Editor’s Note


It is my pleasure to introduce the new reviews page at Tupelo Quarterly. Here you’ll find books that will change the way you think about language, literary tradition, and inherited forms of writing, as well as criticism that is as artfully written as the works themselves.

For the January launch, I have chosen to showcase new books by Tarfia Faizullah, Oliver de la Paz, and Joanna Ruocco, featuring reviews by Anne Champion, Carlo Matos, and myself. Each of the critics featured here are practicing literary artists who are as deeply invested in craft as they are eager to find readers for the books they love. And I feel that the titles selected for review are not only deserving of a wider audience, but also richer and more varied responses from the literary community at large.

I hope that the books that I’ve highlighted are as diverse as the poetry, fiction, memoir, and visual art found in each issue of Tupelo Quarterly. And I trust that the reviews included in this special launch engage their respective literary texts in ways that are equally wide-ranging, innovative, and complex.

In the coming months, look for reviews of new poetry, fiction, and nonfiction on the fifteenth day of each month. Happy new year, and welcome.