The Faerie Devouring is a modern-day fable and feminist bildungsroman by Quebecois author Catherine Lalonde and reimagined by the award-winning poet and translator Oana Avasilichioaei. The Faerie Devouring tells the story of the sprite, her absent mother (who dies in childbirth), and a brood of fatherless boys all raised by Gramma, a stalwart matriarch and wicked faerie godmother. From […]
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Possibility of Transformation: In Conversation with Michael Nardone
The Ritualites is Michael Nardone’s book-length poem on the sonic topography of North America. Composed at sites all across the continent—from Far Rockaway to the Olympic Peninsula, Great Bear Lake to the Gulf of California—the book documents the poet’s listening amid our public exchanges, mediated ambiances, and itinerant intimacies. Author Charles Bernstein writes that, “Michael Nardone’s The Ritualites explores […]
Continue readingA Nomadic Consciousness: In Conversation with D. Nandi Odhiambo
Nandi Odhiambo’s new book, Smells Like Stars, draws attention to what is hidden in plain sight, what cruelties life presents, and what struggles we face in our search for meaning. Journalist Kerstin Ostheim and freelance photographer P.J. Banner have been together six months after meeting on a dating website. As their wedding fast approaches, they question their […]
Continue readingTo Find Belonging: In Conversation with Hana Shafi
It Begins With The Body by Hana Shafi explores the milestones and hurdles of a brown girl coming into her own. Shafi’s poems display a raw and frank intimacy and address anxiety, unemployment, heartbreak, relationships, identity, and faith. Juno Award nominated musician and songwriter Alysha Brilla calls It Begins With The Body “the anthem of […]
Continue readingThe Excavation of Memory: In Conversation with Kim Trainor
Ledi, the newly released book by Vancouver poet Kim Trainor, describes the excavation of an Iron Age Pazyryk woman from her ice-bound grave in the steppes of Siberia. Along with the woman’s carefully preserved body, with its blue tattoos of leopards and griffins, grave goods were also discovered—rosehips and wild garlic, translucent vessels carved from […]
Continue readingTextured Sonically: In Conversation with Mark Truscott
Careful attention reveals that, even in moments that seem insignificant, our minds are constantly navigating disjunctions among registers of experience. Our intellect silently reminds our eyes that the car that appears to be moving between leaves is actually behind them and much larger. The sound of the vacuum cleaner in the next room is noise […]
Continue readingOld Mercury Eyes: An Exquisite Corpse Poem
Hi, everyone – Mary Ann, here! My time time with Book*hug will soon come to a close (cue emotional, Hans Zimmer soundtrack), but before I go, and for one big Blog-style “hurrah”, I have orchestrated an infinitely chaotic and unpredictable game of “The Exquisite Corpse” with a group of Book*hug authors. To summarize, The Exquisite […]
Continue readingMeet Our Newest Intern: Mary Ann!
Hi, everyone! My name is Mary Ann, Book*hug’s new student intern. I’m so excited to get started, to get out of what has risked becoming a repetitive routine of researching and writing papers, and dip my toes into a very different type of literary experience. As a life-long reader and lover of all things books, […]
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