Introducing CCLaP Fridays
I will be writing reviews and themed essays at the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography. Continue reading Introducing CCLaP Fridays
Category: The Internet
The Letter Killers Club, by Sigizmund Krzhizhanovksy
New York Review Books publishes a forgotten classic of genre mashups and social satire. Continue reading The Letter Killers Club, by Sigizmund Krzhizhanovksy
New name, same blog
What’s all this then? As they say in boardrooms across this fair land of ours, it’s “time to take things to the next level.” The Driftless Area Review now has a more memorable web address: https://driftlessareareview.com/ It’s easy to remember, you have less to type, and should help with Google searches. If you’re a publisher or author, my contact information remain the same. Make sure to update your bookmarks. Continue reading New name, same blog
An Interview with David Schmahmann, author of The Double Life of Alfred Buber
Why is Alfred Buber an important character for modern readers? Alfred Buber’s story is a riff off several things: isolation, male loneliness, a feeling some of us may have that for others life is richer, more sensual, more rewarding than it ever will be for us. Buber is frozen by that feeling, by the sense that he is a spectator at his own life, shut out of any chance at love, at being wanted, at feeling full and satisfied. He mistakes these feelings, I think, for desire, and I believe many men do this: conflate loneliness with desire, as if … Continue reading An Interview with David Schmahmann, author of The Double Life of Alfred Buber
Notes from Irrelevance, by Anselm Berrigan
Genealogy Anselm Berrigan comes from an esteemed family. The son of poet Ted Berrigan and poet Alice Notley, his brother is the poet and songwriter Edmund Berrigan. Anselm’s wife Karen Weiser also works as a poet. Notes from Irrelevance shows that Anselm didn’t get his book deal by trading on his father’s name. (America, despite its populist and egalitarian posturing, has a yen for dynasties and nepotism. See: the Presidency, Ford Motor Company, etc.) Content Notes from Irrelevance could easily bear the subtitle, “One man’s search for meaning in the second decade of the 21st century.” Throughout the short … Continue reading Notes from Irrelevance, by Anselm Berrigan
Fasting for Ramadan: Notes from a Spiritual Practice, by Kazim Ali
Food is one of the essential requirements for existence. One cannot go about one’s daily business without caloric intake. However, beyond the needs food fulfils, one takes pleasure in eating. That is why people read restaurant reviews or watch No Reservations. Food also represents a mirror of a specific place, culture, and personality. Why a book entitled Fasting for Ramadan has recipes in the back also requires explanation. Fasting for Ramadan: Notes from a Spiritual Practice by Kazim Ali is a stunning literary jewel. An extended meditation on the Muslim practice of fasting during the month of Ramadan has appeal … Continue reading Fasting for Ramadan: Notes from a Spiritual Practice, by Kazim Ali
Interview with Author Mary Kennedy Eastham
West Coast author Mary Kennedy Eastham has been quite busy lately. Her book of poetry, the Shadow of a Dog I Can’t Forget, was one of my first review copies I received. I talked with her via an email interview. Here is what she had to say about her recent projects, the art of writing, her love of dogs, and her favorite writers. WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR CREATIVE PROJECTS? I am trying so hard to finish my novel NIGHT SURFING. Writing a novel is very different from writing a short story or writing a poem. There are so many more … Continue reading Interview with Author Mary Kennedy Eastham
Play Fair! The Art of Friendship and Relationship by Kimberly A. Taylor
One doesn’t have to walk far into a bookstore to get assaulted with self-help books and memoirs. Much like people with blogs, everyone thinks they have something valuable to say. In addition to memoirs by randomly generated Kardashians the upcoming election season brings with it the fatuous “campaign biography” ghostwritten by the candidate’s staffers not currently concocting an attack ad or planting a piece of journalism with a compliant member of the Fourth Estate. It is with relief that Kimberly A. Taylor’s hybrid memoir/self-help book is available. Play Fair! The Art of Relationship and Friendship presents the reader with … Continue reading Play Fair! The Art of Friendship and Relationship by Kimberly A. Taylor
An Interview with Lisa Flowers, Founder of Vulgar Marsala Press
Can you explain why you named your press Vulgar Marsala? We’re named for an image in DH Lawrence’s “Medlars and Sorb Apples”, from his seminal/groundbreaking collection “Birds, Beasts, and Flowers”. I toyed with an assortment of names that encompassed a lot of literary and mythological and film references, etc, but ultimately this one stuck…more intuitively/impulsively than intellectually. It’s an eye-catching name…maybe an amusingly misleading one, until you know what its axe is (some have even assumed it’s some kind of sex publication /site, what with the word “vulgar”). What attracted you to the work of Chad Faries? I’ve described his … Continue reading An Interview with Lisa Flowers, Founder of Vulgar Marsala Press
Self-Referential 100th Post
Nothing like an arbitrary milestone for the blogosphere. This is the 100th post of the Driftless Area Review. It’s been a fun experience thus far. I’ve met new people and started receiving free review copies. I have enjoyed the works of the Permanent Press and enjoy the publishing philosophy of co-founder Martin Shepard. For those interested, I will continue my two long term essay series: The Art of Reviewing and Essays on Capital. I am currently half-way through Capital, Volume 2. The work presents more of a challenge, since the text is more technical, dry, and math-intensive than the first … Continue reading Self-Referential 100th Post
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