"Ryan Van Cleave’s explosive riffs roll over the American pop culture landscape like a caffeined-up emcee from the dark side. Trying to keep up with his quick wit and dizzying leaps may leave you out
Rumor of Cortez, Levine’s second book of poetry, unfolds the compelling dilemmas of a modern man at odds with the endless possibilities of the rapid-fire world. Here are poems that spin and dip into t
"Any other poet with Gail Wronsky’s gift for sheer gorgeousness—for the sensuous image, for shapeliness, for the ever-unfolding ever-mobile vocal line—would call it a day. But Wronsky’s intellect is o
"Proceed With Passion: Engaging Students in Meaningful Education is filled with bold approaches to giving students the ingredients they most lack in their schooling—a sense of purpose, a reason for wa
“Wedding in October is a rich and gorgeous novel, deeply rooted in memory, delicately constructed, filled with subtle and compelling characters. While grappling with universal themes and events, Geoff
"Flannery O'Connor has written that 'Fiction operates through the senses. . . The first and most obvious characteristic of fiction is that it deals with reality through what can be seen, heard, smelt,
“Angela Ball is a poet wise enough to describe love as ‘a double appetite for seeing.’ Her poems are suffused by a wary disappointment in romantic excitement, but with the piqued attention that accomp
Wild Honey, Tough Salt offers a prismatic view of Earth citizenship, where we must now be ambidextrous. The book takes a stern look inward calling for sturdy character and supple spirit, and a bold lo
Beauty and terror collide in Doug Lawson’s Bigfoots in Paradise, a wild new collection of stories set largely in and around Santa Cruz, California and the surrounding mountains. It’s a land tucked be
30-year-old Bronwyn Artair, feeling out of place in her doctoral program in Atmospheric Sciences at MIT, drops out and takes a job as a TV meteorologist, much to the dismay of her mentor, Diane Fenwic
Ethan Mueller, the narrator of Brother Carnival, has suffered a crisis of faith and is on the brink of taking his own life when he is informed by his father that he has an estranged brother who is an
In John Barr's poems, the ancient masters encounter the modern world. Dante on a beach in China beholds the Inferno: “Flaring well gas night and day, / towers rise as if to say, / Pollution can be bea
In John Barr's poems, the ancient masters encounter the modern world. Dante on a beach in China beholds the Inferno: “Flaring well gas night and day, / towers rise as if to say, / Pollution can be bea
Winner of the 2016 Benjamin Saltman Poetry Award, Southern Tongues Leave Us Shining explores the South andits history through the eyes of the living, the dead, and the inbetween.
A seagull, a goat, and a teenage boy enter into a bizarre love triangle that leaves one of them dead and the other two changed forever. A grief-stricken astronaut quits NASA to paint pictures of the m
The poems in Allison Joseph’s latest collection are smart, shameless, and empowered confessions of the best kind. In semi-autobiographical verse highlighting in turns light-hearted and harsh realities
Imagine a heaven populated by familiar Greek gods. Sexy Aphrodite, gorgeous Adonis, Ares the warmonger, Artemis the huntress, wise Athena, bitter Demeter, and the like. But imagine also each of these
“The Wilderness, a compendious gathering of new and selected poems, makes clear what readers of hers over the years have increasingly come to feel—that Maurya Simon’s is one of the strongest, most hum
What is considered a family, and who gets to define it? In 1964, despite the racial tension occurring in a post–WWIIAmerica, Catherine and Jonathan adopt a baby girl from Korea. This unconventional ch
In The Sound acclaimed poet David Mason collects his best shorter work of the past forty years, including lyrics like “Song of the Powers” and darkly brilliant narratives “The Collector’s Tale” and “T
Like a lot of Americans, Steve Almond spent the weeks after the 2016 election lying awake, in a state of dread and bewilderment. The problem wasn’t just the election, but the fact that nobody could ex
Experts predict two-thirds of people living on this planet in 2025 will experience water scarcity, a situation expected to result in the deaths of millions and an unprecedented rise in military confli
The newest addition to Red Hen's Anthology Series, Two-Countries: U.S. Daughters and Sons of Immigrant Parents is an anthology of flash memoir, personal essays and poetry edited by the adult child of
Prolific writer Gary Soto introduces the beauty of the much neglected literary form, the “proverb.” His proverbs are quirky, fun, urban and enlightening for all ages.Some people might consider the lit
“Beginner’s Guide to a Head-on Collision offers the deeply moving poetic memoir of Sebastian Matthews’s life in the years after the car accident that devastated him and his wife and son. The poems, wh
Water & Salt sings in the voices of people ravaged by cycles of war and news coverage. These poems alternately rage, laugh, celebrate and grieve, singing in the voices of people ravaged by cycles of
A brave, brilliant debut about the African-American experience in the American Midwest. A contemplation of race, masculinity, religion, and class, Testify in a very personal way confronts some of the
Vanishing Point concerns memory, cognition, history, and morality, as experienced through the process of aging and as seen largely through a seriocomic lens. The range is wide, from arrestingly dark t
He was nine when the vines first wrapped themselves around him and burrowed into his skin. Now a college botany major, Jeremy is desperately looking for a way to listen to the plants and stave off the
After decades of living “hung like a dried fly,” emptied and haunted by his past, the narrator, a man who has lost his faith in all things following a mysterious personal tragedy, awakens one morning
A collection of headlong tales by Oregon author Brian Doyle—exploring such riveting and peculiar topics as chess in the Levant, tailors who specialize in holes, how to report stigmata to your attendin
Why SIX? Because the collection is comprised of six poems. And because the perspective in this collection shifts like a kaleidoscope, each image viewable from six possible angles. And because these
When Kathleen Driskell pulled an old edition of Emily Post’s Etiquette from the used bookstore shelf and blew dust off the blue linen cover, she instantly found herself and her family within those pag
Losing Helen is a moving and inspiring essay that tracks an adult daughter through the many complex phases of grief as she anticipates the inevitable loss of her elderly mother. Finding strength and g
Los Angeles may be best known as the hub of the film and television industry, but this collection of short fiction proves that beyond the beach and the glamour of Hollywood there is much more that mak
This book-length poem by the current Poet Laureate of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Andrea Scarpino, asks the reader to sitwith and inside the body’s many losses, to grow comfortable and restless in its
Guided by the character of the Woman Warrior—witty, swift, and ruthless in her wonder—readers of Brynn Saito’s second collection of poetry traverse the terrain of personal and historical memory: narra
The world extends itself to us. Some refuse the offer, electing to take their own lives. Others pull back, subscribing to fear and the ego’s need for order. Still, the wild, ungovernable forces break
Psychosis in the Produce Department: New and Selected Poems, 1975-2015 gathers the best work from Laurel Ann Bogen’s previous ten books as well as new and unpublished poetry. Ranging in themes as dive
Thoughtful and intelligent, the poems in Flight are still fully embodied, rooted entirely in the senses, and extending Coles’s ongoing examination of the big questions: What is the relation of art and
