Irina Dumitrescu, ed. Rumba under Fire: The Arts of Survival from West Point to Delhi (Punctum Books) Amid laments about the crisis of the humanities, it’s good to read about the power of humanities… Continue reading
Rebecca Perry – Beauty/Beauty (Bloodaxe, 2015) Rebecca Perry was invited to read (along with Helen Mort) as part of the St Mungo’s Mirrorball poetry events at Aye Write this year. Both are accomplished… Continue reading
Anthony Marra A Constellation of Vital Phenomena (Hogarth) I rarely like a novel as much as I enjoyed A Constellation. I read it when I was sick, I had lost my voice, had a fever… Continue reading
Karen Solie The Road in is Not the Same Road Out (House of Anansi) Some of what we Canadians export to the rest of the world properly attracts controversy. Oil, asbestos (until recently)… Continue reading
As someone who tells stories for a living I find myself reading very widely, for background about material and to understand my audience. This was the first year I have managed to attend… Continue reading
Joan Didion Salvador (Washington Square Press) My Dad gave me a second-hand copy of this book a few years ago and it sat on my bookshelf getting dusty until earlier this year (the book… Continue reading
David Means Hystopia (Faber and Faber) I keep telling people this was my favourite novel of the year. 2016 was, among other things, a year of Sixties novels. I’m constantly on the lookout for these… Continue reading
My book choices are inspired by an all-too-brief trip to Pakistan this year as part of a creative and cultural exchange organised by Highlight Arts. There is so much I don’t know about… Continue reading
I’m a little behind on my main pick for read of year: as many GRB readers will be well aware, Maggie Nelson’s remarkable memoir and work of “auto theory” The Argonauts (Graywolf Press)… Continue reading
Barbaric Vast & Wild (Black Widow Press), one of the many books edited by Jerome Rothenberg and John Bloomberg-Rissman, is a fascinating and huge compilation of poetry, from the origins of language and… Continue reading
