Highlighting recently released and forthcoming works by marginalized creators
Is a parent responsible for a child who commits a crime? If so, how can she deal with that burden?
These are the questions that haunt Flo when her daughter Teddy plans to visit after a long separation. The prospect of seeing Teddy brings back painful memories of Teddy’s troubled past—a young teen imprisoned for committing murder. Can Flo find the strength to support or even cope with her daughter as she is now? Can she resurrect hope for either of them?
Flo must thrash through these questions alone; her dear friend and confidant has just died. Then, as she’s grappling with grief and guilt, her dog goes missing, and she takes a long walk to find him. On the surface, this is all that happens: A simple walk through a desert town. Encounters with people who uplift or unsettle her along the way. But for Flo, this journey becomes much more—a personal odyssey, as profound and disorienting as Ulysses’. She remembers an old folktale passed down by her family, about a young woman’s mythical journey to find her place in the world. Echoes of this tale play through the current story, and the hunt for Dog turns into a metaphysical search for meaning.
Ink & Blood & Nicotine by Maja Urukalo Franov
Ink & Blood & Nicotine is a deeply personal and affecting collection which turns an unflinching eye on the issues of modern society, finding refuge in the words and songs which offer understanding and comfort.
Urukalo Franov examines her world with a confronting directness, but leavens her poetry with humour and sympathy. At times chaotic and with the wild energy of creative thought, these poems will introduce you to a bold, new poetic voice, but will leave you to answer its questions as best you can.
The Longest Way to Eat a Melon by Jacquelyn Zong-Li Ross
Equal parts melody and malaise, The Longest Way to Eat a Melon charts the activities of a cast of speakers who all grapple in their own ways with what it takes to conjure a self in the midst of discordance. A brain argues with a non-brain about how to remain productive from a place of exhaustion; two supernaturally inclined twins named Han are separated at birth; and an emerging artist overwhelmed by possibility considers how best to transform a melon into a breakthrough work of art. Incorporating elements of fable, surrealism, satire, and art and cultural criticism, these stories have a playful peculiarity to them, an interweaving of self-deprecation and curiosity, of woe and hope, of absurdity and humanity. Reader, you will want to savor every bite.
VAGABOND CITY 