New England Review

Books by NER Authors

August 2019

Unquestionably the funniest novel ever written about Calvinism. —Kirkus Reviews

From the publisher: With the comic unpredictability of a Wes Anderson movie and the inventive sharpness of a John Irving novel, author Brock Clarke introduces readers to an ordinary man who is about to embark on an absurdly extraordinary adventure.

Brock Clarke is the author of four previous novels—The Happiest People in the World, Exley, An Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes in New England, and The Ordinary White Boy, along with three collections of short stories, most recently The Price of the Haircut. Clarke is a frequent contributor to NER. His story “Transported” appeared in NER 35.3.

Who Are You, Calvin Bledsoe? can be purchased directly from Algonquin Books or from your local bookstore.

Mead propels readers forward, using plain language that’s elegant in its simplicity yet compelling and heartbreaking. Even as she confronts grief and loss, the poet highlights the overriding theme of courage. —Library Journal

From the publisher: With lyric candor and emotional precision, Mead offers her family history, meditations on loss and madness, and the landscape of California wine country in this collected volume. The natural world, in its bounty and brutality, is a grounding force for Mead, a reminder of a time scale beyond the human span.

Jane Mead is the author of five collections of poetry, most recently World of Made and Unmade (Alice James, 2016) which was nominated for a National Book Award, as well as a finalist for the L.A. Times Book Prize and the Griffin Prize in Poetry. Her work appeared in NER 37.3.

To the Wren: Collected & New Poems is available through Alice James or from your local bookstore.

A book of wonders and a book of wondering, this is Alexandra Teague’s most ambitious, accomplished, an intimate book yet. — Mary Szybit, author of Incarnadine

From the publisher: This heartrending and darkly playful new collection by Alexandra Teague tries to understand the edges of self in a patriarchal culture and in relation to a family history of mental illness and loss. In poems that mix high art and popular culture (from classical Greek statues to giant plaster artichokes, Cubism to Freudian Disney dolls), Teague interweaves self-reflection with the stories and lives of mythic and historic female figures, such as the dangerous-wise witch Baba Yaga and early-20th-century sculptors’ model Audrey Munson—calling across time and place to explore desire, grief, and the representation and misrepresentation of the female form. 

Alexandra Teague is the author of two previous books of poetry, Mortal Geography, winner of the 2010 California Book Award, and The Wise and Foolish Builders, as well as the novel The Principles Behind Flotation. She is co-editor of Bullets into Bells: Poets & Citizens Respond to Gun Violence, and a professor at the University of Idaho. Teague has been previously published in both NER 29.2 and 25.1, and NER Digital—”Stone Disease” and “Safe.”

Or What We’ll Call Desire is available for purchase from Persea Books or at your local, independent bookstore.

A masterful work of speculative fiction, The Memory Police is set on a nameless island where every instance of a plant, animal, or object occasionally vanishes without a trace. . . . If that isn’t creepy enough, there’s also an armed force of ‘memory police’ dedicated to erasing all evidence of whatever has vanished. An unforgettable literary thriller full of atmospheric horror. —Chicago Tribune

From the publisher: On an unnamed island off an unnamed coast, objects are disappearing: first hats, then ribbons, birds, roses—until things become much more serious. Most of the island’s inhabitants are oblivious to these changes, while those few imbued with the power to recall the lost objects live in fear of the draconian Memory Police, who are committed to ensuring that what has disappeared remains forgotten.

Yoko Ogawa’s surreal, provocative fable about the power of memory and the trauma of loss, The Memory Police is a stunning new work from one of the most exciting contemporary authors writing in any language.

Translator Stephen Snyder is Dean of Language Schools and Kawashima Professor of Japanese Studies at Middlebury College. He is the author of Fictions of Desire: Narrative Form in the Novels of Nagai Kafū (University of Hawai’i Press, 2000), and has translated works by Yōko Ogawa and Kenzaburō Ōe, among others. His translation of Ogawa’s Hotel Iris (Picador, 2010) was shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize in 2011, and his translation of Ogawa’s Revenge (Picador, 2013) was shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction prize in 2014. He appeared in NER 37.4 with Insistence and Resistance: Murakami and Mizumura in Translation.

