Author: Rae Cline

Very excited that Khadijah Queen will be a 2025 Visiting Writer at Longleaf Writers Conference this year. I am reading her poetry collection, Anodyne (Tin House Books, 2020). "In the event of an apocalypse, be ready to die," the opening poem in the collection, proves  prescient for today's reader: "But do also ... Read More

I had the honor of being in Andre Dubus III's fiction workshop at  Aspen Words. Great group of writers led by Dubus, a dynamic and compassionate workshop leader. He will be featured at the Longleaf Writers Conference on the Gulf ... Read More

Had the pleasure of meeting Seth Brady Tucker and a few of the Longleaf group at the Longleaf Writers Conference booth at AWP this year. One of the best parts of AWP is discovering and rediscovering communities and books. Right now, I'm enjoying "Beautiful Boys in Brodie Helmets," the first ... Read More

I had the pleasure of hearing John Madera read from his debut flash fiction collection, Nervosities at the KGB Bar in NYC a few weeks ago. Enjoying "Some Varieties of Being and other Non Sequiturs," the first story in the collection of innovative, word-bending flash fiction released by Anti-Oedipus Press ... Read More

Enjoying "Eros and Sorrow" in Patrycja Humienik's poetry collection, We Contain Landscapes (Tin House): "I'm crying after sex. Kettle's going off / and off—the arrows in that / sound could puncture even steel. / I pour slowly, opening a curtain / in the back of mind...." ... Read More

Enjoying the first chapter, "Gotchernose," in Don't Go Crazy Without Me (Red Hen Press) by Deborah A. Lott: "'Gotchernose,' he'd say. Then he'd sweep his hand back across my face and reveal his empty palm to suggest no harm done! and put my nose back on. Roy's trick said that even the most dire ... Read More

Enjoying "Alba Blanca" the first poem in Fred Arroyo's collection Alba and Other Songs released from Gunpowder Press: "My father hardly ever said a word to me. / He held his language, his family / his lovely garden so close to his rolled up sleeves, so tight / within his fists, that words, ... Read More

Enjoying Better to Cry Now: Shaping the Flow of a Gay Black Man, a memoir by Geoffrey Newman and out from River Grove Books: Act I: Striving (1956-1964) My French teacher at Calvin Coolidge Public High School in Washington, DC, made a troubling announcement on my first day of tenth grade. "Neither ... Read More

Enjoying White Mulberry by Rosa Kwon Easton out from Lake Union Publishing: "...Once, she had seen some young men at the market staring at her sister like this—like she was something they wanted to own. While Bohbeh had blushed at the men's attention, Miyoung had thrust herself into their view. Born in ... Read More

Enjoying The Tutor, a novel by Marilee Albert, out from Rare Bird Books: "...I caress the smooth stone of the famous martyr burned at the stake for heresy five hundred years ago and muse on his sacrifice. Would anyone today give their life for a cause...?" ... Read More

Enjoying the first poem in My Heresies (Sarabande Books), a poetry collection by Alina Stefanescu: "I am eating raw violets / I am curious about the possessing / in the having been possessed...." I was delighted to receive her first signed copy at AWP 2025 in Los Angeles, California ... Read More

I'm enjoying the first chapter of Arroyo (Rare Bird Books), "The Birds of Pasadena," by Chip Jacobs: "Say what you will about his morning pep and cowlick, his galling diet and corny pride. No one ever rode Mrs. Grover Cleveland, the animal, quite like Nick Chance...." ... Read More

The total range of awareness and emotive-mental response of an individual, from the lowest pre speech level to the highest fully articulated level of rational thought ... Read More