Fajront u SarajevuDr Nele KarajlićLaguna, 2015 Often when people hear the name “Yugoslavia,” they recognize it because of the war, or wars, of the 1990s. Another case of Communism, of ethnic and religious hate, of destruction. So much so that even I, a product and curious child of ex-Yugoslavia, fell
Flight and Metamorphosis: PoemsNelly SachsTranslated by Joshua Weiner with Linda B. ParshallFarrar, Straus and Giroux, 2022 Although I am usually wary of presentism, the too-easy application of historical situations to current contexts, I find that Joshua Weiner’s new translation of Nelly Sachs’ 1959 Flucht und Verwandlung is a book I
My DeniversityMark PawlakMadHat Press, 2021 On the back cover of My Deniversity, Mark Pawlak’s memoir of his long apprenticeship in poetry to Denise Levertov, the novelist and critic Askold Melnyczuk compares the book to Pound’s ABC of Reading and Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet. That makes sense; all three
PresidentDirected by: Camilla NielssonRelease Date: 2021 How bad was life in Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe, the brutal kleptocrat who held power in that sorrowful nation for almost forty years? This bad: When the British mercenary Simon Mann tried to break out of Zimbabwe’s infamous Chikurubi prison in 2007, he had
No SignPeter BalakianUniversity of Chicago Press, 2022 In his ninth collection, Pulitzer-prize winning poet Peter Balakian grapples with the anxiety and loss endemic to our time. While the poems respond to recent events, they should not necessarily be viewed as topical. Instead, they often pull back to reveal the imprint
Editor’s Note: It was just over forty years ago that the poet Christopher Logue published War Music, his “account” of The Iliad, and ten years ago that Alice Oswald published the book-length poem, Memorial, her engagement with the epic. In honor of these anniversaries, and in keeping with our ongoing
The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors: The Extraordinary World War II Story of the U.S. Navy’s Finest HourBy: James D. Hornfischer, Doug Murray, and Steven Sanders (graphic nonfiction)Published: 2021 (Dead Reckoning) CDR. Amos Hathaway of the Heerman has become the only destroyer captain in historyto directly engage four
Winthropos By: George KalogerisPublished: LSU Press (2021) On a small and hilly peninsula of Massachusetts looking out onto the Atlantic and in across Boston Harbor, Winthrop, as it has been known since 1852, is today a commuter suburb of just under 20,000 people, a town of modest homes and quiet
Space ForceCreated by Steve Carell and Jeff DanielsRelease Date (Streaming): May, 2020 (Netflix) Space Force is an outer-space/military comedy that debuted in 2020 on Netflix (the second season was just released this February). It depicts the exploits of four-star Air Force General Mark Naird, played by Steve Carell, and his
The High Alive: An Epic Hoodoo DiptychBy: Carlos SirahPublished: The 3rd Thing (2020) The book arrives neatly wrapped in white tissue paper, tied up in twine with a bow. This theatrical presentation plays with pretense and anticipation. Unwrapping it, the book smells like dry oats, fresh and pulpy. Handsome, thick,
Black Butterflies over BaghdadBy: David Allen SullivanPublished: Oct. 2021 (The Word Works) Building on his earlier poetry collection about U.S. soldiers who served in Iraq (Every Seed of the Pomegranate, 2012) David Allen Sullivan, poet-laureate of Santa Cruz, California, and author of five collections of poetry, takes on the suffering
2034: A Novel of the Next World WarBy: Elliot Ackerman and James StavridisPublished: March 2021 (Penguin Press) In a culture saturated with eco-dystopian future fantasies, a novel about the next world war on a still mostly functioning planet is as startling as it is distressing. Forget empty, flooded cities and
