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mspearlman's review
challenging
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.0
capittella's review
5.0
This is my favorite issue of Poetry in years! Not a coincidence that 19/24 poets are appearing in the magazine for the first time: I love seeing new avenues for poetry & new voices inviting us into possibility. I was moved by at least 10 pieces here, with 3 hitting me with goosebumps even before I saw them coming:
—Rebecca Foust's incredible "ALZ Ghazal" perfectly marrying content & form in a spiral narrative that approaches mental illness with a mix of tenderness, compassion & wildness I've never seen before... I felt my preconceived meanings about ALZ utterly unmeaned at the end.
—Rosemary Catacalos's "Sight Unseen," an homage to the well-loved and almost anagram-named Rosario Castellanos (go read Balún-Canán, y'all!), digging through the layers of immigration/displacement & the borders we carry inside ourselves... gave me a new appreciation of my own accents, the "precious language of mistranslations" (to borrow some words from the poem).
—Cynthia Dewi Oka's deceptively simple "Manifest" stunned me suddenly studying "other people's histories of themselves," & illuminating the "ghosts [that] light up her [our] lives"—our immigrant lives.
Congratulations to the amazing work by guest-editor Ashley M. Jones (only the 2nd non-whitemale editor in the history of the Mag, right?!), & the team of readers & interim editors, for such a superb job! Can't wait to read the next guest-edited issues <3
—Rebecca Foust's incredible "ALZ Ghazal" perfectly marrying content & form in a spiral narrative that approaches mental illness with a mix of tenderness, compassion & wildness I've never seen before... I felt my preconceived meanings about ALZ utterly unmeaned at the end.
—Rosemary Catacalos's "Sight Unseen," an homage to the well-loved and almost anagram-named Rosario Castellanos (go read Balún-Canán, y'all!), digging through the layers of immigration/displacement & the borders we carry inside ourselves... gave me a new appreciation of my own accents, the "precious language of mistranslations" (to borrow some words from the poem).
—Cynthia Dewi Oka's deceptively simple "Manifest" stunned me suddenly studying "other people's histories of themselves," & illuminating the "ghosts [that] light up her [our] lives"—our immigrant lives.
Congratulations to the amazing work by guest-editor Ashley M. Jones (only the 2nd non-whitemale editor in the history of the Mag, right?!), & the team of readers & interim editors, for such a superb job! Can't wait to read the next guest-edited issues <3
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