Pets with MAR: Ori
You’ve seen some cats, a bearded dragon, and now, let’s bring a dog into the picture. Get ready to meet Ori, owned by Teri Dederer. Teri is Ori’s faithful and devoted human slave, dedicated to carrying out his extensive feeding and exercise regime. She and Ori have been together for seven wonderful years, beginning in Pittsburgh,...
Chapbook Review: My Fault by Leora Fridman
My Fault by Leora Fridman. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 2016. 86 pages. $ 16.00, paper. The ambiguity of Leora Fridman’s title, My Fault, is compelling. Perhaps this is a collection of confessions of guilt, intended to clear the speaker’s conscious? Fridman does not offer a direct answer to this question, but rather leaves it...
Spotlight on Coral Nardandrea
Mid-American Review would like to feature Winter Wheat Festival of Writing Coordinator and poetry editor, Coral! Coral Nardandrea hails from Ocala, Florida, a small horse town landlocked in a state known for its oceans, swamps, and glades. She got her undergraduate degrees in creative writing and women’s studies, which complemented each other more than you’d...
Chapbook Review: dear girl: a reckoning by drea brown
dear girl: a reckoning by drea brown. Gold Line Press, 2014. 47 pages. $10.00, print. drea brown’s dear girl: a reckoning is the winner of the 2014 Gold Line Press Poetry Chapbook Competition and a hauntingly beautiful glimpse into the Middle Passage and the life of Phillis Wheatley. brown’s poetry attempts to envision not only...
Pets with MAR: Smaug
Last week you met some adorable cats, and this week MAR brings you a new pet–a bearded dragon, owned by the great Lisa Favicchia. Lisa Favicchia is the Managing Editor of Mid-American Review and a second-year MFA candidate in poetry at Bowling Green State University. When she is not reading or writing, she is busy...
Chapbook Review: Candy in Our Brains by Anne Barngrover and Avni Vyas
Candy in Our Brains by Anne Barngrover and Avni Vyas. Missoula: CutBank Books, 2014. Anne Barngrover and Avni Vyas recently collaborated to co-author Candy in Our Brains, a humorous and raw take on life and relationships told through a collection of poems. Full of unlikely combinations, and using a series of poems following “the heroine,”...
Pets with MAR: Chloe and Lucy
Welcome back to Pets with MAR. Meet two adorable cats, Chloe and Lucy, owned by our Winter Wheat Coordinator and editor on the poetry staff, Coral Nardandrea. Her fellow MFAs designated her a crazy cat lady even though she only has two cats. (And a cat pillowcase. And a cat blanket. And a cat wine rack.)...
Chapbook Review: Waiting for the Enemy by Brandon Davis Jennings
Waiting for the Enemy by Brandon Davis Jennings. Kindle Edition, 2014. 44 pages. $2.99, electronic. Brandon Davis Jennings’ Waiting for the Enemy is composed of five distinct, yet connected, stories examining the life of men linked to the United States’ armed forces. This collection is aptly titled because these stories explore the moments and experiences...
Spotlight on Teresa Dederer, Fiction Editor
Mid-American Review welcomes our new Fiction Editor, Teri Dederer, to the staff! Teri grew up in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains north of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and attended the University of Pittsburgh. She is currently a second-year graduate student pursuing an M.F.A. in fiction from Bowling Green State University, where she takes long walks alongside...