Dec 22
A Series of Replays: Pella Felton reviews Apostasies by Holli Carrell Carrell, Holli (2025) Apostasies (Poetry Collection). Perugia Press. Apostasies reads like a history lesson wrapped in a memory play. Salt Lake City native Holli Carrell’s ambitious collection presents a thorough, personal study of structural gender violence in the Mormon church. Carrell alternates between a dialogic interrogation of …
Dec 17
Pella Felton reviews Super Cherry Extra by Misti Rainwater-Lites. Rainwater-Lites, Misti (2025) Super Cherry Extra (Poetry Collection). Swooncake Press. 80p. In her delightfully bitter poem “Most Likely To Recede,” Texas poet and future camp icon Misti Rainwater-Lites expertly and correctly identifies the moral failings of MFA poets as a species. Having been herself rejected from MFA programs earlier in her career, …
Dec 10
Pella Felton reviews Neon Pastoral by Valerie Perreault Perreault, Valerie (2025) Neon Pastoral (Poetry Collection). The Ashland Poetry Press. 97p. $17.95 (Paperback) Winner – 2024 Richard Snyder Memorial Prize Early in Neon Pastoral, Valerie Perreault addresses the mysterious subject of her Richard Snyder Memorial Prize-winning collection with a bold promise: “You are almost ready to be born, baby”. Perreault means this in …
Nov 26
Pella Felton Reviews Streetlamp Nautilus by Catharine Batsios Batsios, Catharine (2025). Streetlamp Nautilus (Poetry Collection) Luchador Press 98p. $13.00 (Paperback) By the time the I made my way through the first page of Streetlamp Nautilus, I’d witnessed an aneurysm at a local diner, a bullet hole in the glass, and a long line of Buicks. …
