Wordgathering

A Journal of Disability Poetry and Literature
 

Volume 13     Issue 3     September 2019

Book Reviews in this Issue

covers of four books being reviewed

For readers seeking new books in disability literature, this issue's reviews are a treasure trove. It is one of the marks of the increasing growth and influence of disability literature that there are four new anthologies of work to choose from. Meg Day and Niki Herd have performed an incalculable service in locating and bringing together much of the work of activist poet Laura Hershey with commentary essays in the Unsung Masters Series. It is a long overdue book. Peter Catapano and Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, have pulled together over sixty essays from the much celebrated New York Times disability series to create what is sure to be a classic collection in About Us. With the help of Raymond Luczak's Squares & Rebels Press, poetry from the first ever Zooglossia conference for disabled writers, held in San Antonio this year, is available in We are not your metaphor. Finally, Sean Thomas Dougherty has collected the poetry of parents and care-givers of people on the autism spectrum in Alongside We Travel.

There are plenty of single-author books to choose from as well. The two novels reviewed are both set in Seattle, but couldn't be more different. Kathryn Trueblood's characters are suburbanites dealing with issue of personal health and raising children with disabilities, while Brian Birnbaum's book – the first released from Dead Rabbits Press – is an edgy experimental work dealing with the city's raw underside. Poetry is represented in Ann E. Wallace's first book Counting by Seven's and veteran poet Kathi Wolfe's new and selected poems, Love and Kumquats. Particularly exciting for those interested in Canadian poety is Roxanna Bennett's superbly-crafted Unseen Garden. Chris Grabbard's A Life Worth Living is a memoir of the life of his disabled son. Finally, the most scholarly work reviewed is surely Therí Pickens exploration of the intersection of disability and race through feminist speculative literature in Black Madness::Mad Blackness.

As Wordgathering has grown it is increasingly indebted to those who offer their skills as book reviewers. In this issue they are Tom C. Hunley, Anne Kaier, Tricia Knoll, Maura Madden and Emily K. Michael. While procedures for requesting book reviews may change in the future, for now writers who would like to review books for this journal or would like to have their own books reviewed should send a query to comments@wordgathering.com.

 

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