY: Liveright Publishing, 2017. 345 pages. $17.95. When Frank Stevenson, the son of a black Baptist minister, left Lake Providence, Louisiana, to move to the city of Richmond […]
January 10, 2020
Some Trees: On Casting Deep Shade by C. D. Wright
Port Townsend, WA: Copper Canyon Press, 2019. 160 pages. $32.00. In her book The Hour of Land, Terry Tempest Williams writes, “If we can learn to listen to the land, […]
January 10, 2020
On Sustainability: A Love Story by Nicole Walker
Columbus, OH: The Ohio State University Press/Mad Creek Books, 2018. 288 pages. $23.95. “How do you stop inertia?” This seemingly straightforward question surfaces or lurks in the most surprising of […]
December 20, 2019
Rummaging for Gold: The Gospel According to Wild Indigo by Cyrus Cassells
Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 2018. 103 pages. $15.95. The word “couplet” comes from the French word meaning “two pieces of iron riveted or hinged together.” The term was […]
December 13, 2019
On A Falling Knife Has No Handle by Emily O’Neill
Portland, OR: YesYes Books, 2018. 88 pages. $18.00. I read A Falling Knife Has No Handle at the tail end of winter in Boston. Winters in Boston are relentless. The […]
December 13, 2019
On Star by Yukio Mishima
Translated by Sam Bett. New York, NY: New Directions, 2019. 94 Pages. $11.95. Rare is the writer who knows what it’s like to be a star first-hand. Yukio Mishima, a […]
December 6, 2019
On Mostly Dead Things by Kristen Arnett
Portland, OR: Tin House Books, 2019. 366 pages. $24.95. If there were ever a question of what a novel decked with pieces from Walter Potter’s Victorian taxidermy collection but set […]
December 6, 2019
“Demand to Survive”: Review of Indecency by Justin Phillip Reed
Minneapolis, MN: Coffee House Press, 2018. 70 pages. $16.95. “[I] thought the self was a long hand / angling into difficult minutes,” writes Justin Phillip Reed in the opening poem […]
November 29, 2019
On Don’t Read Poetry: A Book About How to Read Poems by Stephanie Burt
New York, NY: Basic Books, 2019. 320 pages. $28.00. “I started to write this book,” Stephanie Burt writes in the introduction to her new book of prose, Don’t Read Poetry, […]
November 29, 2019
On A Stranger’s Journey: Race, Identity and Narrative Craft in Writing by David Mura
Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2018. 272 pages. $29.95. In an age of ascendant white supremacy and racism, backlash against the demographic changes of a country becoming majority minority, […]
November 22, 2019
OK Boomer1
Kenyon Review takes seriously the art and ethics of reviewing, and our editors attempt to minimize conflicts of interest that may distort a review. The following review is situated in […]