Follow. By Amy Wright Vollmar. (Cornerpost Press, 2020, Pp. 105) Reviewed by Craig Albin Amy Wright Vollmar’s poetry collection Follow is a double first, a debut collection by an estimable poet and the initial poetry offering by Cornerpost Press, an independent publishing company founded by Ozark writers Phillip and Victoria Howerton. The pairing between Vollmar and … [Read more...] about Book Review: Follow
A History of the Ozarks, Volume 2: The Conflicted Ozarks. By Brooks Blevins. (University of Illinois Press, 2019. Pp. 297.) Reviewed by D. Matt McGowan Imagine this scenario: a band of misfits show up in your front yard. They raid your closets and refrigerator. They steal your car. Then, depending on your politics, they kill your father and maybe an older brother … [Read more...] about Book Review: A History of the Ozarks, Volume 2: The Conflicted Ozarks
Ozarks RFD: Selected Essays 2010-2015. By Jim Hamilton. (Cornerpost Press, 2020, Pp. 270) Reviewed by Steve Wiegenstein The newspaper column is a surprisingly difficult genre: strict word count limits, inflexible deadlines, and the necessity to be both original and familiar to a broad spectrum of readers. Jim Hamilton is a master practitioner of the form. For more … [Read more...] about Book Review: Ozarks RFD, Essays 2010-2015
The Closing The hands grasping the loan papers have long Broad fingers, farmer-strong, His father’s gift to him, along With the money that allowed the son To escape the farm. The elder had worked hard, was one Who had what is called luck. Why should the boy craft or husband When he could do . . . something else? So he went Dutifully to school, worked hard, was as … [Read more...] about Poetry: Robert L. Mahon (Issue Ten)
The Farm Youth’s Companion Death was in the cemetery of strangely named ancestors; in old farmers with abandoned cancers on their faces where cheekbones angled skin always to sun; in the family that slept through a house fire on the first cold night of fall; in the bloated circle of cows rounding a lightning-struck black oak; in the ancient, shrunken uncle spitting … [Read more...] about Poetry: Douglas Stevens (Issue Ten)