Clifford Garstang's Blog, page 13

January 30, 2023

I’ve Got Questions for Heather S. Cole

Editor’s Note: This exchange is part of a series of brief interviews with emerging writers of recent or forthcoming books. If you enjoyed it, please visit other interviews in the I’ve Got Questions feature.

Virginia’s Presidents by Heather S. Cole

· What’s the title of your book? Fiction? Nonfiction? Poetry? Who is the publisher and what’s the publication date?

Virginia’s Presidents: A History and Guide. Non-fiction. Published by The History Press and due out on January 30, 2023.

· In a couple of sentences, what’s the book about?

More U.S. presidents were born in Virginia than in any other state in the Union. (Trivia question: Can you name all eight?) This book is a guide to the homes and historic sites that tell their stories. Each chapter begins with a brief bio of one of the Virginia presidents, followed by write-ups on the related museums and sites. Most of the places mentioned are in Virginia, but there are a few in Washington, D.C. and elsewhere. Also included are historical images of the presidents and current photos of the sites.

· What’s the book’s genre (for fiction and nonfiction) or primary style (for poetry)?

History and travel.

· What’s the nicest thing anyone has said about the book so far?

My teenager said he liked the pictures.

· What book or books is yours comparable to or a cross between? [Is your book like Moby Dick or maybe it’s more like Frankenstein meets Peter Pan?]

The book is part of the History & Guide series published by The History Press, so is along the line of other books in that collection. It is intended to be an easy read and hopefully of interest to both the presidential history buff and the armchair traveler. Or perhaps something you can use to plan your next history-related vacation and check the sites off as you visit them. Plus it has pretty pictures.

· Why this book? Why now?

I was working as a very part-time tour guide at the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Museum in Staunton, VA and kept meeting people who had bucket lists to visit all the presidential libraries or all the historical sites relating to Woodrow Wilson or all the presidential homes in Virginia. We’d talk about where they had been and where they might visit next. I did some research and discovered that there was no in-print guide to the historic sites relating to Virginia presidents. It seemed like a need and The History Press agreed!

· Other than writing this book, what’s the best job you’ve ever had?

My day job is as an archivist for small non-profits, organizing and digitizing their records and figuring out ways to tell their histories. One of the places I work for is the National Radio Astronomy Observatory—as seen in the 1997 movie “Contact” with Jodie Foster—and one of the stories I get to tell is about the scientists who have worked to understand the beginnings of the universe while also keeping an eye out for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence. (For the record, there have been no messages from the aliens… at least not yet.)

· What do you want readers to take away from the book?

I’m hoping that now that Covid-19 is on the wane (HOPEFULLY!!) people feel more comfortable getting out and about and traveling. There are some wonderful museums and historic houses that barely made it through the pandemic, and I want readers go visit and show them some love.

· What food and/or music do you associate with the book?

If drink counts, then I suppose George Washington’s rye whiskey, made in a reconstructed distillery at Mount Vernon using Washington’s original recipe and methods would be a good answer. But I’ll confess that I’ve never actually tried it.

· What book(s) are you reading currently?

I’m currently reading all about the Ohio presidents. Candice Millard’s Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President about the assassination of James Garfield has been my favorite so far.

Heather S. Cole

Learn more about Heather on her website.

Buy the book on Amazon or Bookshop.org.

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Published on January 30, 2023 05:00

January 23, 2023

I’ve Got Questions for Lisa Cupolo

Have Mercy On Us by Lisa CupoloWhat’s the title of your book? Fiction? Nonfiction? Poetry? Who is the publisher and what’s the publication date?

Have Mercy On Us

Fiction – A Collection of Stories
Regal House Publishing, January 24, 2023

In a couple of sentences, what’s the book about?

Have Mercy On Us is a collection of 10 stories essentially about love, exploring relationships and all their complications, loss, betrayal, longing, not just romantic love, mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, sibling love, the gamut. The stories take place in wide-ranging locations like Greece, Kenya, Toronto, London, and so often the landscape becomes a character in the stories as well.

What’s the book’s genre (for fiction and nonfiction) or primary style (for poetry)?

Literary fiction or women’s fiction, I would say. Although I have plenty of men in my stories and male readers connect well with my characters.

What’s the nicest thing anyone has said about the book so far?

