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Winter 2012

To Boldly Go

Tales of the New World Sabina Murray Black Cat 2011   On the face of it, Sabina Murray’s latest collection of tales appears to take up where her PEN/Faulkner Award-winning collection, The Caprices, left off.  Those were tough-edged, yet humane, stories embedded in the Pacific conflicts of World War II.  The final story in that […]

Harnessing Darkness

Other Heartbreaks Patricia Henley Engine Books 2011   The stories in Other Heartbreaks by Patricia Henley will change you. Now the thin girl who passes you coming out of a gas station restroom—you’ll notice the gray smudges under her eyes. Your own secrets—the ones folded twice or three times inside you that crop up when […]

Tom Waits Talks

Tom Waits on Tom Waits: Interviews and Encounters Edited by Paul Maher, Jr. Chicago Review Press 2011

A Novel of Moments

Greasewood Creek by Pamela Steele Counterpoint 2011 In her debut novel, Greasewood Creek, Pamela Steele draws heavily from the elements of poetry even as she weaves an emotionally complex story. The short chapters feel like stanzas. The phrases and descriptions linger with the reader, and invite repeated readings. The structure is spare and delicate: time […]