Jim Kates

Poetry Review: The Word-Whipped Verse of “Flame in a Stable”

January 15, 2022
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Flame in a Stable admits the reader into the committed life of a literate, far-reaching, colloquial, passionate, playful, and witty poetic voice,

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Book Review: “Walk With Me” — The Heroism of Fannie Lou Hamer

October 30, 2021
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A three-dimensional portrait of one of the most powerful and eloquent leaders of the civil rights movement in Mississippi.

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Poetry Review: Ruth Lepson’s “on the way” — Basking in the Glow

October 28, 2021
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Ruth Lepson’s poetry, at its most successful, creates the evocative and stimulating effect of a koan.

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Book Review: “What Strange Paradise” — Unforgettable

October 23, 2021
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Run, do not walk, to pick up your copy of this novel about little person caught up in a very big world.

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Poetry Review: “Black Earth” — The Irresistible Appeal of Poet Osip Mandelstam

August 13, 2021
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Russian poet Osip Mandelstam’s “ancient language” is rendered into real contemporary poetry in English that succeeds in speaking eloquently to the inner eye and ear.

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Poetry Review: “Beowulf & Beyond” — A Rousing Night Out with Old English

July 25, 2021
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Translator Dan Veach invites us to “pull up a bench in the mead hall, grab a brew, and enjoy a jazzy new performance.”

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Book Review: “A Place Like Mississippi” — The Home of a Sophisticated Multiracial Literary Culture

May 24, 2021
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Literate people in the state will be familiar with this story, but it may come as a revelation to those whose Mississippi is limited to a cultural Bermuda Triangle on whose sharp angles sit William Faulkner, John Grisham, and Oprah Winfrey.

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Book Review: “Roundabout of Death” — No Safe Havens

May 13, 2021
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The strength of Roundabout of Death lies in its credibility, and in a specificity that defies detail.

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Poetry Review: “Everyday Mojo Songs of Earth” — Yusef Komunyakaa, A Poet Who Expresses the World

April 6, 2021
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It is always a pleasure to read the poems of a writer who has an ear for language and an eye for form, a voice of their own, and an interest in a world beyond the reach of their own person.

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Book Review: “In Memory of Memory” — Riven Recollections

March 31, 2021
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It is the loss of memories and the meaning of memory that dominate, generating speculations that draw the reader into and through Maria Stepanova’s argument and interpretations.

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