Apocryphal by Lisa Marie Basile @ thethepoetryblog

Lisa Marie Basile’s “Apocryphal” exists in that Nabokovian twilight between childhood and adulthood. Between these realms one confronts monsters and the monolithic oppression of tradition. This is “Alice in Wonderland” re-imagined as a harrowing nightmare journey, a poodle-skirted damsel thrown into the jaws of a slavering beast, who may be the speaker’s father. What remains are fragments, memories, and fantasies strewn about or reconfigured. Continue reading Apocryphal by Lisa Marie Basile @ thethepoetryblog

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Harold and Jack: The Remarkable Friendship of Prime Minister Macmillan and President Kennedy, by Christopher Sandford @ NYJB

In Harold and Jack: the Remarkable Friendship of Prime Minister MacMillan and President Kennedy, “Mr. Sandford expertly uses historical and archival material to make Kennedy’s and Macmillan’s Special Relationship come to life.” Continue reading Harold and Jack: The Remarkable Friendship of Prime Minister Macmillan and President Kennedy, by Christopher Sandford @ NYJB

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Commonplace Book: Belize describes Heaven to Roy Cohn

A final hurray to MP Johnson Week with an excerpt from Angels in America, by Tony Kushner. The Characters BELIZE, a former drag queen and former lover of Prior’s. A registered nurse. Belize’s name was originally Norman Arriaga; Belize is a drag name that stuck. ROY M. COHN, a successful New York lawyer and unofficial power broker, now facing disbarment and dying of AIDS. ROY: Let me ask you something, sir. BELIZE: Sir? ROY: What’s it like? After? BELIZE: After …? ROY: The misery ends. BELIZE: Hell or Heaven? (Roy stares at Belize.) BELIZE: Like San Francisco. ROY: A city. … Continue reading Commonplace Book: Belize describes Heaven to Roy Cohn

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Down in the Chapel: Religious Life in an American Prison, by Joshua Dubler @ NYJB

In Down in the Chapel: Religious Life in an American Prison, “what Dubler has produced in his weeklong observance of activities is a rare combination of prison anthropology, deep journalism, history of religiosity in the United States, and a personal self-critique of his own upbringing.” Continue reading Down in the Chapel: Religious Life in an American Prison, by Joshua Dubler @ NYJB

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