All through college, and for several years after, I was a self-professed true crime girlie. I suspect my interest sprung from watching CSI with my parents growing, nestled up in the secure monotony of Midwest farmland while learning about decomposition and blood splatter. In my mid-20s, several provoking pieces about survivorhood and a handful of […]
Local book reviews
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Book Review: ‘Fashion Activist: My Life as a Designer, Dreamer, and Disrupter’ by Andre Wright
This past May, I had the pleasure of attending Beyond Fashion Fest in Iowa City. Launched by Iowa native Andre Wright, it was a weekend of fashion, comedy and fun. As a Black woman, witnessing a brother move in his own creative lane was inspirational. I walked away from the festivities thinking, “How did he […]
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Book Review: ‘The Mean Ones’ by Tatiana Schlote-Bonne
Tatiana Schlote-Bonne’s sophomore novel The Mean Ones (Creature Publishing) sounds relatively straightforward from the summary: a young girl survives a ritual sacrifice in the woods at summer camp, from which she suffers intense PTSD, and upon finding herself in the woods as an adult she’s faced with familiar horrors. In reading the book, though, the […]
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‘Goethe’s Oak: A Holocaust Story’ by John T. Price
There’s this Andrea Gibson quote you may have come across in light of the poet’s passing this summer: “When nothing softens the grief, may grief soften me.” In a sense, the task that author John T. Price takes up in his new piece of hybrid literature published by Ice Cube Press, Goethe’s Oak: A Holocaust […]
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Book Review: ‘Every Day, I’m Brave’ by Renee Zukin
I had been at a crossroads in my life the first time I met Renee Zukin. She was working as a brilliant educator in Coralville while my decade-long career as a program manager was going nowhere slowly. It was this dead-end gig that landed me in Zukin’s classroom one afternoon in 2017. It was a lively […]
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Mindy Mejia’s Iowa Mysteries series continues with ‘The Whisper Place.’ Refresh on all the action before you crack it open
Midwest thrillers are few and far between, but every time one crops up it scratches a special itch in my heart. There is something rich and powerful at having scenes from your childhood play out with hints of something absolutely foreign. Mindy Mejia is helping build the Midwest mystery genre with the third installment of her “Iowa Mysteries” series…
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Book Review: ‘Dear Marty, We Crapped In Our Nest’ by Art Cullen
Being an Iowan has been difficult for those of us who love our home and are horrified by its policies. Art Cullen, in his new book Dear Marty, We Crapped In Our Nest (Ice Cube Press), lays bare the complicated web of events that made it this way…
Posted inBook Reviews
Book Review: ‘The Whisper Place’ by Mindy Mejia
Mindy Mejia’s The Whisper Place continues her Iowa Mysteries series, following cop-turned-private-investigator Max Summerlin and his psychic friend and work partner, Jonah Kendrick.
Posted inBook Reviews
Book Review: ‘The Body Farm’ by Abby Geni
The Body Farm by Abby Geni is a collection of stories rooted deeply in the physical. Although the collection derives its title from the final short story of the book, it is an aptly chosen one; each story focuses on the disastrous effects of life on the human body, running from the miraculous to the […]
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Book Review: ‘At the Park on the Edge of the Country’ by Austin Araujo
Austin Araujo’s debut poetry collection At the Park on the Edge of the Country (Ohio State University Press) explores life at the intersections of immigration and naturalization, adulthood and childhood, understanding and apathy. Using figurative language and descriptive imagery, the collection’s three sections separate poems into formal and thematic movements. The first section addresses borders, […]
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Book Review: ‘New and Old’ art zine by Cooper Whittlesey
There’s something omnivorously large about Cooper Whittlesey’s aesthetic. He’s obviously spent time studying his craft, even though he might be considered an outsider or underground artist. His work suggests that of Gary Panter, Jean-Michel Basquait and Harmony Korine. That’s who came to mind when I came across Whittlesey’s book of collected works, New and Old, […]
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Book Review: ‘Off Izaak Walton Road: The Grace that Comes Through Loss’ by Laura Julier
In Becoming Native to This Place, Wes Jackson says, “Either all the earth is holy or none is. Either every square foot of it deserves our respect or none does.” In Off Izaak Walton Road, winner of the River Teeth Literary Nonfiction Prize, Laura Julier shows us how true this is with heart, grace and […]
