USEREVIEW 128: Doomscroll Poetics

USEREVIEW 128: Doomscroll Poetics

John Nyman parts the clouds and parses the pareidolia in this traditional review of ryan fitzpatrick’s latest poetry collection Sunny Ways (Invisible Publishing, 2023). ISBN: 978-1-77843-018-3 |104 pp | $21.95 CAD / $16.95 USD | BUY Here #CAROUSELreviews#USEREVIEWEDNESDAY ‘Field Guide,’ the long poem that makes up the majority of ryan fitzpatrick’s most recent collection, Sunny Ways, begins: If I promised you a guideto life in the twenty-first centuryI’m sorry I failed you And, oh boy,

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USEREVIEW 127 (Capsule): Soldiers, Hunters, Not Cowboys

USEREVIEW 127 (Capsule): Soldiers, Hunters, Not Cowboys

Aaron TuckerSoldiers, Hunters, Not Cowboys (Coach House Books, 2023)ISBN: 978-1-55245-462-6 | 160 pp | $23.95 CAD / $18.95 USD | BUY Here #CAROUSELreviews#USEREVIEWEDNESDAY Published this spring by Coach House Books, Aaron Tucker’s Soldiers, Hunters, Not Cowboys is a novel divided in two. The book’s first half, formatted as a dialogue between an unnamed male protagonist and his ex-girlfriend Melanie, presents an extended synopsis and commentary on the 1956 John Wayne western The Searchers — both

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USEREVIEW 126 (Capsule): Discipline n.v.

USEREVIEW 126 (Capsule): Discipline n.v.

Concetta PrincipeDiscipline n.v. (Palimpsest Press, 2023)ISBN: 978-1-99029-349-8 | 216 pp | $19.95 CAD / $18.95 USD | BUY Here #CAROUSELreviews#USEREVIEWEDNESDAY Recounting Concetta Principe’s struggle to complete her PhD in interdisciplinary humanities as a middle-aged woman, Discipline n.v. is a lyric memoir whose page-or-less-long sections often resemble prose poetry. At its most essayistic, the book explores the disreputable origins of modern social science and humanities disciplines alongside their development by postmodern theorists (Derrida, Lacan, Blanchot, etc.)

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USEREVIEW 093: Critical Pictures

USEREVIEW 093: Critical Pictures

How can a critic respond to Zane Koss‘ debut collection, Harbour Grids (Invisible Publishing, 2022), which, despite being “a long poem in four parts” is textually, and even visually, sparse, defined as much by absence as by presence? In this experimental review, John Nyman mirrors Koss’ terse and spatial form, in an attempt to approach the text on its own terms — to chart a route for readers through the breakwater and steer us clearly

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USEREVIEW 055: Blowing Up the Book

USEREVIEW 055: Blowing Up the Book

In this tone-hopping traditional review, John Nyman buoyantly takes on the task of facing Paolo Javier’s challenging, genre-blending, Juvenalian poetry-comics hybrid book O.B.B. (Nightboat Books, 2021) featuring art by Alexander Tarampi and Ernest Concepcion. ISBN 978-1-64362-072-5 | 280 pp | $22.95 USD — BUY Here #CAROUSELreviews#USEREVIEWEDNESDAY Many books begin with a question of subject: What is this book about?­ A few, however, demand that we start somewhere even more fundamental: What (even) is this book?

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USEREVIEW 028: Loss for Words

USEREVIEW 028: Loss for Words

John Nyman parses, calculates and looks for linguistic solutions in this traditional review of Ian Williams’ poetry collection Word Problems (Coach House Books, 2020). ISBN: 978-1-552454145 | 96 pp | $21.95 CAD #CAROUSELreviews#USEREVIEWEDNESDAY Showcasing a wide range of formal experimentation, an obsession with the technical aspects of language and short, often sentimental lyrics voiced by everyperson speakers, Ian Williams’ poetry is driven by postmodern stylistic devices canonically linked to distancing an author’s identity from the

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USEREVIEW 004: Living Violence

USEREVIEW 004: Living Violence

John Nyman follows the mine shafts of Klara du Plessis‘ book of poetry Hell Light Flesh (Palimpsest Press, Sep 2020) and reports back on the glistening subterranean horrors he finds there. This traditional review examines the unsettling juxtaposition of artistry and rationalism with the terrifying triad of patriarchy, violence and trauma. ISBN 978-1-989287521 | 130 pp | $18.95 CDN / $17.95 USD #CAROUSELreviews Enormous in scope yet sharply-defined in subject, Klara Du Plessis’ second full-length

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