Publication: J.J. Steinfeld - Essays on His Works

I'm very happy to announce that I have an essay included in a recently published anthology looking at the life and works of PEI writer, and my good friend, J.J. Steinfeld. I have very limited experience writing more academic-style pieces, but I jumped at the opportunity to be a part of this book when scholar Sandra Singer from the University of Guelph contacted me two and a half years ago. My essay, "Situational Exposition: Elisions and Inclusions in J.J. Steinfeld's Word Burials" looks at J.J.'s 2009 novel through the lens of his being the child of Holocaust survivors, of his ongoing obsession with Franz Kafka and Samuel Beckett, and of the tradition of captivity narratives that J.J. and other writers have written.

The anthology includes other scholarship from such luminaries as George Elliot Clarke, Shane Neilson, Richard Lemm, and Singer herself. If you know J.J.'s work, this book is definitely worth picking up. And if you don't know his work, this would be a good time to start reading him.

M.

 

Acceptance: Grain magazine

So just before I took an extended long weekend and jaunted off to Scotland for a wedding, I received an acceptance letter from the venerable literary journal Grain out of Saskatchewan for a new poem of mine called "A Consortium of 26 Lien Lenders." No, that's not a joke - it actually is the title of the piece. (And many thanks to RR for providing the inspiration for it.) Anyhoo. The poem - the sixth I've published this year from the new manuscript - is slated to run in the magazine's fall issue, so look for it then.

M.

My review of The Nightingale Won’t Let You Sleep by Steven Heighton

I'm back in the digital pages of The Winnipeg Review with this evaluation of Steven Heighton's new novel, The Nightingale Won't Let You Sleep. I'm always impressed when a writer as accomplished in poetry as Heighton can also write well-crafted and gripping prose, and that is certainly the case here. This story, set on the divided island of Cyprus, weaves a complex tale about love, loyalty and authoritarianism in an abandoned resort town called Varosha. Definitely worth checking out. Read the review.

M.