Kazim Ali, The Man in 119 (Copper Canyon) — published most recently in NER 47.3
“In this searching volume, Ali brings personal grief into conversation with ecological crisis, exploring the relationship between individual loss and the natural world…This ambitious collection rewards close attention.” — Publishers Weekly
Cristina Rivera Garza translated by Christina MacSweeney, Terrestrial (Hogarth) — translator appeared in NER 35.1
“[Garza] revels in the unexpected, eschewing the straightforward at all times, but never in a showy way . . . Absolutely beautiful, written with Rivera Garza’s sparkling and enchanting prose. In other words: She’s done it again. Incandescent.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review
Karin Gottshall, Eclipse Season (Conduit) — Middlebury College Creative Writing faculty and published in NER 26.3 “Movement of the moon, Earth, and sun; of the rivers; of the poverties and plenitudes of our time to live, and die: this is Eclipse Season’s subject, which Gottshall takes up with the wit, imagination, and essential loneliness of the great surrealist poets.” — Kathy Fagan, author of The Unbecoming
Samuel Ligon, Miller Cane: A True & Exact History (Slant Books) — published in NER 30.1
“Miller Cane is a jolt of straight-up, adrenalized American greed and violence. Sam Ligon’s prose is an elemental force-fierce and funny, profane and sacred-and his vision of the country’s past and present is as engrossing as it is unsparing.” —Shawn Vestal, author of Godforsaken Idaho
Wisława Szymborska translated by Clare Cavanagh & Stanisław Barańczak, The Acrobat: Essential Poems (Ecco) — translator Cavanagh appeared in NER 23.1
“With plainspoken wisdom and deadpan humour, these poems celebrate the ordinary in extraordinary times. Rooted in the pains and joys of everyday human experience, Szymborska’s poetry proves ‘The commonplace miracle: / that so many common miracles take place.’” —The Guardian
Sherwin Bitsui, The Next Sky (Copper Canyon) — published in NER 39.1
“Bitsui delivers a dense and intensely lyrical fourth collection interweaving the elemental body and myth . . . . The volume is uniquely arranged: the primordial, expressionistic long title poem is followed by four shorter, more narrative lyrics . . . . The book shimmers with imagistic intensity. It’s an enduring achievement.”—Publishers Weekly
Mansi Dahal, Women in Marigold (Stillhouse Press) —published in NER 44.4
“These poems reawaken my openness to sensation and allow me to recall those days in which the intensity of desire is in equal measure to the impossibility of its fulfillment. They hold so much sadness they turn blue.”— Diane Seuss, author of frank: sonnets
Bradley Bazzle, In the Shadow of the Architect (University of Wisconsin Press) — published most recently in NER 43.3
“Bazzle leads the reader on a treasure hunt of the secret corners, angles, scaffolding, and foundations that make a life a life. These stories reveal the imprints of the past on the present, as Bazzle’s always-searching characters excavate memories, longings, regrets, and wonder.”—Joanna Luloff, author of The Beach at Galle Road: Stories from Sri Lanka