Rose Solari Reviews Four Poetry Collections Dealing with Grief
Solari's anticipated monthly poetry column in the Washington Independent Review of Books dropped today. She tackles four new collections by women poets dealing with grief.
This month, Rose Solari's column for the Washington Independent Review of Books looks at three shining new collections from new and established poets, as well as the best of Jane Kenyon. Each collection, in a way, deals with grief (from her review):
"Grief is a perennial subject for poets, and for good reason: In making art out of our losses, we not only memorialize our dead but can, with luck and skill, sing or speak our way into healing. Four new collections by women poets all revolve, in one way or another, around grief and its aftermath. Each offers poetry of exploration, catharsis, and even consolation."
The four collections reviewed this month are:
Allison Benis White's The Wendys (from the fantastic independent press, Four Way Books)
Jil Bialosky's Asylum: A Personal, Historic, Natural Inquiry in 103 Lyric Sections
Lesley Wheeler's The State She's In (from another wonderful small press, Tinderbox Editions)
Poet Jane Kenyon and editor Donald Hall's The Best Poems of Jane Kenyon (from Graywolf)
Check out Rose Solari's live show "Rose Reads" every Wednesday at 4pm EDT on her Facebook Page.
Grace Cavalieri Reviews Navigating the Divide
Maryland Poet Laureate, Grace Cavalieri, reviews the newest book from author Linda Watanabe McFerrin.
Tim Cahill calls ‘Navigating the Divide’ the “Most Rewarding Book I’ve Read This Year”
Learn what famed travel writer, Tim Cahill, has to say about Linda Watanabe McFerrin’s new ASP Legacy Book, “Navigating the Divide.”
Joanna Biggar Reveals the Heart’s Center of her Newest Novel
After 2015’s That Paris Year which followed a group of young women on their year-abroad at the Sorbonne—their youthful flings as well as their many rites of adulthood— Joanna Biggar is bringing its spiritual sequel Melanie’s Song overseas to her own hometown in the United States. Set in Califonia amid the cultural revolution of the late 60s early 70s, Melanie’s Song, while not a direct sequel to That Paris Year shares many of its characters and its familiar, lavish lyrical style. In MS, J.J., the protagonist of That Paris Year, a young reporter, is on a quest to find her missing friend, Melanie (the archetypal shy scholarly type and another character from TPY) who fled her marriage to a straight-laced classical musician in order to hitch-hike to Woodstock and San Francisco.