The Memory Police can be purchased from the publisher here or at your local independent bookstore.

New Books from NER Authors: December 2017

The aim of this anthology – so ably and passionately put together by the editors – is to try to shift the nature of the debate around guns and give voice to the effect of violence in a manner that isn’t always associated with the poetic. —Colum McCann, winner of the National Book Award

From the publisher: Focused intensively on the crisis of gun violence in America, this volume brings together poems by dozens of our best-known poets, including Billy Collins, Patricia Smith, Mark Doty, Rita Dove, Natalie Diaz, Martín Espada, Robert Hass, Naomi Shihab Nye, Ocean Vuong, Danez Smith, Brenda Hillman, Natasha Threthewey and Juan Felipe Herrera.

Each poem is followed by a response from a gun violence prevention activist, political figure, survivor, or concerned individual, including Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Jody Williams, Senator Christopher Murphy, Moms Demand Action founder Shannon Watts, survivors of the Columbine, Sandy Hook, Charleston Emmanuel AME, and Virginia Tech shootings, and Samaria Rice, mother of Tamir, and Lucy McBath, mother of Jordan Davis.

Bullets into Bells is edited by Brian Clements, Dean Rader, and Alexandra Teague. Teague’s poem “Cork” appeared in NER 24.1-2. It is available from Beacon Press and from independent booksellers.

 

This excellent, portable guide will appeal to travelers who want to write about their journeys effectively and engagingly. Its tools and techniques can help writers deepen observation, improve engagement, and enhance learning while on the move, and create rich work upon return. —Jordana Dym, editor of Mapping Latin America

From the publisher: Co-authored by Peter Chilson and Joanne B. Mulcahy, Writing Abroad is meant for travelers of all backgrounds and writing levels: a student embarking on overseas study; a retiree realizing a dream of seeing China; a Peace Corps worker in Kenya. All can benefit from documenting their adventures, whether on paper or online. Through practical advice and adaptable exercises, this guide will help travelers hone their observational skills, conduct research and interviews, choose an appropriate literary form, and incorporate photos and videos into their writing.

Peter Chilson is professor of creative writing and literature at Washington State University. He is the author of Riding the Demon: On the Road in West Africa, Disturbance-Loving Species: A Novella and Stories, and We Never Knew Exactly Where: Dispatches from the Lost Country of Mali. He served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Niger. His essay “Welcome to Mali” appeared in NER 37.3.

Writing Abroad is available from the University of Chicago Press and from independent booksellers.

 

Writing at the advent of an uncertain age, Lavant continues to accompany us with her fierce interrogations – which will also endure long after us – in these elegant translations by David Chorlton. —Ellen Hinsey, author of Update on the Descent

From the David Chorlton’s introduction: Born in 1915 on July the fourth, Christine Thonhauser (Lavant) was the ninth child of a miner, Georg, and his wife, Anna, and grew up in poverty. While the poetry she was later to write contained the language of spirituality, the pain she described in it came from actual conditions which she suffered: scrofula and tuberculosis of the lungs. Being disadvantaged in health also meant she could not complete her education as intended. Unable to do hard physical work, she earned a living with knitting and weaving, until she gained a reputation as a writer. Along with these health problems, she had depression to endure. Poor hearing or blindness in her poetry were not conjured metaphors for general condition.

David Chorlton was born in Spittal-an-der-Drau, Austria, grew up in Manchester, England, and lived for several years in Vienna before moving to Phoenix in 1978. As much as he has come to love the Southwest, he has strong memories of Vienna, the setting for his work of fiction, The Taste of Fog (Rain Mountain Press, 2011). His most recent work includes Selected Poems (FutureCycle Press, 2014) and A Field Guide to Fire, his contribution to the Fires of Change exhibition shown in Flagstaff and Tucson. His translation of a poem by Christine Lavant was included in NER 37.3.

