THE CRITICAL FLAME :: Issue 17, January 2012

Volume 2, Issue 17 | January-February 2012

on nonfiction

Daniel E. Pritchard on James Baldwin's The Cross of Redemption

"The Cross of Redemption is not a starting point. If you have not read James Baldwin already, I urge you to procure a copy of Notes of a Native Son and Go Tell it on the Mountain. They are canonical American texts. Stop what you're doing. Read them, right now."

on verse

Henry Gould on Ben Mazer and John Beer

"Ben Mazer and John Beer reveal a substantial debt to Ashbery — combined with the influence of an earlier poet, lurking behind both as he does behind Ashbery: that is, yes, Eliot, old Possum himself."

on fiction

Katherine Evans Pritchard on Spring

"Szalay's great achievement in Spring is his portrayal of the awkward, reticent, regretful, silent moments of human relationships. As Katherine and her estranged husband part ways, Szalay is able to express the sense of loss and emptiness in his portrayal of the very silence between them"

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Call for Submissions
The Critical Flame is now accepting book review and critical essay submissions on fiction, verse, and non-fiction titles. There are no explicit length requirements or limits, we only ask that essays be a reasonable length for their topic and that an article’s length never exceed its coherence. We have no requirements or quotas for positive or negative reviews, but essays that acknowledge both the flaws and virtues existent in all titles will be given preference over essays whose content are merely laudatory or simply vitriol. Although we seek learned and well-researched essays, please remember that The Critical Flame is not an academic publication and the audience for us, always, is the intelligent reading public.

If you have an idea for a review or essay, but are unsure whether it is appropriate for The Critical Flame, the editors welcome you to send us an email query. We are also happy to contact publishers on behalf of our reviewers. We look forward to hearing from you.

The Editors