Akpan, MacLeod, Muñoz, Savaş, Talty and Tamayose Short Stories in April, May and June 2023 Whether in a dedicated collection or a magazine, these stories capture a variety of reading moods. This quarter, I returned to two favourite writers and also explored four new-to-me story writers.
Dirty Work by Eyal Press (2021) landed in my stack following an interview with the New York Times Book Review editor. Its subtitle—Essential Jobs and the Hidden Toll of Inequality in America—summarizes the content aptly, but doesn’t express how un-put-down-able I found this book. Most of the time, when
Taiye and Kahinde are twin sisters, daughters of Kambirinachi: Butter Honey Pig Bread alternates between their perspectives, each woman narrating their contemporary experiences through the lens of key events in their pasts. The sister’s mother is Yoruba and their father is Igbo, something they often have to explain when
If you think you don’t like poetry, Simina Banu’s Pop will surprise you. Having just stumbled through a reading of W.B. Yeats’ 1919 The Tower, I approached Pop with that swelling sense of inadequacy that haunted me as a student, that I do not understand poetry. But what a
Best known as a poet, Anne Simpson has also published two novels prior to Speechless: her debut, Canterbury Beach (2001), and her follow-up, Falling (2008). This new book shifts to an overtly global focus and beckons to a broader readership. “A Hausa girl in Paiko, Niger State – Thomas