Shatter the Bell in My Ear is available from The Bitter Oleander Press and from independent booksellers.

 

A darkly luminous book by a poet at the height of his considerable poetic power. —Kathy Fagan

From the publisher: With uncommon grace, each of Pankey’s precise lyrics advances our shared ontological questions and expresses our deepest contradictions. In a world of mystery, should we focus on finding meaning or creating it? How can the known—and the unknown—be captured in language? “If one cannot see clearly,” Pankey writes, borrowing from Freud, “one at least wants / what is unclear to be in focus.”

Eric Pankey is the author of numerous books of poems, most recently Augury and Crow-Work. His poetry, essays, and reviews have appeared widely in such journals and anthologies as the New Yorker, Kenyon Review, Iowa Review, and Poetry Daily, as well as several anthologies, including Best American Poetry. Pankey has been awarded fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Ingram Merril Foundation. A 1983 graduate of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, he is a professor of English and the Heritage Chair in Writing at George Mason University and resides in Fairfax, Virginia. Pankey has been featured in NER numerous times, most recently appearing in NER 34.1.

Augury is available from Milkweed and from independent booksellers.

 

Chang is emerging as an exciting voice in contemporary poetry, and this is undoubtedly her most accomplished volume to date. —Publishers Weekly

From the publisher: In Barbie Chang, Victoria Chang explores racial prejudice, sexual privilege, and the disillusionment of love through a reimagining of Barbie – perfect in the cultural imagination yet repeatedly falling short as she pursues the American dream. By turns woeful and passionate, playful and incisive, these poems reveal a voice insisting that “even silence is not silent.”

Victoria Chang’s fourth book of poems, Barbie Chang was published by Copper Canyon Press in 2017. The Boss was published by McSweeney’s and won a PEN Center USA Literary Award and a California Book Award. Her other books are Salvinia Molesta and Circle.  She also edited an anthology, Asian American Poetry: The Next Generation. Her poems have appeared in Kenyon Review, American Poetry Review, Best American Poetry, and elsewhere.  She received a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Sustainable Arts Foundation Fellowship in 2017.  She is a contributing editor of the literary journal Copper Nickel and a poetry editor at Tupelo Quarterly. Her work last appeared in New England Review in NER 38.3.

Barbie Chang is available from Copper Canyon Press and from independent booksellers.

 

“[Brimhall] allows us brief visions, glimpses, of experiences more lush and raw than our own.” —The Rumpus

From the publisher: Inspired by stories from her Brazilian-born mother, Traci Brimhall’s third collection—a lush and startling “autobiomythography”—is reminiscent of the rich imaginative worlds of Latin American magical realists. Set in the Brazilian Amazon, Saudade is one part ghost story, one part revival, and is populated by a colorful cast of characters and a recurring chorus of irreverent Marias.

Traci Brimhall is the author of two previous poetry collections. She earned her PhD from Western Michigan University and is Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Kansas State University. She lives in Manhattan, Kansas. Her work most recently appeared in New England Review NER 37.1.

Saudade is available from Copper Canyon Press and from independent booksellers.

 

New Books From NER Authors

Lori Ostlund’s wonderful novel After the Parade should come with a set of instructions: Be perfectly still. Listen carefully. Peer beneath every placid surface. Be alive to the possibility of wonder.  —Richard Russo, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Empire Falls.

New England Review congratulates Lori Ostlund on the publication of her debut novel, After the Parade (Scribner). Ostlund’s stories “The Children Beneath the Seat” and “Domestic Interiors of the Midwest: Two Stories” were published in NER 27.1 and 30.3.

