On the Level
Mark Wagstaff’s new novel, On the Level, crashes the Jason Bourne films into Catcher in the Rye. Non-stop intrigue drives a coming-of-age story in which protagonist Riz Montgomery is both an unforgettably troubled, smart, and passionate…
Furnace Creek
Furnace Creek retells the classic bildungsroman Great Expectations, exchanging Victorian England for 1960s America, arguably one of the most turbulent decades in social history.
As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning
For those who enjoy the unconventional bildungsroman—or are thirsting for some adventure—read this memoir by Laurie Lee. Originally published in 1969, it recounts the poet's long walk across Spain in the 1930s.
Category Unknown
Category Unknown by Koushik Banerjea is a dense and ambitious book that continues the conversation relaunched by the racial reckoning of 2020, "and reminds us that the conversation isn't the least bit new."
The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story
"Shattering one-sided, romanticized stories of how this country came to be…" Carol Ann Wilson reviews The 1619 Project, created by Nikole Hannah-Jones.
Two Novels that Strike Close to Home: On Finding Oneself in a Book
Geoffrey Dutton looks at the "book-within-a-book" literary device, as used in the 2015 novel Disclaimer— and his upcoming novel Her Own Devices.
The Philosophy of Marvin Goodspeed
The Regular, the new novel by Dave Buckhout, is a philosophical novel, and its main protagonist, Marvin Goodspeed, is a philosopher. That said, what is the philosophy of this modern day southern Cynic? And what, ultimately, is the book’s (and…
So You Want to Talk About Race: Understanding Racism in America
So You Want to Talk About Race is a vital book in our divisive society, to help all of us understand what is racial oppression and why we need to talk about it.
The Serpent Papers
The Serpent Papers is about the completion of Joseph Bell’s soul. This battle is fought within and without, and the outcome determines whether his soul lives or dies.
Grave Seas and A Syrian Riddle
“For a Syrian, like myself, the whole road to my country has been, and always will be, filled with fatal riddles and dangerous words.”-Hussam Eddin Baramo
Books
As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning
For those who enjoy the unconventional bildungsroman—or are thirsting for some adventure—read this memoir by Laurie Lee. Originally published in 1969, it recounts the poet's long walk across…
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Category Unknown
Category Unknown by Koushik Banerjea is a dense and ambitious book that continues the conversation relaunched by the racial reckoning of 2020, "and reminds us that the conversation isn't the…
Share
The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story
"Shattering one-sided, romanticized stories of how this country came to be…" Carol Ann Wilson reviews The 1619 Project, created by Nikole Hannah-Jones.
Share
Two Novels that Strike Close to Home: On Finding Oneself in a Book
Geoffrey Dutton looks at the "book-within-a-book" literary device, as used in the 2015 novel Disclaimer— and his upcoming novel Her Own Devices.
Share
Interviews
Jasmine H. Wade
Jasmine H. Wade is an award-winning writer obsessed with the ridiculous, and oftentimes traumatic, trials of growing up. She is a member of the AfroSurreal Writers Workshop and her short stories have appeared in a number of journals.
Mona Houghton, on influences in writing and style
Mona Houghton is an award-winning author and teacher. She has published stories in multiple literary magazines. In this interview, she shares what influences her writing, her process, and teaching experiences…and an amazing reading list!
Carol Ann Wilson: “I continue to write because I must.”
Carol Ann Wilson’s first book, Still Point of the Turning World: The Life of Gia-fu Feng, won Foreword Reviews Book of the Year Award in biography, and was a finalist for the 2010 Indie New Generation Award and the Colorado Author’s League Top Hand Award. Because We Wanted To!: Two women, a dream and a ranch called Singing…
Michael Fertik
Michael Fertik is a published fiction author, poet, produced film writer, and playwright whose writing has won fiction, poetry, and film prizes and includes a New York Times Bestseller. His novella Allotrope was published in The Write Launch and a review of his book Hip Set is available on bookscover2cover. Michael is a graduate of Harvard…
The Writer’s Journey
Making It Up
My mother was a great reader of romances. Not the classic kind. The sort that make money. In my far-back childhood in the last century, reading a book was still a usual way to pass time.
Parts of Me: Reflections on Reviewing The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story
In this Writer's Journey essay, Carol Ann Wilson shares how, in reading and reviewing The 1619 Project, she also uncovers "parts of a bigger me to be discovered and explored."
Never Gonna Give It Up
I guess I am a lesson in never giving up. I’m almost 70 (well, I just turned 69 so 70 is a year away – still seems like almost). I started writing seriously when I was about 35. Before that, I did lazy hippie things like a lot of short-term jobs and a lot of just living life. I went back to college – if you can call…
It’s a London thing
Ever find yourself rolling your eyes when you hear that phrase ‘back in the day’? As often as not uttered by some grisled cynic bemoaning the loss of an older world and its deep treasures. Analogue by instinct, the lament typically covers those tangible gifts of vinyl, gatefold sleeves, hard copy and some even tougher…
On Telling a Fractal: Parsing Patterns in My Prose
When you look at a mathematical fractal, you see self-similarity; not only do different parts of the figure look almost alike, it looks the same as you zoom in and out of it, its form governed by the parameters of the iterative algorithm that generates it. Can narratives similarly iterate by filling time rather than space,…
A Matter of Serendipity
Today, I am reveling, writing in Edith Wharton’s house, The Mount. It’s quiet. I am sitting at a small table in front of a window in the room on the third floor that was Henry James’ bedroom. I knew I wanted to write from an early age but lacked the courage to pursue my dream. I was a born reader but that didn’t mean I could…
The Writer’s Journey
Making It Up
My mother was a great reader of romances. Not the classic kind. The sort that make money. In my far-back childhood in the last century, reading a book was still a usual way to pass time.
