Billy Lennon

Two Poems - Cleveland Review of Books the toucan w/ the tidy mind who handles distribution at the paris review

"spongebob is 海绵宝宝
which is literally
sponge baby
u say that sounds vaguely sexual
i say u look vaguely sexual
i prefer that name
the toucan w/ the tidy mind
who handles distribution
at the paris review"

two poems from @officialmchangpoet.bsky.social

clereviewofbooks.com/two-poems-2/

Capsules of Dismay: On A.S. Hamrah’s Anti-Criticism - Cleveland Review of Books Hamrah writes to a tub of over entertained frogs warming in shitty media bathwater he wants to drop a toaster oven into.

"Hamrah’s signature genre [is] withering blurb-length “capsule” reviews of inane Hollywood product...snapped down to size, as if the movies weren’t worth the extra words."

Joshua Sperling on the "anti-criticism" of @hamrahrama.bsky.social

clereviewofbooks.com/capsules-of-...

She Has That Kind of Stature: Two Translators Talk Pirkko Saisio’s "The Helsinki Trilogy" - Cleveland Review of Books You absolutely cannot do Finnish word for word. It would be garbage.

"But of course, I should say about Pirkko Saisio: people call her a living legend."

Jordan Barger interviews Mia Spangenberg, translator from the Finnish of Pirkko Saisio's "Helsinki Trilogy." @twolinespress.com
clereviewofbooks.com/mia-spangenb...

A Ticking Clock: On David Wojnarowicz’s “Memories that Smell Like Gasoline” - Cleveland Review of Books It is a drive David identifies with, one that draws him towards those who do not understand or adhere to the manufactured code of conduct of society.

"Rage can be just as much a lifeforce as pleasure".

Alyse Burnside On David Wojnarowicz’s “Memories that Smell Like Gasoline”

clereviewofbooks.com/david-wojnar...

Their Many Names - Cleveland Review of Books She did not know her future husband owned a gun, but he briefly served and so it makes a sudden kind of sense.

"In fact, once he knows he has Mare and Bern completely under his spell, he sends them on errands. For a serial killer, he is incredibly lazy about the necessities of everyday life, like money and food."

from "Their Many Names" by Jess Richardson

clereviewofbooks.com/their-many-n...

Read Backwards: on “Permanent Record” - Cleveland Review of Books The human impulse towards self-documentation is everywhere once you start looking for it.

"The poets grapple with what it means to create a purpose-built archive and the ways in which this impulse counters the traditional principle of the archive."

Megan McKenzie on "Permanent Record"

clereviewofbooks.com/read-backwar...

If you dm me your address, I’d love to gift you a subscription to the magazine and send you a copy of a past issue of ours.

As critics and reviewers we can also understand the feeling of being under appreciated and overlooked so I’d like to make this right by you! Thanks for your work.

This is an aberration from us, and I’m sorry that we didn’t put your name at the top of the page. I’m amending that now. It’s something that should’ve been picked up in our copyedits.

Intransigent Delay: On Thomas Pynchon’s "Shadow Ticket" - Cleveland Review of Books Shadow Ticket perhaps traces, through the suppleness of form, the attitudes and semiotics of pre-emergent fascism.

"[One could take] its aesthetic limitations as formal affordances... "Shadow Ticket" perhaps traces the attitudes and semiotics of pre-emergent fascism, [like a] historiographical broadcast from State fascism’s inchoate moment."

Cobi Chiodo Powell on Pynchon

clereviewofbooks.com/thomas-pynch...

A really interesting essay at @clereviewbooks.bsky.social
about one writer's history of Big Five rejections since the 1990s & the effects of publishing's conglomeration even when one doesn't know conglomeration is the force at work.

Portrait of the Author in the Age of Conglomeration - Cleveland Review of Books I now realized that for thirty years I'd had an imaginary Pietsch perched on my shoulder, and as I reworked sentences I kept (unconsciously) turning to him and asking, "How about now? Would you take i...

"I now realized that for thirty years I’d had an imaginary Pietsch perched on my shoulder, and as I reworked sentences I kept (unconsciously) turning to him and asking, 'How about now? Would you take it now?'"

Vince Czyz on publishing & conglomeration

clereviewofbooks.com/the-age-of-c...

“I think it’s going to be fine”: On Tim MacMahon’s “The Wonder Boy: Luka Dončić and the Curse of Greatness” - Cleveland Review of Books I was very disappointed to find that the book read as if the contents of MacMahon’s collected ESPN articles were dumped into a large language model, and directed to write a 300-plus page book about Lu...

"While a fantastic beat reporter and astute ball-knower, MacMahon both perpetuates and falls victim to Publishing's hastily-written-athlete-biography-industrial complex.

@podracingchamp.bsky.social on @bannedmacmahon.bsky.social's "The Wonder Boy"

clereviewofbooks.com/i-think-its-...

