Beautiful, Broken Bodies
"Sing Me Your Scars" is not always a pleasant read. It's hard not to squirm as the women in these stories are crucified, stabbed, beaten, bruised, and incised.
All Reviews
The Prince of Brotherhood
Lucas Mann and David Payne on the grief memoir of losing a family member young and writing as healing.
The View from the Edges
Aysha Hidayatullah takes stock of the work Muslim women commentators on the Qur'an have done so far.
Juan Villoro: At Last, an English Translation Brings His Seriously Funny Take on Identity to New Audiences
Juan Villoro is an under-known Mexican writer, whose humorous short stories probe questions of identity, self-perception, and authorship.
What Consumes Destroys
In "The Cartel," Don Winslow provides a stark window into the effects of extreme human desire. Nothing fantastical. This is the human condition.
The Axis Around Which Everything Turns
Robert Saviano follows trails of money, power, and bodies, investigating the contemporary influence of cocaine.
Road to Nowhere
Toscano and Kinkle draw on Fredric Jameson's "aesthetic of cognitive mapping" to present "cartography" as a metaphor for the kind of beauty that builds knowledge.
With Fire in Her Heart
Wendy C. Ortiz on being a writer living in Hollywood who struggles with economic pressures, addiction, shame, and sexuality.
Shadows of Soul
Mark Ribowksy's new biography of Otis Redding aims to illuminate Redding's previously untraced steps, undissected songs, and unexplained tortured soul.
Gathering What We Have Lost: The Buried Song of William Goyen
Ask a person on the street about William Goyen, and you're likely to get a blank stare. Ask a writer, and you'll see a slow change come over her face …
Did Contraband Smuggling Lead to the French Revolution?
Michel Kwass on the populist history of smuggling contraband goods - tobacco and calico - in France before the French Revolution.
If Colonialism Was The Apocalypse, What Comes Next?
Two new collections of African SF by Dilman Dila show us life in the postcolony.
Into the Wild
"H Is for Hawk" deals with falconry, human interactions with "the wild," personal loss, and grief.
Glass Walls
Neda Semnani reviews a debut mystery novel about life's big firsts by Ruth Ware.
The Uncooperative Facts of an Elusive Life
Kawashima Yoshiko was a cross-dressing Japanese spy who commanded her own army.
Found in Translation: The Complete Stories of Clarice Lispector
Lispector deftly navigates the paradoxical interior landscape common to all women sorting through questions of societal expectation and identity.