“I wish I’d written all ten of these brilliant, tender, and beautiful stories. This book deserves prizes.” ~Tim O’Brien, author of The Things They Carried, and literary legend.

Naturally, I was beyond thrilled to receive this and it will keep me going as a writer for a very long time indeed.

What book or books is yours comparable to or a cross between? [Is your book like Moby Dick or maybe it’s more like Frankenstein meets Peter Pan?]

Lily King’s recent story collection, Five Tuesdays In Winter.

Why this book? Why now?

Stories are as timely now as ever, but as far as the question of why now, I’d say the short story is more for this generation of readers who have such crowded lives. Short stories can be read in one sitting and in that way, they are so satisfying.

Other than writing this book, what’s the best job you’ve ever had?

I worked as a paparazzi photographer in London to help pay for my education, it wasn’t the best job but certainly the most fun. It was at the time in the 90s when Hugh Grant famously got caught in LA with a prostitute and so I staked outside of his house for days with a bunch of other hack photographers hoping to catch a snap of Hugh or his equally famous girlfriend Liz Hurley.

What do you want readers to take away from the book?

I want readers to feel less alone after reading Have Mercy On Us, and maybe feel a little more tender toward the people in their lives. For me that’s the greatest reward after reading a book, to have been with a set of characters and held them through the journey of the book, like a parent, and then have that sense of joy setting them free, and hoping they’ll be okay out there in the world. There’s a lot of longing I feel after reading a good book.

What food and/or music do you associate with the book?

Edith Piaf, Chemical Brothers, Mazzie Starr, The Rolling Stones while eating oily fish off an exotic dock and white wine.

What book(s) are you reading currently?

Playhouse by Richard Bausch

You Have Reached Your Destination by Louise Marburg

The Guest List, by Lucy Foley

Lisa Cupolo

Learn more about Lisa on her website.

Follow her on Facebook and Instagram.

Buy the book from the publisher (Regal House Publishing) or Bookshop.org.

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Published on January 23, 2023 05:00

January 18, 2023

I’ve Got Questions for Daniel Simpson

Inside the Invisible by Daniel SimpsonWhat’s the title of your book? Fiction? Nonfiction? Poetry? Who is the publisher and what’s the publication date?

Title: Inside the Invisible (Winner of the 2022 Propel Poetry Prize)

Genre: Poetry

Publisher: Nine Mile Books

Publication Date: November 10, 2022

In a couple of sentences, what’s the book about?

I don’t think I can say what this book is about any better than poet Ellen Bass:

This is a book of faith. Of desire. Of a blind poet asking, “So how shall I live inside the invisible?” Simpson’s poems are threaded with Biblical allusion, philosophical musings, lovers, and guide dogs. With close attention to detail, the use of dialogue, and curiosity about the limits of communication, he interrogates life and chooses to embrace it again and again: “Marry me to the outside; / marry me to the inside. / Place my palms on the handlebars of the sun…”

What is the book’s primary style?

The book consists mostly of free verse with a scattering of formal poems and, while blending elements of the narrative and lyrical, leans toward narrative.

What is the nicest thing anyone has said about the book so far?

I love what poet Molly Peacock said about this book:

Melding a sympathetic listener’s rich warmth with the zesty language of an equally sympathetic responder, Daniel Simpson creates the memorable poems of Inside the Invisible. Reading this beautifully calibrated book of poems as it unfolds from boyhood to maturity feels like sinking into a fresh bed after a long journey. Simpson’s rare talent makes each poem come home to the essential truth that existence is multilayered and contradictory. Candid, sharp, ranging in tone from sexy to spiritual, Simpson’s poems are always tuned to the sensuous pleasures of hearing. The wisdom of this poet gives back again and again in the bounty of the superb Inside the Invisible.

What book or books is yours comparable to or a cross between?

To pick specific books, I think Inside the Invisible is a cross between Geode (Mainstreet Rag) by Ona Gritz and The Way Love Comes to Me (MutualMuse Books) by David Simpson. More generally, I hope and believe it shows its influences from Stephen Dunn, Mary Oliver, and Gregory Djanikian.

Why this book? Why Now?