Dropped this 👑

It's important to rid ourselves of the idea that this kind of work should be free to all by default, at least until there's some new mechanism of supporting it.

clereviewofbooks.com/membership-l...

We are introducing a small paywall. 3 articles free per month, then it kicks in. We didn’t make this decision lightly, and hope that you’ll join us in this new phase after publishing almost 1000 pieces for free over the last 7 years.

We’re so excited for this next phase, and again hope you’ll join us. Big shout out to our eic Bri Di Monda and Anna Donlan for leading our huge website migration that has increased our functionality and what we can do with CRB Online. See you there, and as ever, on the page.

For writers, in particular, and our staff as well, and so we can afford to publish 3 print issues a year rather than 2 etc. Just for context, our budget every year is around 80k, and every cent of that goes to writers, editors, designers, and printers.

We operate in an endangered literary sub-culture and were so blessed to have been able to not just stay afloat but grow. In order to further grow, however, we need to grow subscriber numbers and aim toward approach self-sustainability, especially when we want to raise our rates..

We are introducing a small paywall. 3 articles free per month, then it kicks in. We didn’t make this decision lightly, and hope that you’ll join us in this new phase after publishing almost 1000 pieces for free over the last 7 years.

from "Wrong Winds" by Ahmad Almallah — Cleveland Review of Books Stealth is the first step into progress.

An excerpt from Ahmad Almallah's Wrong Winds courtesy @clereviewbooks.bsky.social www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/from...

from "The Harmattan Winds" by Sylvain Trudel — Cleveland Review of Books And he’s impure and I hate him and I blast him with peas from my catapult-spoon.

"Me, I am Goodness and Justice, and I want to kill the radish because he’s rich and the peasants are dying of hunger."

from Sylvain Trudel's "The Harmattan Winds" (trans. Donald Winkler) @archipelagobooks.bsky.social

www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/from...

March 2025 Recon Baglin, Dean, Barkan, Mahdavi

march 2025 new books newbookrecon.substack.com/p/march-2025...

A Little Too Much Sun — Cleveland Review of Books You can wake up to someone day after day and still they’ll appear disfigured somehow.

"You can wake up to someone day after day and still they’ll appear disfigured somehow, pummeled by the early light."

from Sam Eichman's story "A Little Too Much Sun".

www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/sam-...

The Night Side of Nature: On Robert Eggers's "Nosferatu" — Cleveland Review of Books Early folklore said vampires could attack victims through dream visitation.

"Compared to Stoker’s belief in the positive influence of the Enlightenment and traditional Christian faith, Eggers’s narrative is a darker meditation on modernity’s spiritual blindness."

CRB's very own Bri Di Monda on Robert Eggers's "Nosferatu"

www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/robe...

Back to Normal: Hollinghurst's Late Style — Cleveland Review of Books If a shared appreciation of culture is a means of expressing these desires covertly, Our Evenings suggests that it can also prove treacherous.

"If a shared appreciation of culture is a means of expressing these desires covertly, 'Our Evenings' suggests that it can also prove treacherous."

Peter Huhne on Alan Hollinghurst's "Our Evenings"

www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/alan...

Decisions, Decisions: on Anastasia Berg and Rachel Wiseman's "What Are Children For?" — Cleveland Review of Books Logic doesn’t govern the decision to procreate. Nor does it necessarily govern the decision not to procreate.

"Introspection is a natural recourse for those of us who haven't been struck by a primal yen to be mothers. It’s also lonely and yields diminishing returns."

@sophiastewart.bsky.social on Anastasia Berg's and Rachel Wiseman's "What are Children For?"

www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/anas...

Inhuman Intelligence: on “The Automatic Fetish” and “The MANIAC” — Cleveland Review of Books Will the end of humanity be the human invention of an intelligence greater than itself?

"Labatut and Best both fear this outcome. But Labatut does not realize we already live in a world governed by an alien intelligence."

Jordan Ecker on "The Automatic Fetish" and "The MANIAC" @versobooks.bsky.social @penguinpress.bsky.social

www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/beve...

from “The Keeper” — Cleveland Review of Books I thought eventually Jo-Ann Fabrics would stop feeling like a translated Jo-Ann Fabrics, parallel to but separate from the source.

"I thought eventually Jo-Ann Fabrics would stop feeling like a translated Jo-Ann Fabrics, parallel to but separate from the source." @uawilk.bsky.social, from "The Keeper"

www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/from...

The Secret City: Aaron Lange on the 1970s Cleveland Punk Scene — Cleveland Review of Books A beautiful and moving depiction of Laughner as a tragic poet amidst the end of the industrial empire of which Cleveland and Northeast Ohio were a microcosm.

"Laughner...a tragic poet amidst the end of the industrial empire of which Cleveland and Northeast Ohio were a microcosm."

Andrew Worthington interviews @aaronlange.bsky.social about "Ain't It Fun" and Cleveland's 70s punk scene:

www.clereviewofbooks.com/writing/aaro...