Parts of Me: Reflections on Reviewing The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story
In this Writer's Journey essay, Carol Ann Wilson shares how, in reading and reviewing The 1619 Project, she also uncovers "parts of a bigger me to be discovered and explored."
Never Gonna Give It Up
I guess I am a lesson in never giving up. I’m almost 70 (well, I just turned 69 so 70 is a year away – still seems like almost). I started writing seriously when I was about 35. Before that, I did lazy hippie things like a lot of short-term jobs and a lot of just living life. I went back to college – if you can call…
It’s a London thing
Ever find yourself rolling your eyes when you hear that phrase ‘back in the day’? As often as not uttered by some grisled cynic bemoaning the loss of an older world and its deep treasures. Analogue by instinct, the lament typically covers those tangible gifts of vinyl, gatefold sleeves, hard copy and some even tougher…
Essays
Creativity is the Human Condition
Throughout the majority of humanity’s existence, creativity has been regarded as a mystical enigma. Architect and architecture critic Robert Furneaux Jordan asserted that “to comprehend [creativity] fully would be to be God. We can never comprehend God.” Thanks to this prevailing opinion, it wasn’t until the late 1940s that the study of creativity even started down the path toward legitimacy. In the seven decades since, the psychological and neurological basis of creativity has been fully extracted from the occult and shown to be ingrained in our species.
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Essays
Creativity is the Human Condition
Throughout the majority of humanity’s existence, creativity has been regarded as a mystical enigma. Architect and architecture critic Robert Furneaux Jordan asserted that “to comprehend [creativity] fully would be to be God. We can never comprehend God.” Thanks to this prevailing opinion, it wasn’t until the late 1940s that the study of creativity even started down the path toward legitimacy. In the seven decades since, the psychological and neurological basis of creativity has been fully extracted from the occult and shown to be ingrained in our species.
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The End of the Beginning
Building the Structural Foundation When I write, I have a plot sketched out in my mind and sometimes laying out the groundwork can be laborious and even boring. It’s essential, though, that I push my way through the initial drudgery and progress to the middle and the end of the story. When I finally type “The End,” I know I’m deluding myself. It’s only the end of the beginning. Usually at…
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Tell Me a Fractal
Think of a snowflake forming around a molecule of water clinging to a tiny particle of something, how it blossoms and diverges as other molecules join in, seeking their hexagonal destiny, becoming a perfect thing of beauty. Then think of it melting, its sharp edges blurring, its interstices blotting out until it plops to earth. That’s a story, right there, in full surround. Matter, space…
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Liu Xiaobo: Tyranny, Freedom of Conscience, and the Incompleteness of the Individual
After Liu Xiaobo won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010, I followed the news about him—this dissident public intellectual who had given the Chinese government a major headache. Having read many books about nonviolent thought and action, I sensed that Liu Xiaobo’s life and writing could deepen my understanding further: He believed that words followed by action could change the direction of a country.
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Longform reviews
The Way to the Spring: Life and Death in Palestine
Ben Ehrenreich, on assignment for Harper’s magazine, went to Palestine’s West Bank in 2011 to report on Israel’s water war with Palestine. The Way to the Spring is based on his eye-witness account of life in the West Bank—in the village of Nabi Saleh and the cities of Hebron and Ramallah.
The New Jim Crow
Why has an academic book with a title that includes this mix—“Jim Crow,” “mass incarceration,” and “colorblindness”— resonated with the public? Clearly, Alexander has hit a nerve. Something profound is happening in American society.
Hip Set
Michael Fertik’s novel Hip Set is not only a thrilling detective story but also a literary inquiry into the sacred and the profane—the secular sandwiched between both. When it comes to human behavior, there is nothing pure about it, just as there is nothing pure about what lies on an arc between good and bad or between heaven and hell.
God Help the Child
The reality and impact of child abuse rests uneasily, front and center, with the interwoven themes of love and transformation. Meticulously crafted, God Help the Child is a journey of souls and hearts, a must-read book.
No Enemies, No Hatred: Selected Essays and Poems
Liu Xiaobo is the author of hundreds of essays and seventeen books. Most of the essays in No Enemies, No Hatred are from the period between 2004 and 2008, and reflect, in the service of freedom of speech, how words followed by action can change the direction of a country.
From the Archive
You’ll Find Me in the Darkness, If I Let You
The poetry of Anthony Perales comprises straightforward and telling narratives about growing up in San Pedro, chasing the dragon, spending time in prison, learning native doctrine in the…
Empire of the Summer Moon
S. C. Gwynne’s Empire of the Summer Moon is an historical narrative of heroes and legends set against the panorama of the American West, particularly the Texas frontier between the years 1836…
Chaya Bhuvaneswar: a reading list from a powerful voice in fiction
Chaya Bhuvaneswar is a new voice in fiction with the recent publication of her debut story collection, White Dancing Elephants. In her interview with bookscover2cover, Chaya notes that her…
Diane Chamberlain, an Author Study
Diane Chamberlain writes compelling fiction that features young female protagonists striving to prevail in a world that proves to be hostile towards them for reasons that are revealed as the…