Ben Mirov
Prose Roundup
By Michael Lindgren, Lu Chen, and Ben MirovLife is rhythmically punctuated by death, just as memory is punctuated by moments of revelation, in which the characters are transformed by sudden glimpses of the world beyond knowledge or language. A young handyman believes he sees the finger of God; a girl confined to bed by a nervous disorder feels blessed by the splendid visible and invisible worlds; a college student dives out of his ninth-floor window to, after a poem by Juan Ramón Jiménez, “catch the stars more quickly.”
ANTHOLOGY: The Task of the Translator-Poet
By Ben MirovTo get some idea of the size and scope of David Hinton’s Classical Chinese Poetry: An Anthology, imagine you are Donald Allen, editor of the seminal New American Poetry 1945-1960. Next, imagine the era of “New American Poetry” begins somewhere around 1500 BCE and finishes around 1200 CE, and is going to include all the major poets from that time span.
Prose Roundup
By Erin Heath, Ben Mirov, Tatiaana Laine, and Primwatee GrooverA.B. Yehoshua’s Friendly Fire is a story of a long married couple. Amotz (Ya’ari) is an engineer tending to the needs of his children, grandchildren, and elderly father, while his wife, Daniella, is in East Africa mourning the death of her older sister.
In Conversation
Marc Estrin with Ben Mirov
According to his website, Marc Estrin is “a writer, cellist, and activist living in Burlington, Vermont.” However, in a secondary biographical note, he calls himself a “Biologist, theatre director, EMT, Unitarian Minister, physician assistant, puppeteer, political activist, college professor, cellist and conductor... baffling, even unto himself.”
ART: Pretty Ugly
By Ben MirovA Shady Promise organizes and paraphrases Wangechi Mutu’s oeuvre without diminishing its scope or the complexity of its vision.
NONFICTION: Heaniverse
By Ben MirovStepping Stones, a new collection of interviews with Seamus Heaney conducted by Dennis O’Driscoll, attempts to elucidate the poet who won the Nobel Prize in Literature for what the Nobel Committee called, “works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past.”
POETRY: High Noon
By Ben MirovSusan Wheeler’s Assorted Poems and Ron Slate’s The Great Wave are examples of books published by accomplished writers who find themselves at, or just after, the midpoint of their very different careers. Wheeler, the author of four well-received books of poetry (Bag o’ Diamonds, 1993; Smokes, 1998; Source Codes, 2001; Ledger, 2005) and the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships (the Witter Bynner Prize from the Academy of American Poets, the Norma Farber First Book Award from the Poetry Society of America, and Guggenheim and New York Foundation for the Arts fellowships) has spent the past twenty years living, writing, and teaching in the poetry epicenter of New York.
Memoir: Remix
By Ben MirovCheeni Rao’s In Hanuman’s Hands is a fictional memoir that treads familiar ground with various nuances that set it apart from its precursors.
TIRELESS FLAMBOYANT SEQUENCE
By Ben MirovThe author of twelve previous collections of poetry (not including her collaborations with artists such as Joe Brainard and Ellen Phelan) and recipient of the Guggenheim Foundation, the New York State Foundation for the Arts, Ingram Merrill Foundation, and MacArthur fellowships, Ann Lauterbach’s work has been widely recognized and lauded.
Poetry: Back on the Warhorse
By Ben MirovIn his new collection of poems, Warhorses, Yusef Komunyakaa explores familiar themes with idiosyncratic grace and musical intensity. Organized into three sections—“Love in the Time of War,” “Heavy Metal,” and “Autobiography of My Alter Ego”—Warhorses examines how war encapsulates and mutates human experience and the world.
Prose Roundup
By Erin Heath, Ben Mirov, Katrina Brewer, and Mayra David“When it comes to wine and love, I get attached,” writes Alice Feiring, Brooklyn-born journalist and author of In Vino Veritas. The debut memoir chronicles the blogger’s international travels through famous vineyards in the hopes of discovering what fuels the uber-commercialization of the industry."
Prose Roundup
By Michele Filgate, Ben Mirov, Ralph Clare, Ben Mirov, and Clinton KruteRoberto Bolaño’s books should be stacked on your bedside table. They should be battered and dog-eared, coffee stained, and creased.
Prose Roundup
By Erin Heath, Ben Mirov, Tatiaana Laine, Ken Murray, Gary Lain, Lara Tupper, Clinton Krute, and Zoe SlutzkyHaruki Murakami, Hannah Tinti, Robert Goolrick, Tao Lin, Harold Jaffe, Amanda Petrusich, Stephanie Kuehnert, Sarah Shun-lien Bunum
Prose Roundup
By Ben Mirov, Mayra David, Jackson Taylor, and Tatiaana LaineFull of innovative stylistic flourishes and classic noir motifs, Abraham Rodriguez’s new crime novel South by South Bronx is infused with the right balance of new and old.
