Three Creative Writing Program faculty share what they’re reading in February 2019:
“I’m currently working my way through Stephanie Young’s Pet Sounds, from Nightboat Books, and I’ve always thought no one does the line quite like Steph does — ‘for I knew I had / myself bewildered / the path direct’—I’m so taken by the angles and velocity these poems take across the page.” — Julia Bloch
“Strangers to Temptation by Scott Gould is a deftly written, keenly observant collection of short stories about growing up in the South in the early Seventies, just after the dislocations of the Civil Rights movement. Gould’s graceful, unadorned prose allows small and large truths to emerge free of affectation, and their impact is both immediate and lasting.” — Anthony DeCurtis
“I’ve just finished Heartland by Sarah Smarsh, and I was struck by how the author raises the stakes of her experience as poor and working class by directly addressing a daughter she never had, but feared she might. By employing this technique throughout the memoir, along with key facts about economics and politics, Smarsh teaches her readers about intergenerational poverty through her own family’s story.” — Jamie-Lee Josselyn