Briefly Noted

“Ted Olson’s poems find a way between menace and mystery, acknowledging the impact of the past on the present, and gifts of recognition in the lifelong search for a home. The poems celebrate discoveries of the extraordinary in unlikely places and moments, which are the heart of poetry.”

“Though Pavese is now most famous for his fiction, he was a poet first of all, and Hard Labor was the work for which he hoped to be remembered. It is a book, he once said, “that might have saved a generation.” William Arrowsmith’s translations—with their strong lines and bold American diction—marvelously convey the spirit and complex vitality of the original.”

“David Madden’s memoir will appeal to creative writers, veterans, and the general reader. When he entered the army, he had already created many stories, poems, plays, and nonfiction. In reading and in writing, his focus was on technique, style, and imagery. Throughout his Army ordeals, Madden worked on his first novel, Cassandra Singing.”

“Reed’s classic, sharp and characteristically funny story of the Civil War, now with a new foreword by the author and a fresh introduction by Victor Lavalle. … With myth-bending ingenuity, Reed merges history, fantasy, political reality, and high comedy as he parodies the fugitive slave narrative … . Flight to Canada’s preposterous episodes leap out from the pages of history to reveal a keen sense of America past and present.”

“This book features fifteen notable campus forests in eleven states in the eastern United States, stretching from North Georgia, on up through the Ohio Valley and the mid-Atlantic region, into coastal Maine. … Woodlands of the Mind serves as a travel book for wanderers and armchair adventurers alike. These fifteen narratives, or “rambles,” guide readers through forests that range from small, hidden parks to vast preserves.”

“On the approaching 250th birthday of the United States, a double-edged moment in the history of America unlike anything they could remember, Southern journalists Frye Gaillard and Cynthia Tucker, one white, one black, who came of age during the civil rights years, paused to take a hard look at where the country is in the age of Trump.”