“Written over the course of 15 years, Ostlund’s debut novel follows a broken and empty man who embarks on a six-month journey to make sense of his past, in hopes of comfortably inhabiting his present.” —Publishers Weekly 

Ostlund’s collection, The Bigness of the World, was the recipient of the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, the California Book Award for First Fiction, and the Edmund White Debut Fiction Award. Her stories have appeared in many literary publications including Best American Short Stories, O Henry Prize Stories, New England Review, Southern Review, and Kenyon Review. She has been a Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference fellow, and currently lives in San Francisco.

After the Parade is available from Powell’s Books and other independent booksellers.

♦

The most striking element of Saer’s writing is his prose, at once dynamic and poetic … It is brilliant. —Harvard Review

41rgVmsHZaL._SX321_BO1,204,203,200_New England Review congratulates Juan José Saer on the publication of The One Before (Open Letter Books). Saer’s novel excerpt “Thursdays at La Giralda” appeared in  NER 35.1.

From the publisher: “From the story of the two characters who decide to bury a message in a bottle that simply says “MESSAGE,” to Pigeon Garay’s attempt to avoid the rising tides and escape Argentina for Europe, The One Before evocatively introduces readers to Saer’s world and gives the already indoctrinated new material about their favorite characters.”

Juan José Saer is a leading Argentinian author of stories and novels, and received Spain’s competitive Nadal Prize in 1987 for his novel The Event.

The One Before is available from Open Letter Books and other independent booksellers.

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A brilliant demonstration that less can be more and that readers can find entire worlds in a page or two.—Alan Cheuse, author of Prayers for the Living

Congratulations to Robert Shapard, Christopher Merrill, and James Thomas on theUnknown publication of their very-short-stories collection, Flash Fiction International (W. W. Norton). NER has published Shapard’s short story “The Old Bathysphere Film” (NER 12.4), as well as  Christopher Merrill’s review, “Reclaiming the Frontier: New Writings from the West” (NER 12.2).

From the publisher: “What is a flash fiction called in other countries? In Latin America it is a micro, in Denmark kortprosa, in Bulgaria mikro razkaz. These short shorts, usually no more than 750 words, range from linear narratives to the more unusual: stories based on mathematical forms, a paragraph-length novel, a scientific report on volcanic fireflies that proliferate in nightclubs. Flash has always—and everywhere—been a form of experiment, of possibility.”

Robert Shapard directed the University of Hawaii MFA program and now lives in Austin, Texas. Christopher Merrill directs the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa.

Get your copy of Flash Fiction International at W.W. Norton & Company or at independent booksellers.

♦

The mystery of the process of expansion and the state of never having enough are expertly envisioned and tested in Teague’s powerful, relevant poems, which give us a glimpse of our past and mirror our present. —Booklist

51aiKZPdF9L._SX332_BO1,204,203,200_Alexandra Teague has released a new book of poetry, The Wise and Foolish Builders (Persea Books). Teague’s poems have appeared in both NER (29.2 and 25.1), and NER Digital—”Stone Disease” and “Safe.”

“These detail-rich poems possess both the attractions and the dangers of popular prose histories, even as they break out into lyricism that connects era to era, as when an early photographer’s “portable darknesses/fill with faces we keep hoping to/like.” —Publisher’s Weekly

Teague’s poetry is included in Best American Poetry 2009 and has been published in Missouri Review, Iowa Review, New England Review, Threepenny Review, and Southern Review. She was the 2014 winner of the Jeffrey E. Smith Missouri Review Editors’ prize and is Assistant Professor of Poetry at the University of Idaho and the editor of Broadside Press.

Purchase The Wise and Foolish Builders at Powell’s Books and other independent booksellers.

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41VZVnYLRsL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_Matthew Vollmer has a newly published book of short stories, Gateway to Paradise (Persea Books). Vollmer’s essay, “Keeper of the Flame,” appeared in NER 33.1.

From the publisher: “In these bold stories set in the mountains and small towns of the south, men and women looking for escape from dull routines and a culture of hype (whether of consumerism, sex, or religion) are led to places of danger and self-reckoning. A dentist on a tryst is seduced by and impregnates an impetuous ghost. A beleaguered young writing professor follows his imagination one step too far while escorting a famous writer he finds darkly alluring . . . Gateway to Paradise surpasses the promise of Vollmer’s first collection.”

