Review by Tyler R. Tichelaar In these pages, we might say the mystery of Bigfoot is solved, and yet, in all of his many aspects, as revealed by former two-time UP Poet Laureate Martin Achatz in this book, he becomes more enigmatic than ever. If you think you know Bigfoot,…
Review by Mack Hassler The Walloon Writers Review annual collection is inspired by Northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula. The Northern Shore of the UP from East to West is defined by the Big Lake with a small stretch of Lake Huron reaching toward Canada beyond the Bridge. On the…
Review by Deborah K. Frontiera What makes us “sane” or “insane”? That is the question poet Ellen Lord explores in her collection of poems, Relative Sanity. The opening poem, “Muse”, speaks of thoughts coming to us out of silence. Then there are memories of the poet’s childhood and her unbalanced…
Review by Ellen Lord My old friend Charlie kept telling me about the poetry of Andrew Riutta. Now, Charlie isn’t a poet but he is featured in some of these poems…so I didn’t take him too seriously until I finally ordered Blessed. I usually take my time in reading a…
By Ellen Lord I met Ronnie Ferguson after a Yooper Poetry reading at the Peter White Library in Marquette, Michigan. His kindness and his humor were palpable. I sensed a little ‘darkness’….and knew I had to have his new chapbook. When I Was a Fire is a powder keg of…
Review by Mack Hassler Lisa Fosmo, a fine UP poet, who identifies herself as a lifelong resident here currently living with her family in Escanaba and owning a camp West of Ishpeming, attended her first UPPAA spring conference in May 2024, says she was impressed and is now a new…
Review by Mack Hassler An early prose poem in this excellent collection of Yooper Poetry contains the Finn word vaaramaki, which means “danger hill.” The poem is by Kathleen M. Heideman who has some link to Finlandia University, formerly Suomi College, in Hancock. It may be now that even Finlandia…
Review by Mack Hassler I had said in an earlier review of one of the many collections by Splake as well as in Clutch collections by Zoschke, which contain a lot of Splake, that I thought he was winding down his enormous output of short poems. In fact, I used…
Marquette Poets Circle’s Newest Book Is Superior Five years ago, the Marquette Poets Circle wowed readers with their debut poetry book, Maiden Voyage. Their follow-up volume is titled Superior Voyage, and it is appropriately titled for it is a superior volume of poetry that just happens to have been written…
Review by Mack Hassler I had just finished reading the 2023 collection of Clutch, which is published just at the edge of the UP, when this collection of poems by Michael Butterworth came in the mail from much farther distant but still with what I hear as deep resonance for…
Review by Mack Hassler I am a great believer in serendipity and feel lucky that during the past year, my name has gotten linked to the work of Zoschke as well as to Zoschke on Splake (see several reviews of mine over recent months) because now I am given a…
Review by Mack Hassler I think there is no argument that our writers who set themselves up as our poets are the real forerunners in language development. Storytellers entertain us, historians order and give us useful general ideas, comic tone writers defend us against the many predators that lurk in…
Review by Mack Hassler This is my third review in six months of the work of this trickster with the Vonnegut-stolen name (t. kilgore splake) in the context of the “new literature” of the UP, and I think finally I begin to see clearly the profound loneliness of his chosen…
By Sharon Brunner Kilgore Splake elicits strong imagery about various life situations. “Camp Baraga Ghosts” contains photographs of the old prison that was located in Baraga, Michigan, long closed. The imagination is sparked by the renditions of things past. Splake provides this quote in his introduction: “The old long-abandoned and…
Review by Deborah K. Fronteira A poet as well-known as Raymond Luczak has been published in numerous books, anthologies, and literary journals. It would be hard to own all the various publications listed in the acknowledgment section of this volume, so Modern History Press made it easy working with Raymond…
Review by Sharon Brunner Dredge Artistic Decay, written by T. Kilgore Splake, offered the reader renditions of past losses. After the “Copper Boom” in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (U.P.), businesses crumbled and along came the appearance of industrial relics. During the boom miners dredged millions of pounds of copper…
Sons and Fathers in a New Place Review by Mack Hassler “ … in words begin responsibilities.” Louis Ginsberg to his son Allen Ginsberg in Dharma Lion (St Martin’s Press, 1992), 309. It is exciting to discover the Beat Generation in UP literature far from the Bay Area of the…
The Academy We Need Review by Mack Hassler In reading this solid new chapbook of poems by a fine poet, whom I had not heard of before, it is clear that being from Copper Country (Laurium) need not confine one to local color work. Johnson makes use of ideas, images…
