Comments on: Play It Again, Sam: On Poetry Reviewing

By: Christine

Christine — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 03:49:09 +0000

By: Christopher William Purdom

Christopher William Purdom — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 17:57:10 +0000

I’m added mostly very short poetry book reviews to my personal site and am going to add at least one a month, and hopefully more.
http://www.philart.net/chrispurdom/poetrybookreviews.php
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By: Scott Hightower

Scott Hightower — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 13:13:21 +0000

BOXCAR POETRY REVIEW is an interesting on-line review site for FIRST BOOKS.
COLDFRONT MAGAZINE cuts a very wide swath.
BARROW STREET REVIEW has a place at the table for trying to keep a space opened for reviews and reviewers and a conversation about books.
I also follow SMALL SPIRAL NOTEBOOOK on the web and PEBBLE LAKE REVIEW (out of Houston) and BORDERLANDS (out of Austin).
DANIEL BORN does a great job at the COMMON REVIEW.
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By: Rigoberto

Rigoberto — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 13:39:41 +0000

Thanks, everyone, for these helpful suggestions. In terms of choosing to review a poetry book, I have a very simple policy: If I don’t like it, I move on to one that I do, and that I feel needs the audience. Review space is so valuable, I prefer to bring attention to noteworthy books.
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By: RK

RK — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 02:47:41 +0000

I’d like to second the mention of RATTLE…their e-reviews allow for a variety of approaches and styles. I worked with them recently (my first review, actually) and it was a great experience.
Also, JACKET has many good reviews….
Thanks for encouraging folks to try it…
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By: Alicia (A. E.)

Alicia (A. E.) — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 18:27:44 +0000

There’s also Contemporary Poetry Review online–(www.cprw.com)
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By: Bernadette Geyer

Bernadette Geyer — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 15:02:52 +0000

Another fine journal that publishes poetry book reviews online is The Montserrat Review, http://www.themontserratreview.com/bookreviews.html. And a friend of mine turned me on to http://www.GoodReads.com, which is kind of like MySpace for book-lovers.
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By: Anthony Buccino

Anthony Buccino — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 17:25:08 +0000

I bought a chapbook and would have like to write something nice about it, but I didn’t think most of the poems were ready. So rather than discourage the young poet I wrote nothing. Meanwhile, I do read other people work, I do, I do, I do!
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By: Miguel Murphy

Miguel Murphy — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 18:13:45 +0000

Don’t forget 42opus.com and RAINT TAXI online! Two great places to read thoughtful reviews of poetry. . .
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By: Jeannine Hall Gailey

Jeannine Hall Gailey — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 04:19:04 +0000

Thanks for this post!
Two good review sources:
I love New Pages because they do Lit Mag reviews and The Pedestal Magazine reviews books and, often, chapbooks.
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By: Sophia Kartsonis

Sophia Kartsonis — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 18:52:44 +0000

P.S.
Kathrine Wright and I edit wordsonwalls and we would dearly love to get some reviews to consider for publication.
Our next three issues are geographically-themed and would likely be most interested in reviews by or about writers in Ohio, Florida or Utah. We would certainly be open to considering others, as well.
Thanks!
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By: Sophia Kartsonis

Sophia Kartsonis — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 18:50:20 +0000

Thank you so much for promoting the reviews. It’s true that so many poets complain–often good-naturedly, in a self-deprecating way–that their books meet great silence after they are published. That may be so, and it might too, be true that we sing to our own verse-inebriated choir for the most part, and for those reasons we should read one another, we should write about one another. We should engage, even risk enraging one another if it means reading and writing and considering all of these books. Steve Fellner’s book is brave, sassy, sad and funny. Thanks for checking it out.
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By: Matthew Thorburn

Matthew Thorburn — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 17:13:06 +0000

Hi, Rigoberto. Great post. I’m working on writing reviews more often, though I’m nowhere close to two per month!
Another terrific online venue for book reviews is Rattle (http://www.rattle.com/ereviews.htm), which has started publishing “e-reviews” on their website. As Simon mentioned above, Boston Review’s microreviews (and their longer reviews of poetry too, of course) are another good place to go.
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By: Patricia Spears Jones

Patricia Spears Jones — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 12:19:29 +0000

Thanks Rigoberto–another reason for getting poets to review books is to get more of us to read each others work. One blogspot where poets write fairly lively reviews is Eileen Tabios’ galatea resurrects. Janet Hamill who had never written a review did one for my book last year and found it to be a great experience. A journal where many poets write is Black Issues Book Review,where I, Greg Pardlo, Tara Betts, et al have covered a growing number of books and anthologies by poets from the African Diaspora. Poetry continues to be the critic’s stepchild. But with poets and critics such as you and others, some attention gets paid. I enjoy your posts.
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By: Francisco Aragon

Francisco Aragon — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 04:05:22 +0000

Rigoberto’s tireless efforts at poetry book reviewing are, to a certain degree, what has prompted me to attempt a project I am embarking on with a mixture of excitement and trepidation: Latino Poetry Review, an online venture slated to launch in early 2008 in collaboration with my employer, the Institute for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame. It’s the reason I started a blog that goes by the same name, which Rigoberto linked readers to when he mentioned Robert Vasquez’s Braille for the Heart last week. Anyway, I bring it up here because I am indeed interested in connecting with potential reviewers, Latino and non-latino alike, who would like to have a crack at writing prose about Latino poetry. As I’ve said elsewhere, being a specialist in Latino poetry is not a requirement, just a desire to write thoughtfully about poets who happen to be Latino/a. I’ve been lucky enough to line up a number of reviewers whose writing I’ve enjoyed, but I’d like to hear from more people who have books or Latino/a poets they’re interested in writing about. Any questions? Drop me a note.
Thank you for this timely post, R
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By: Simon DeDeo

Simon DeDeo — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 03:10:27 +0000

Kate Greenstreet’s first book interviews are another great way to learn about things. And Janet Holmes, who runs a fantastic press, blogs pretty regularly about the stable. All of the bloggers do a little reviewing, some more “free form” than others.
I review things pretty regularly on rhubarb, and people have been fantastically generous in sending review copies. Interestingly, this past few months I’ve started hearing from the “mainstream” presses — this used to be a game only the subpress (literal or figurative) would play. Most recently, I covered a fantastic new Canadian poet, Sarah Lang, and a neglectorino, Victor Segalen.
As for print journals, there are many excellent ones and the blogs are not going to replace them soon. I think the Boston Review and the London Review of Books both do a fantastic job (and they are wide circulation.) Weirdly, Marjorie Perloff got really really pissed at the LRB because of an article they wrote right after 9/11, and declared she would boycott them, so no more Perloff wisdom to be found there.
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