An enduring collection straddling time, language, and genre to explore Indigenous futures that await on and off the page.
A collection of more than 20 Indigenous writers carving out space in the literary canon.
“We are many and diverse cultures, histories, and present-day realities…There’s incredible beauty in this, our variety,” the editors write in their introduction. Featuring Indigenous writers of poetry and prose, including women, two-spirit people, and people of marginalized genders, the collection places particular emphasis on emerging writers: “We hold the door open behind us and encourage others to do the same.” Rooted in the past, present, and futures (both real and imagined), Indigenous language, culture, resilience, sorrow, hope, and traditions are fully realized in this collection. In A.J. Eversole’s engaging “Dilasulo Walks,” Little Dilasulo, a pair of moccasins that yearns to be worn, finds sentience after 177 years. Little Dilasulo fears that Indigenous people’s art, like themself, will forever be trapped within museums as “the aftermath of our apocalypse.” Imbued with science fiction and horror elements, Moniquill Blackgoose’s “Sky Woman Rising: A Memoir” and Denetsosie’s “No Wrong Roads Home” notably explore the apocalypse as a way back to humanity and the Earth (“All Natives have lived in a dystopia since colonization,” Denetsosie writes). Poetry standouts include Ayling Dominguez’s “Alfabetízate Otro Mundo: Reverse Abecedarian Broke Open” (“The path to liberation gets wider the more of us tread it”); Ha’åni Lucia Falo San Nicolas’ “Kahilinā’i” (“our shared being as / women of the Pacific. I knew / you long before I learned your // name…”); Arielle Twist’s “In the beginning, it’s just you and me against the world” (“My haunting will be one of longing / to love something as you have loved me”); and Amelia Vigil’s “Splice of Genetic Material” (“these bones / these bones // are on loan”). Though the collection’s organization can feel jarring at times, the interconnectedness of the writing and the writers—as Indigenous people, stewards of the land, and keepers of history—serves as the anthology’s beating heart.
An enduring collection straddling time, language, and genre to explore Indigenous futures that await on and off the page.Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9798890920300
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Torrey House Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.
A lifetime’s worth of letters combine to portray a singular character.
Sybil Van Antwerp, a cantankerous but exceedingly well-mannered septuagenarian, is the titular correspondent in Evans’ debut novel. Sybil has retired from a beloved job as chief clerk to a judge with whom she had previously been in private legal practice. She is the divorced mother of two living adult children and one who died when he was 8. She is a reader of novels, a gardener, and a keen observer of human nature. But the most distinguishing thing about Sybil is her lifelong practice of letter writing. As advancing vision problems threaten Sybil’s carefully constructed way of life—in which letters take the place of personal contact and engagement—she must reckon with unaddressed issues from her past that threaten the house of cards (letters, really) she has built around herself. Sybil’s relationships are gradually revealed in the series of letters sent to and received from, among others, her brother, sister-in-law, children, former work associates, and, intriguingly, literary icons including Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry. Perhaps most affecting is the series of missives Sybil writes but never mails to a shadowy figure from her past. Thoughtful musings on the value and immortal quality of letters and the written word populate one of Sybil’s notes to a young correspondent while other messages are laugh-out-loud funny, tinged with her characteristic blunt tartness. Evans has created a brusque and quirky yet endearing main character with no shortage of opinions and advice for others but who fails to excavate the knotty difficulties of her own life. As Sybil grows into a delayed self-awareness, her letters serve as a chronicle of fitful growth.
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9780593798430
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.
A struggling writer finds an unexpected muse when a mysterious man shows up at her cabin.
Petra Rose used to pump out a bestselling book every six months, but then the adaptation happened—that is, the disastrous film adaptation of her most famous book. The movie changed the book’s storyline so egregiously that fans couldn’t forgive her, and the ensuing harassment sent Petra into hiding and gave her a serious case of writer’s block. Petra’s one hope is her solo writing retreat at a remote cabin, where she can escape the distractions of real life and focus on her next book, a story about a woman having an affair with a cop. When officer Nathaniel Saint shows up at her cabin door, inspiration comes flooding back. Much like the character from Petra’s book, Saint is married, and he’s willing to be Petra’s muse, helping her get into her characters’ heads. Petra’s book is practically writing itself, but is the game she’s playing a little too dangerous? Does she know when to stop—and, more importantly, is Saint willing to stop? Hoover is no stranger to controversial movie adaptations and internet backlash, but she clarifies in a note to readers that she’s “just a writer writing about a writer” and that no further connections to her own life are contained in these pages—which is a good thing, because the book takes some horrifying twists and turns. Petra finds herself inexplicably attracted to Saint, even as she describes him as “such an asshole,” and her feelings for him veer between love and hate. The novel serves as a meta commentary on the dark romance genre—as Petra puts it, “Even though, as readers, we wouldn’t want to live out some of the fantasies we read about, it doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy reading those things.”
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2026
ISBN: 9781662539374
Page Count: -
Publisher: Montlake
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
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