These days, it seems many poetry publishers prefer project-oriented collections, tightly connected poems around a specific subject or theme. This implies that poets of those books know early on, if not before beginning to write, something about the shape and trajectory of their collections.

Some of the poems in Inside the Invisible got their start two decades ago, well before I had published my first collection, School for the Blind. Back then, I didn’t know what my first book would look like, let alone a second. I just kept writing poems and noticing that they coalesced around certain topics—family, love and longing, loss, blindness, faith and doubt.

My poem “Acts of Faith,” from School for the Blind, may have been the first to overtly connect faith and blindness. It got me thinking about how much we blind people have to take on faith every day. That led to considering how much all of us, sighted and unsighted, have to take on faith, how much we inhabit lives containing, as the Apostle’s Creed puts it, “things seen and unseen.” Maybe because I’ve been blind from birth, I’m comfortable with not seeing. Maybe because I’ve moved toward agnosticism, I’ve become more comfortable with the idea of not knowing. At some point, the thought came to me that we all, in our various ways, live inside the invisible and, from there, I could start to recognize how my older poems related to each other and might make a cohesive collection.

During the height of the COVID pandemic, I, like many others, couldn’t generate much new work. Events of the day sucked out any free attention I needed in order to create. Up until then, I would have told you that I loved the rush of generating new work and found revision something I had to gird my loins for. I don’t know why—call it a mystery, a place where I’m still inside the invisible—but revision suddenly gained great appeal for me. I had been stacking up poems I really liked, really felt invested in, but knew weren’t finished. Returning to them in the hope of making things right with them felt like the perfect project to do while hunkering down. Suddenly, revising became exciting, creative. I actually ended up with more than enough finished poems for one book, so then the exciting process of selecting and arranging poems for the book commenced.

Other than writing this book, what’s the best job you’ve ever had?

I suppose the easy answer is “writing my previous books,” but I don’t seem to be able to do easy answers. It’s difficult to declare a winner when you’re comparing the proverbial apples and oranges. I love my current job providing technical support for the Library of Congress’s digital audio and braille book download service for the blind, a service I love to use myself. Half-time on weekday afternoons, it leaves my best hours, the morning hours, for writing and reading while paying me more than twice per hour what my previous jobs paid, meaning I can support myself on less than half the time it took with other jobs.

But what makes a job “the best ever?” I loved a summer job I had for several years, serving as a mentor/teacher and artist-in-residence for the Pennsylvania Governor’s School for Teaching. Although I came home exhausted each year, I also came home exhilarated by having lived and worked with the most closely-knit communities of my life, communities that spanned a six-decade age range and contained some of the most open-hearted and eager teachers and learners in the world.

Yet, if I had to pick that “best” job, I’d have to say it was teaching English in an all-girls, inner-city school in Philadelphia. Until now, I wouldn’t have guessed I would say that because it was the toughest job I’ve ever taken on. Working in a school where the majority of students live below the poverty level and under the boot of racism and sexism can be quite frustrating. But then you ask your poetry class what they think about one tiny stanza of Wallace Stevens’s “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” and you are blown away by what they know and are grappling to understand. You sit on the floor and hang out with some students while they eat their school-provided breakfast and share personal stories with you and each other. You go an extra mile for someone and see them thrive. You discuss a novel and feel the trust build in your classroom as students begin to show you and their colleagues their most vulnerable places. There are just so many opportunities for large and small meaningful communications. And not just meaningful for them.

At least while I was doing it, this job was the worst for me as a writer. Working 70-plus hours a week left me no time or energy for writing during the school year. And yet, I’ve never had more close connections across race and class than I did then. I’ve never felt I made as much of an immediate difference in so many people’s lives as I did then. I miss the chance to be with lots of teenagers every day. So while it took the greatest toll on my writing, I suppose it was the best job ever.

What do you want readers to take away from the book?

We all need fresh similes and metaphors for thinking about our lives. I hope my writing openly about my disability can serve as a useful prism through which others can see their lives in a new light. I also hope they will come away with the recognition that disability is only part of the story, that on some level, people are just people. If my faith buoys someone else’s, well then, good. If my doubt shakes someone’s faith, that’s not so bad.

What food and/or music do you associate with the book?

Food? Definitely chocolate, and I’m not always that picky. On my “healthy” days, it’s dark chocolate, but M&M’s, both plain and peanut, have been good friends along the way. White chocolate, though, is where I draw the line.

