Thursday, July 22, 2010

Short Takes

Publishers Weekly reviews THE DANCE BOOTS by Linda LeGarde Grover, noting the story collection's "bright and determined vitality." The book, winner of the Flannery O'Connor Short Fiction Award, is forthcoming in September.

ForeWord Reviews includes BLACK NATURE and the University of Georgia Press in a feature on finding the best new poetry titles: "Dungy’s selection of poems is an invitation to read far beyond these pages... The work of ninety-three poets, from Phillis Wheatley to Patricia Smith, Richard Wright to Tim Seibles, shows a range of concerns that will broaden our understanding of what constitutes nature poetry. This is an important addition to a library or personal collection."

The director David Lynch tweets that Anna Journey's IF BIRDS GATHER YOUR HAIR FOR NESTING is "magical".

Allen Matusow (THE UNRAVELING OF AMERICA) asked to comment by the Houston Chronicle on the year 1964 in anticipation of the new season of Mad Men opening Sunday.

LEGACY: A Journal of American Women Writers included MARGARET FULLER: WANDERING PILGRIM in an essay review of recent biographies of Fuller: "At its finest moments, Murray's biography does an excellent job balancing Fuller's life and writing, illustrating that the personal is the political."

Now available:
WEEDS OF THE MIDWESTERN UNITED STATES AND CENTRAL CANADA
Edited by Charles T. Bryson and Michael S. DeFelice
Principal photography by Arlyn W. Evans and Michael S. DeFelice

Editors Bryson and DeFelice follow up their well-received guide to the weeds of the south with a volume covering potentially problematic plants from northern Kentucy to southern Manitoba and Ontario, and from eastern South Dakota to Ohio. A particularly useful feature of both guides is the use of up to four color photographs to show the plant in seed, seedling, plant and flowering stages.