“A Stranger Steps into the House”: On Ashley Nelson Levy’s “Immediate Family”
Ryan Smernoff explores the boundaries of familial love in “Immediate Family,” a debut novel by Ashley Nelson Levy.
Ryan Smernoff is an instructor in the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program, where he teaches courses in Editing and Publishing. He has worked in the editorial departments at Henry Holt and Company, the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, and W. W. Norton. He has also developed and copyedited books for Simon and Schuster, Pantheon, Vintage/Anchor, Picador, St. Martin's Griffin, Callisto Media, Indelible Editions, Abrams, Weldon Owen, Mountaineers Books, and Andrews McMeel Publishing. He holds an MA in English Literature from California State University, Long Beach, and an MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University.
Ryan Smernoff explores the boundaries of familial love in “Immediate Family,” a debut novel by Ashley Nelson Levy.
Ryan Smernoff takes in "The Ghost Variations," a new short story collection by Kevin Brockmeier.
A review of “Pew,” the latest novel from Catherine Lacey.
Ryan Smernoff reviews Timothy J. Hillegonds’s debut memoir, “The Distance Between.”
Ryan Smernoff appreciates the many gems of Karen Russell’s “Orange World and Other Stories.”
One of the grand illusions of great writing is the appearance of effortlessness, a quality that Abbigail Rosewood often achieves in "If I Had Two...
Ryan Smernoff listens in on Sam Lipsyte’s new satirical novel “Hark,” “a work of profane enchantment that comes with a full set of teeth.”
Ryan Smernoff greets the publication of “Evening in Paradise: More Stories” and “Welcome Home” by Lucia Berlin.