Music? Rock music of the sixties and seventies, plus English cathedral music.

What books are you currently reading?

Poetry Unbound: Fifty Poems to Open Your World by Pádraig Ó Tuama

The Best American Poetry, 2009, edited by David Wagoner and David Lehman

Flash! Writing the Very Short Story by John Dufresne

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

Daniel Simpson

Learn more about Daniel from his website.

Buy the book from the publisher (Nine Mile Books), Amazon, or Bookshop.org.

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Published on January 18, 2023 05:00

January 16, 2023

I’ve Got Questions for David Wesley Williams

Everybody Knows by David Wesley Williams

· What’s the title of your book? Fiction? Nonfiction? Poetry? Who is the publisher and what’s the publication date?

Everybody Knows; Fiction; JackLeg Press (Jan. 16, 2023)

· In a couple of sentences, what’s the book about?

Southern-fried and satirical, Everybody Knows tells the story of an America that’s dying, from fires, dust storms, and hurricanes, to the floods that cover most of Tennessee, where the novel is set. Major characters include an interracial couple who might be humanity’s best hope if they can survive each other, a death-row inmate mysteriously freed, and a governor fleeing Nashville for the bluff city of Memphis on a steamboat of fools, holding cabinet meetings while sitting on his version of a throne—the state’s old electric chair.

· What’s the book’s genre (for fiction and nonfiction) or primary style (for poetry)?

Literary fiction, Southern fiction, speculative fiction.

· What’s the nicest thing anyone has said about the book so far?

Could I declare a tie? Margaret Renkl said: “Come for an unforgettable cast of ne’er-do-wells, hard-luck prophets, and lovelorn writers; stay for what they tell us about who we are in this teetering moment.” And George Singleton said: “Pluck some characters out of Thomas Pynchon, Robert Penn Warren, Sonny Boy Williamson II, the Bible, and Wes Anderson movies. Place them in torrential rains and a flood. Hand them over to a genius storyteller. Mix well.”

· What book or books is yours comparable to or a cross between? [Is your book like Moby Dick or maybe it’s more like Frankenstein meets Peter Pan?]

I opened my query letters to publishers this way: “What would Kurt Vonnegut write about these times and those ahead for America, if he were alive today—and if he were Southern?” As for specific comparisons, well, my whole point is always to write a book that hasn’t already been written. Maybe that’s why I’m so lightly published! But what the heck, here goes: The Wild Palms meets A Confederacy of Dunces on the way to a John Prine concert.

· Why this book? Why now?

While satirical and (I hope) something of a hoot, this is a serious book about a country that has failed to fully reckon with its ills—and there are so many: climate change, race, public health, economic inequality, gun violence, the dark side of technology, and the politics of hate, denial, and division.

· Other than writing this book, what’s the best job you’ve ever had?

I was a newspaper reporter and editor for thirty-five years, covering everything from three Olympic Games to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. It was the only job I ever wanted, and it breaks my heart to see newspaper journalism in such a diminished state in the digital age.

· What do you want readers to take away from the book?

The joys of reading a novel in this short-attention-span age of reels and tweets.

· What food and/or music do you associate with the book?

This novel wouldn’t exist without the music that inspired it. The title is borrowed from a great old soul song by O.V. Wright, and the book is filled with nods and allusions to my musical heroes, from Charley Patton and Muddy Waters to Patsy Cline and Memphis Minnie. I’ve created a “soundtrack” on Spotify.

As for food, do you take your catfish fried or grilled?

· What book(s) are you reading currently?

I just finished The Village Idiot, the latest from that great author from Memphis, Steve Stern. I’ve also been reading lots of short stories, from George Singleton and Tim Gautreaux to a 1977 collection called Paddy No More: Modern Irish Short Stories. I’m looking forward to diving into my Christmas plunder: Cormac McCarthy’s The Passenger and Stella Maris; Bob Dylan’s The Philosophy of Modern Song; and Greil Marcus’s Folk Music: A Bob Dylan Biography in Seven Songs.

David Wesley Williams

Learn more about David on his website.

Follow him on Instagram and Twitter.

Buy the book from Bookshop.org.

