An Inquiry of Place
Noor Al-Samarrai’s debut poetry collection, “El Cerrito” (Inside the Castle, 2018) documents the wanderings and explorations of its narrator as she travels the suburbs of El Cerrito, California. Formally, the project is split into two major components: the poems themselves and the extensive footnotes which document the historical and personal references made throughout the book.
Mark Leidner’s newest book, “Under The Sea” (Tyrant Books 2018), is a collection of short stories that span across time and space, examining the lives of rural Americans, the heartbreaks of a nun, conversations between radicalized ants and far more. Each of these stories feel like a miniature novel, full of unique and engaging ideas.
What I found most fascinating about this collection was the way these stories were arranged. Although none of them are connected (thematically or narratively), there is an impressive flow that forms between them as you read.
“Coldwater Canyon” (forthcoming from Civil Coping Mechanisms, October 2018) is a novel that follows a Desert Storm veteran as he meanders through life,
Janice Lee’s “The Sky Isn’t Blue” (Civil Coping Mechanism, 2016) is a gorgeous collection of lyric essays exploring the ways that space and poetry coalesce. Each section of the book examines a different location and all of the associations, thoughts and emotions that have manifested within it.