Christopher Kondrich, Tread Upon (Copper Canyon Press) — published in NER 42.3
“The poet’s voice, insistent and unsettled yet eerily subdued, seems to pick up on the anxious soundtrack of the zeitgeist. —Publishers Weekly
Shannon Kuta Kelly, The Tree is Missing (Faber & Faber) — published in NER 45.4
“With remarkable poise and restraint, these itinerant poems experiment with oral history and translation, traversing the borderlines of nation, language and time.” —Faber & Faber
Amin Ahmad, A Killer in the Family (Henry Holt and Co.) — published in NER 31.4
“Full of big ideas and twists and turns, Ahmad’s excellent novel ratchets up the allure—and danger—of power.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Nur Turkmani, October (Hajar Press) — published in NER 46.2
“Through friendship, love, care, and everyday landscapes . . . Turkmani draws a portrait of a city and life within it that is rich and haunted by violences.” —Mizna
Alexander Voloshin translated by Boris Dralyuk, Sidetracked: Exile in Hollywood (Paul Dry Books) — translator published in NER 34.3-4
“Alexander Voloshin’s bright, ballad-like poem—beautifully rendered into English by the excellent Boris Dralyuk—reads like something from a time capsule.” —Henri Cole, author of The Other Love
Amit Majmudar, Things My Grandmother Said (Knopf) — published in NER 27.2
“Formally dazzling . . . Majmudar pay[s] homage to the women he admires, from his grandmother, mother, wife, and daughter, to Wonder Woman, Hindu goddesses, poet friends, and a nurse in a kill zone . . .”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Ina Cariño, Reverse Requiem (Alice James Books) — published in NER 40.3
“Working against silence and power and deeply imbued with liberatory politics, the poems are an ode to self, lineage, and love. This work is a triumph.” —Cathy Linh Che, author of Becoming Ghost
Halldór Laxness translated by Philip Roughton, A Parish Chronicle (Archipelago) — translator published in NER 29.3
“Now, reading and rereading Philip Roughton’s masterful rendering of A Parish Chronicle, I’m spellbound by Laxness’s signature humor, as well-defined by its light-footed quirkiness as by its polar darkness . . .”
—Asymptote