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Published on January 16, 2023 05:00

January 9, 2023

I’ve Got Questions for Mimi Herman

The Kudzu Queen by Mimi HermanWhat’s the title of your book? Fiction? Nonfiction? Poetry? Who is the publisher and what’s the publication date?

The Kudzu Queen, Fiction, Regal House Publishing, January 10, 2023

In a couple of sentences, what’s the book about?

In 1941, James T. Cullowee, the Kudzu King, arrives in Cooper County, NC to spread the gospel of kudzu—claiming it will improve the soil, feed cattle, even cure headaches. When Mr. Cullowee organizes a kudzu festival, complete with a beauty pageant, fifteen-year-old Mattie Lee Watson wants to be crowned Kudzu Queen and capture his attention—until she discovers that Mr. Cullowee, like the kudzu he promotes, has a dark and predatory side. Based on historical facts, The Kudzu Queen unravels a tangle of sexuality, power, race, and kudzu through an irresistibly delightful (and mostly honest) narrator.

What’s the book’s genre (for fiction and nonfiction) or primary style (for poetry)?

Historical Fiction, Southern Fiction

What’s the nicest thing anyone has said about the book so far?

Okay, I’m having a hard time choosing among these three, so take your pick!

“Funny, sad, and tender… Mimi Herman has written a novel that possesses a true and hard-won understanding of the South.” —David Sedaris

“A handsome devil pays a call to a community in North Carolina, and in this funny and moving novel by Mimi Herman, we see the result. The Kudzu Queen is about beauty, and familial love, and what we may owe to our friends and neighbors. This novel has both sweetness and suspense, and its cast of characters will stay in your memory long after you have closed this wonderful book.” —Charles Baxter

“What a wonderful novel! Mimi Herman brings us a charming charlatan, a farming community at a major turning point, and the most appealing young heroine since Scout…. This book demands to be a movie!” —Lee Smith

What book or books is yours comparable to or a cross between? [Is your book like Moby Dick or maybe it’s more like Frankenstein meets Peter Pan?]

I’d say The Kudzu Queen’s closest cousin is To Kill a Mockingbird. Mattie is exactly what Scout might have grown into, a few years down the road: sassy and fierce and perhaps too smart for her own good—certainly too smart for the good of anyone who aims to hurt people she cares about. And then there’s Atticus, both Harper Lee’s version and Gregory Peck’s. I think he and Mattie’s dad would have gotten along just fine.

Why this book? Why now?

Because I wanted all the voices in this book to emerge from my head and find homes in the hearts of readers.

Other than writing this book, what’s the best job you’ve ever had?

Co-directing Writeaways writing workshops! My partner, John Yewell and I created Writeaways ten years ago, and we now have workshops in France, Italy, New Mexico, Ireland, and online. It’s amazing to be part of something that helps people become the writers they want to be, whether they’re just starting out or have been writing and publishing for decades.

What do you want readers to take away from the book?

I would love for readers to find in themselves Mattie’s kindness and sense of humor, and the courage to do what they believe is right.

What food and/or music do you associate with the book?

I had no idea I was so foodcentric until I went through this book looking for all the things to eat and drink that I’d included, and came up with 44 different ones—four with kudzu and 40 without. I’d have to say the ones that probably resonate the most are kudzu jelly (available now from Darryl and Tamera Wilson at Carolina Kudzu Crazy!), those elusive gingersnaps with that perfect crunch, and the beets Mattie would like to send on a slow boat to China.

What book(s) are you reading currently?

I’m reading Swamplandia, by Karen Russell, for the first time, and rereading Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees. Both wonderful books!

Mimi Herman

Learn more about Mimi on her website.

Follow her on Facebook and Instagram.

Buy the book from the publisher (Regal House Publishing), Amazon.com, or Bookshop.org.

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Published on January 09, 2023 05:15

December 31, 2022

Looking Back, Looking Forward: Writing Goals

At the end of the year, I like to look back to see how much progress I made toward my writing goals and then set goals for the coming year. I didn’t remember exactly what my goals were for this year, so I laughed when I found last year’s post and discovered there was only one goal: Finish the Damn Book!

Okay, then, I did that, if a book can ever be said to be finished before it’s actually published. But for now, it’s out of my hands and is being considered by a couple of publishers. The only other writing accomplishments of note: writing several book reviews, providing several book blurbs, and updating the annual literary magazine rankings. I really did focus most of my energy on getting that book done.