Vollmer is the author of Future Missionaries of America, a collection of stories, as well as Inscriptions for Headstones, a collection of essays. He is the editor of A Book of Uncommon Prayer, and with David Shields is co-editor of Fakes; An Anthology of Pseudo-Interviews, Faux-Lectures, Quasi-Letters, “Found” Texts, and Other Fraudulent Artifacts. His work has appeared in, among others, Paris Review, Ploughshares, Glimmer Train, Tin House, Virginia Quarterly Review, Epoch, Best American Essays, the Pushcart Prize Anthology, and New England Review. He directs the undergraduate creative writing program at Virginia Tech.

Gateway to Paradise is available from Powell’s Books and from other independent booksellers.

NER DIGITAL | La Sagrada Familia: Spires | Alexandra Teague

 

SagradaFamiliaMy husband, his parents, and I stand at the top of La Sagrada Familia, spires spiking and tilting around us like great stone ocean waves, as if we are on the crow’s nest of a ship that is simultaneously pitching into sky and sinking. I’m usually scared of heights, but up here, even fear is under construction. After a century, only eight of the eighteen spires. After a century, the first stones of the Glory Façade: its roads to God and Hell both equally unbuilt.

After a decade, my husband still sleeping nightly on a pillowcase speckled with blood from his brother’s death, still angry at his father for, in the hours immediately after, disassembling his brother’s cage of finches, giving them all to somewhere. The sky. The ground. The noise his brother made gurgling blood into tubes because he had AIDS and no one had yet drawn the plans for pills to save him.

Gaudi wanted the Passion Façade to strike the onlooker with fear, the guidebook tells us. We are supposed to feel Christ’s sacrifice, to believe in death with high purpose. Forgiveness. But nothing is finished. The spire for Mary isn’t started yet; her body only more air.

My husband believed—does he still believe?—he would betray his brother’s life if he let grief go. He carried what he had—the fading stain on a pillowcase, the space where finches once rustled in the corner of a California apartment—like stone for a medieval cathedral. That blood:  brown into blue into white. He hated the inevitable washing. “Color is life,” Gaudi said. Also:  “My client is not in a hurry.”

Everything is possible in God’s time, but nothing is for sure, an Irish singer we love tells us. My husband’s family is Irish and Mexican Catholic. Mine, Irish Protestant. My husband and I are atheists. We believe in suffering for love. My mother is three years dead. We travel everywhere as a family. We play Quiddler and drink sidra and take pictures leaning into the blue between stones.

Asked why he’d lavished painstaking care on the tips of the pinnacles no one could get to, Gaudi answered, “The angels will see them.” My mother-in-law believed when her oldest son first came out he was a sinner. He died knowing she loved him. She still wouldn’t forgive herself for having to build backwards from faith to love.

My father-in-law never talked, in the six years I knew him, about the cage of finches. That hammering. The way the finches belonged to no one. I never talked about what I feared: that I could not go on carrying, around the world, the same unchanging stone.

Still: only eight apostles. Still no Virgin or Jesus. The guidebook says not even Gaudi drew plans for the whole basilica. He couldn’t know how others would need to complete it. A new subway tunnel shakes beneath now, like jackhammers, like heartbeats. The engineers say this is threatening the foundation. The engineers say this is threatening nothing. The angels say nothing. They roost, invisible on invisible spires.

 

Alexandra Teague is the author of Mortal Geography, winner of the 2009 Lexi Rudnitsky Prize and 2010 California Book Award, and The Wise and Foolish Builders (Persea 2015). She is Assistant Professor of Poetry at University of Idaho and an editor for Broadsided Press.

NER Digital is New England Review’s online project dedicated to original creative writing for the web. “Confluences” presents writers’ encounters with works of art such as books, plays, poems, films, paintings, sculptures, or buildings. 

 

 

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