Ayad Akhtar creates a powerful literary assemblage in Homeland Elegies
…unfolds across a mash of forms, from family saga to political op-ed to Muslim history. Akhtar’s parents, both doctors, came to the United States to work. Ayad was born in…
In Yaa Gyasi’s Transcendent Kingdom, a neuroscientist tries to makes sense of her family’s unraveling
Yaa Gyasi’s new novel Transcendent Kingdom confronts the venerable question of whether science or religion better reveals the truth about life’s enduring mysteries. Theological questions such as the origin of…
Erica Waters’ Ghost Wood Song is a suspenseful story about grief, bravery, and growing up
…with unanswered questions. Only in the final chapters do we learn the truth about the murder, the Shadow Man, and the death of Shady’s father. And only then does Waters…
Contemporary Appalachian writers profile one another in Step into the Circle
…service and activism) as in their creative work, these writers understand that such commitment demands as much challenge and questioning as it does praise and celebration. Wiley Cash distills this…
Communing with the dead is good business in Helene Dunbar’s Prelude for Lost Souls
…brutal schedule and the death of her beloved mentor, Dmitry Petrov, Annie stumbles into St. Hilaire quite unexpectedly when her train breaks down nearby. Obsessed with an unfinished musical composition…
Ashleigh Bryant Phillips weaves a transcendent tapestry of stories in Sleepovers
…to ask for prayers about the unspeakable.” Phillips’ characters have rich interior lives that don’t always translate gracefully into their communities. Several stories in Sleepovers feature characters who aren’t from…