So, now what? What are my writing goals for 2023? I’m glad you asked, although I’m not entirely certain. Here are some candidates:

A new novel. I’ve started something far less complicated than the last book, and I’d like to finish a rough draft of that this year.I’m toying with another project that would be more experimental, and I’m thinking of the work of Annie Ernaux as I consider it.Every year I say I’m going to try my hand at the personal essay form, and every year I don’t make much progress. Is this the year?And, depending on what happens with the novel I finished in 2022, I may need to return to it or at least continue to look for a publisher.

My goals for the coming year are vaguer than they have been in recent years, probably because finishing the book I was writing has left me a bit at sea, scanning the waters looking for something to cling to. I recommend being more specific if you can be. Here’s an article with tips for setting writing goals that you may find helpful: 5 Tips for Setting a Writing Goal You’ll Stick To.

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Published on December 31, 2022 07:31

December 30, 2022

2022 Reading — My Year in Books

Goodreads tells me I read 74 books this year, totaling 19,000 pages. I try to read about 6 every month, but I see that I read some pretty short ones. I keep a reading journal, so if you’re interested you can check out my reaction to all the books I read, and below I’ve posted a picture of all their covers.

Favorite 2022 Reads, in no particular order:

Fiction

A Most Wanted Man by John Le Carre

Simple Passion by Annie Ernaux

Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout

Milkman by Anna Burns

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

The Circle by Dave Eggers

Nonfiction

Twilight of Democracy by Anne Applebaum

These Precious Days by Ann Patchett

An Immense World by Ed Yong

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Published on December 30, 2022 10:36

2022 Reading — December

Prague by Arthur Phillips

Prague by Arthur Phillips is a novel set in . . . Budapest, not Prague. I was sitting in a coffee shop with a friend who kindly was offering much advice on my upcoming trip to Austria and Hungary, when the fellow sitting at the next table intruded—with apologies—to comment about his own fondness for Budapest and to recommend this novel by Phillips. Intrigued, I looked up the book online and realized the cover looked familiar. Sure enough, checking my basement library—the shelves that house the books I’ve owned the longest—there it was, a hardcover copy that I bought a very long time ago from a used bookstore in Northern Virginia. I started reading and intended to finish it while in Budapest, but that didn’t happen because I was too busy being a tourist. Resuming the read upon my return, I found that I now knew many of the references the author makes to places, things, and historical events that I wouldn’t have understood before. The book is about a bunch of young expats living in Budapest shortly after the fall of Communism there. With my experience from Asia and my experience living in post-Soviet Kazakhstan in 1994-95, I could relate. Eventually the story narrows its focus to one American, John, who works as a columnist for an odd little English-language newspaper in the city, and all of his trials and tribulations navigating his sex/love life and career. A significant sub-plot concerns an investment banker who helps a Hungarian exile regain control of his family’s publishing business, and that aspect of the story was fascinating. The dialogue throughout is witty, but the narrative is a slog in places (despite brilliant sentences). Still, I enjoyed it and I’m now interested in reading other books by this author.

Strangers in Budapest by Jessica Keener

Strangers in Budapest by Jessica Keener is another novel set in Budapest, this one in the mid-1990s, a few years after the fall of Communism in Hungary. A young couple has moved there from Boston with their adopted toddler, hoping to cash in on the need for rapid infrastructure development. I read the book because I of my recent visit to that city and I was curious about depictions of it in fiction, and also I am acquainted with the author. I loved how she shows us the city through the eyes of the protagonist, rather than just delivering a travelogue, and it was fun to see these places in print, although how they existed 30 years before I saw them in person. (The depiction of the country is based on the author’s own experience of living there at that time.) I also find the story of expats to be intriguing; during the time period of this novel, I had been living for several years in Asia. It’s a relatively fast-paced book, including some plot twists that make it quite interesting.

