Susan Delaney Spear

Accumulated Lessons in Displacement

Arts & Literature

“Rachel Hicks, a global nomad, clearly perceives the nuanced natural world, its light and shadow, birdsong and rain, and the unseen world in all its mystery and complexity. This pilgrim is both at home and searching for a home. If you ‘wander unknown,’ may Hicks’s verses serve as an ‘astonishing little altar,’ built by her own gifted and ‘benevolent hand’ to ‘point the way.’”

Subtle Man Loses His Day Job and Other Stories

Fiction

“In this collection of short stories, Thomas Allbaugh has created a cast of complex, fully realized characters: Neal, Winky, Phil, and others possess an inherent longing for the transcendent with no trace of sentimentality or predictability. When you walk into the Side Step Bar, where ordinary people discuss the ineffable, you will recognize your co-workers, your neighbors, and yourself. These tales will woo you, you will read and reread, and your rereading will be rewarded. Subtlety is only one of Allbaugh’s many superpowers.”

Where Sunday Used to Be

Arts & Literature

“Do not be deceived by the accessibility of Klawitter’s verse: this poet is ‘as slippery as a porpoise, / skimming the surface, then diving to the depths.’ Lines that initially make you laugh aloud will take root and lead to serious pondering. Klawitter draws on ancient philosophy, current politics, friendship, and love, to woo us with the art of his words to love justice and mercy and ‘our neighbors as ourselves.”