Wordgathering
A Journal of Disability Poetry and Literature
Volume 12 Issue 3 September 2018
- Home
- About Us
- In This Issue
- Contact Us
- Submission Guidelines
- Past Issues
Book Reviews in this Issue
Wordgathering leads off its September book reviews with two important books about the intersection of classic literary texts and autism. In See It Feelingly Ralph James Savarese argues that despite popular portrayal of people on the autism spectrum as incapable of understanding the emotions of others, they can, in fact, benefit from reading literary novels. Taking a different approach, Julia Miele Rodas makes the case that the same kinds of language that are characterized negatively in descriptions of autism are present in some classic novels that are recognized for their creativity. Two other reviews of non-fiction books include Georgina Kleege's long-awaited discussion of blindness and art and Dawn Raffel's reconstruction of a little known episode in American history when freak shows helped save the lives of pre-mature babies.
The five remaining book reviews introduce new books of poetry that include Jane Joritz-Nakagama's anthology women: poetry: migration and single author collections from Andrea Nicki, Susan Elmslie, sam sax and Diane Wiener.
- Susan Elmslie, The Museum of Kindness
- Jane Joritz-Nakagawa (ed.), women: poetry: migration
- Georgina Kleege, More Than Meets the Eye
- Andrea Nicki, You Can Make Your Own Rose
- Dawn Raffel, The Strange Case of Dr. Couney
- Julia Miele Rodas, Autistic Disturbances
- Ralph James Savarese, See it Feelingly
- sam sax, madness
- Diane Wiener, The Golem Verses
In addition to these reviews, readers may want to take a look at the first chapter of Maya Northen Augelli's story Work in Progress in the Excerpts section. Augelli sets out the beginnings of an historical novel in which a young writer is drawn into a community mystery.
As always, Wordgathering is indebted to those who offered their skills as book reviewers. In this issue they are: Will Bahr, Therése Halscheid, Emily K. Michael, Shane Neilson, and Ann E. Wallace. Each of them is an accomplished writer in their own right whose work can be seen listed in the journal's "Author Index." This journal is continually looking for writers interested in reviewing books in addition to recommendations for new books by writers with disabilities or in the field of disability literature to review. Queries can be addressed to comments@wordgathering.com.
Return to Top
This site is maintained by Michael Northen.