Melissa GrunowinThe CoilSuffering & Surprise: On Paul Crenshaw’s ‘This One Will Hurt You’A collection of essays with contemporary relevance, full of wonderment, heartbreak, personal history, & normalized violence.Oct 15, 2019Oct 15, 2019
Melissa GrunowinThe CoilPsychosis & Obsession: On Forrest Roth’s ‘Gary Oldman Is a Building You Must Walk Through’An anonymous narrator hinges all his hope for future happiness on a script for a commercial that will feature actor Gary Oldman.Jul 31, 2019Jul 31, 2019
Melissa GrunowinThe CoilBreak & Survive: On Meghan McClure’s ‘Portrait of a Body in Wreckages’McClure’s fragmented essay chapbook explores in lyrical prose the ways in which our bodies break, fail, overcome, and survive.Oct 8, 2018Oct 8, 2018
Melissa GrunowinThe CoilThe Paths of the Dead Intertwine: On R. J. Fox's 'Awaiting Identification'Fox's novel is a fictionalized account of characters based on real-life unidentified bodies.Aug 19, 2018Aug 19, 2018
Melissa GrunowinThe CoilRecovery, Survival, & Forgiveness: On Aimee Ross' 'Permanent Marker'Ross' recovery memoir has moments of surprise wit, compassion, and forgiveness, even for those who may not seem to deserve it.Aug 5, 2018Aug 5, 2018
Melissa GrunowinThe CoilComing to Terms with Loss: On Lisa Romeo's 'Starting with Goodbye'Romeo's grief memoir is a treasure box of tenderness, love, and nostalgia.Jul 28, 2018Jul 28, 2018
Melissa GrunowinThe CoilMesmerized by the Cosmos: On Rebecca Fish Ewan's 'By the Forces of Gravity'Fish Ewan's memoir-in-free-verse is a compelling auto-ethnography of a wayward childhood, loss of innocence, & search for love.Jul 22, 2018Jul 22, 2018
Melissa GrunowinThe CoilResilience & Adaptability: On Kelly Davio's 'It's Just Nerves: Notes on a Disability'Davio's essays handle with honesty and humor the complexities, misgivings, and misunderstandings of debilitating disease.Jun 30, 2018Jun 30, 2018
Melissa GrunowinThe CoilSouthern Feminism: On Beth Gilstrap's 'No Man's Wild Laura'Gilstrap's quintessential feminist Southern stories crackle with unflinching precision and prose narrated in a no-nonsense drawl.May 14, 2018May 14, 2018
Melissa GrunowinThe CoilUnsettling Surrealism: On Laura Trunkey’s ‘Double Dutch’Trunkey’s stories delve into the uncanny and bizarre to investigate traditional storytelling with unexpected narrators and a twist.May 3, 2018May 3, 2018