The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson

The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson is a science fiction novel that my book club chose to read for this month. To call it a novel, though, short-changes the work; many reviewers have noted that there is a lot of non-fiction here, or at least highly plausible predictions of the dire effects of climate change on our planet and potential fixes. As a polemic, then, I’d say it’s successful. As a novel, not so much. There are two aspects of the plot. First, the crises facing the world grow increasingly catastrophic, starting with a deadly heat wave that kills millions in India. Will the nations of the world be able to come together to find a solution (or solutions, plural, because the problems arise in so many different forms) or is Earth doomed? This is critical, but mostly it is conveyed through telling the reader what the problems are and how they might be addressed, so it isn’t terribly compelling reading. The second aspect of the plot is the role that an Irish woman named Mary plays as the director of something called the Ministry for the Future, created under the Paris Climate Accords. She’s determined and gritty, but lonely, having lost her husband as a young woman, and so she develops a couple of odd relationships that form a sappy story that is told far more effectively than the climate story because it is done in scene. We are actually shown this woman and her problems instead of just being told about them. Rare for me, I might not have finished this book if it hadn’t been my book club’s selection.

Selected Poems by Gwendolyn Brooks

Selected Poems by Gwendolyn Brooks was first published in 1963 and includes work from several of her earlier books plus some poems that were new at the time. Brooks was enormously influential, especially for African American poets, but for the greater poetry world as well. I confess that I’m not terribly fond of her earlier work, which feels somewhat dated to me, but I love the later poems in this collection, both the ones taken from her book The Bean Trees and the newer poems. One widely anthologized poem from The Bean Eaters, “We Real Cool,” is distinctive and memorable.

A Small Thing to Want by Shuly Xochitl Cawood

A Small Thing to Want by Shuly Xochitl Cawood is a collection of short stories about relationships, mostly between husbands and wives. There’s a certain sameness to the stories—couples experience difficult periods of doubt and, in several cases, split up—but the tales are well told. I especially liked the last five stories in the collection (and of those, especially the last three) because of the linkages and recurring characters. These final stories are about Suzette and Mig and the ups and downs in their marriage, and while this is expected at this point in the book, they both seem like good people and the reader might be rooting for them to fix whatever is going on between them.

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Published on December 30, 2022 06:01

December 22, 2022

Review of HOUSE OF THE ANCIENTS: The Missteps of Contemporary Man

It’s rare when a book that has been out for over two years gets a serious review, but I was pleased to see a piece about House of the Ancients and Other Stories (Press 53, May 2020) in the American Book Review’s latest issue (Vol. 43 No 2, Summer 2022). (You can see the full review if you have access through Project Muse.)

“Tethered to one another via male character iniquities, Clifford Garstang’s collection of short stories in House of the ancients and Other Stories . . . traces the steps and missteps of the contemporary man for better or worse. Whether in a dreary former bloc of the Soviet Union, where murder is nonchalantly dismissed as nothing more than ‘an accident, unavoidable, completely forgivable,’ or charging down the mountainous side of a dormant volcano in Hawaii, where physical pain pales in comparison to psychic pain, the collective voice is constant.”

I’d say that this reviewer gets it mostly right when he goes on to draw attention to the setting for the stories. As one of the early reviewers of the book said, “[N]o matter how far they go—Denmark, Mexico, Vietnam—they can’t escape themselves. It is the collection’s flawed and fascinating characters as much as Garstang’s exquisite evocations of international settings that make House of the Ancients a wonderful reading experience.” Another early reviewer noted that the stories are about a “Crayola box full of modern American males” and that “A variety of different shades await inside—troubled, thoughtful, arrogant, and broken men, each trying to find his place in a changing society.

There are lots of ways to get your own copy of the book:

Directly from the publisher, Press 53 From Amazon (including a Kindle edition)From Barnes & Noble From Bookshop.org (supporting independent bookstores)If you live near Staunton VA you can get a signed copy from the Book Dragon Bookshop or Words Matter (both on Beverley St.)If you aren’t local and want a signed/inscribed copy, I will be happy to send you one. Write to me at info@cliffordgarstang.com for pricing.

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Published on December 22, 2022 10:09

2023 Literary Magazine Ranking — Poetry

Below is the 2023 Literary Magazine Ranking for Poetry. To understand the Rationale, Methodology, and Calculation for the Rankings, please go here.

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2023 Literary Magazine Ranking for Poetry

Note the following:

(H) means that the magazine/press is on hiatus

(?) means that it’s unclear what’s going on with the magazine/press