“Shedding Season” Casts a Spell

In their poems, Jane Morton finds incredible strength and beauty in being cracked open, shedding what no longer serves in order to become something new.

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Verdant Leaves and Apples Red as Blood: Austyn Wohlers’ “Hothouse Bloom”

In her debut novel Hothouse Bloom, Austyn Wohlers explores a millennial pastoral through the story of Anna, a former painter in her late twenties who flees home in search of paradise, only to witness its collapse. When Anna learns that her grandfather, Joe, has left her his orchard, she abandons her painting career and moves…

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Poetry Flowing from History in “You’re Called by the Same Sound”

A review of Alicia Wright’s August 2025 poetry collection “You’re Called by the Same Sound.”

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Sarah Pekkanen’s “The Locked Ward” is an Escapist Thriller

A review of Sarah Pekkanen’s new novel, “The Locked Ward.”

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Petty Yet Liberating Incivilities in “Be Gay, Do Crime”

Edited by Molly Llewellyn and Kristel Buckley, the stories in “Be Gay, Do Crime” are often chaotic and funny, but also filled with yearning and pain.

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Neighbors Hold Unusual Burials in “The Curious Calling of Leonard Bush”

Regardless of whether one might know Gilmore’s rural world intimately or not, “The Curious Calling of Leonard Bush” is an easy book to feel a kinship with because of its warmth — full of love, hope, kindness, and community.

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“Charlottesville” Is an American Story That Refuses To Let Hate Win

A look into Deborah Baker’s ‘Charlottesville’ and how past resistance connects to the future’s stand against hate.

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