The Poet & The Architect Christine Stewart-Nuñez Terrapin Books, 2021: 85 pp. This review appeared in the 34th volume of The Briar Cliff Review. Christine Stewart-Nuñez’ latest collection of poetry is on its face all about design and construction – of a love, of language, of perspective, of the joists underlying marriage, family, and community. We enter rooms and spaces of all sorts, including old and new houses, dream houses, doll houses, and LEGO houses, as well as the arch

William V. Roebuck View the original PDF version of this article. When I was an undergraduate years ago, I read in a required survey of literature course a selection of poetry by William Butler Yeats, the early 20th century Irish poet. His touchstone poem “The Second Coming” is one of the most cited pieces of the past 100 years of literature, but the poem that caught my attention was “Lapis Lazuli,” which I read in an old, beat-up paperback selection of Yeats’ best poems, a s

Woodrow on the Bench: Life Lessons from a Wise Old Dog Jenna Blum HarperCollins, 2021: 191 pp. This review appeared in the 34th volume of The Briar Cliff Review. In her fourth and most personal book, bestselling author Jenna Blum chronicles the final months of her black lab Woodrow’s life, as his health slowly declines. Dog lovers will immediately recognize the unique bond between Blum and Woodrow, in what the author calls, “the most durable love affair of my life” (6). The r

The Trouble With Daydreams: Collected & New Poems Mark Vinz NDSU Press, 2021: 192 pp. This review appeared in the 34th volume of The Briar Cliff Review. In The Trouble With Daydreams: Collected & New Poems, we hear the honest, strong voice of Mark Vinz – sometimes heart-breaking, always heart-filled – traveling the Dakota prairies. As he has throughout his long career of writing, editing, and teaching in the upper Midwest, he continues his passionate advocacy, with vivid imag