Reveiw of Matthew E. Henry's The Third Renunciation in Pedestal Magazine

 I am once again indebted to editor John Amen and his team for including one of my reviews in Pedestal Magazine. This one was a challenge because the author is outspoken and active on social media, and his work is passionate, personal and informed. I always want to do a writer justice when I share my experience and interpretation of their work, and I felt like the stakes were higher to get it right in this case. Matthew E. Henry is a black man; I am a white woman. I cannot truly understand the racism he has faced, especially in his career as a teacher in a mostly-white school with mostly-white faculty and staff, because I have not lived that experience. But nor would I ever use my gender and whiteness as an excuse for not trying to see what he has seen, hear what he has to say. I can appreciate anyone who looks at the injustices and pain in this world and asks not "why" but "what if?" What if.

Besides, how can I help but admire a book of radical theological sonnets? As usual, there was more I could have said and wanted to say, but the 1000-word limit meant I had to omit exploring how The Third Renunciation contrasts with Mark Jarman's Unholy Sonnets, among other things. 

The Sealey Challenge, Day 30: Best Barbarian by Richard Reeves

I read this one digitally, but requested the physical copy from the library as well, to experience it, and better see and understand the lineation. This title was a finalist for the 2022 National Book Award. As I noted elsewhere, I found myself breathless more than once while reading this collection. Incessant, like waves lapping stone into the earth or fire sweeping the land. And this was not the first book I've read in August that features wasps. Interestingly, a few days after reading this, I had my very first unpleasant encounter with a wasp on our property since we moved here almost two years ago - just a single wasp, very interested in a meal I was eating outside. But still, they seem to be a recurring motif in my life at the moment.

The Sealey Challenge, Day 29: Beasts for the Chase by Monica Farrell

I realized that I misrepresented the title of this book on X when I posted about it. My notes for this book, as well as so many of the others I read in August, are forthcoming.

The Sealey Challenge, Day 28: Sturge Town by Kwame Dawes

When you read a book of poetry in a single day, if not a single sitting, you are more likely to appreciate that poet's particular cadences and diction in your head than if you just read a poem here or there. 

In this case, because Kwame Dawes was my thesis advisor and teacher at Pacific University's MFA program, I have the advantage of already knowing what his actual voice sounds like, the timbre and slight accent. The same man whose praise bolstered me for years and whose, "I don't believe that you believe that," about a particular line here or there still has me questioning anything I write that might be (even if I don't realize it at first) less than sincere. Sturge Town is my favorite Dawes book to date. I love it for that very trait that Kwame encouraged in me: honesty. Honest self-reflection, and a sense of one's place in the world, his or her personal history.

 

My Conversation with Nancy Miller Gomez is live!

It was truly a joy to speak with Nancy about her poetry and her process, about the power of naming a thing, and leaning into writing what most frightens you. I loved learning more about the ways in which Nancy as a child was already a writer, and exploring what I see as the power of sharing with others our own vulnerability.  As Nancy says, "We’re all just human. We’ve all made mistakes. We’ve all said and done things we wish we hadn’t. We all just want to be accepted, and we all just want to be loved."

Much thanks to David Roderick and the editorial staff at The Adroit Journal for publishing our interview.

The Sealey Challenge, Day 27: Information Desk by Robyn Schiff

I've had this book recommended to me more than once, and more than once in response to a draft of one of my own poems. I'm happy to have finally read - or, really, experienced the book. I was able to listen to about half of it, which gave me a great sense of how to hold that voice, and thought, in my head from line to line. So many jumps and shifts. I, too, have worked an information desk of sorts - reference at an downtown public library - and have experienced both startling and repetitive requests, and may have been tempted once or twice to provide wildly inaccurate or ironic answers. I, too, have a bit of a fascination with insects. But what I know about art and history is amounts to a fleck of paint compared to Schiff's knowledge.

Definitely one of the best reads of the Sealey Challenge for me this year.

The Sealey Challenge, Day 26: Train Dance by Jonathan Wells

 

As I noted on social media, this particular title was, admittedly chosen for it's slimness and availability because today was very busy for me. 

I am not suggesting that those two attributes are, generally speaking, ideal reasons to chose anything, however.