High-Beams
Interviews, features, book reviews, and more!
A pocket is a useful tool for writing because you can carry a pocketknife in it, which is good for sharpening your pencil. The pencil as a tool for writing has never been topped, as far as I know. It is cheap, and it is readily available. It is portable. It doesn't require Wi-Fi, and it doesn't have a noisy fan. It doesn't ask you to take a moment to fill out a brief survey. It doesn't ask you to like it.
Features
A pocket is a useful tool for writing because you can carry a pocketknife in it, which is good for sharpening your pencil. The pencil as a tool for writing has never been topped, as far as I know. It is cheap, and it is readily available. It is portable. It doesn't require Wi-Fi, and it doesn't have a noisy fan. It doesn't ask you to take a moment to fill out a brief survey. It doesn't ask you to like it.
We fail to teach joy as a writing praxis because the concept of joy is something we seek, whereas grief is something we sit in. Around us, joy does not seem as abundant as does the weight of grief.
This piece is a part of our “Featured Collaborators” project, where we highlight the achievements of those who have helped make The Headlight Review possible. Today, we would like to extend our gratitude to Gregory Emilio for his support as our Guest Poetry Editor for Volume 2 of our magazine.
Drafting is the struggle to write like yourself and read like someone else.
The “write like yourself” part sounds easy until you become a writer. You’ll find it takes years of chipping away at a block of granite to find the authentic writer-self within.
Interviews
Jesse Graves’s first collection of poetry Tennessee Landscape with Blighted Pine was awarded the 2011 Weatherford Award in Poetry from Berea College, the Book of the Year in Poetry Award from the Appalachian Writers’ Association, and the Thomas and Lillie D. Chaffin Award for Appalachian Writing. More recently, Tennessee Landscape was celebrated with a tenth Anniversary edition, one that included new poems and an introduction from acclaimed poet Matthew Wimberley.
In this conversation, Mona Susan Power talks about her writing career, the power of fiction, and her latest novel A Council of Dolls with Kennesaw State University Professor Miriam Brown Spiers.
Dr. Andrew Plattner sat with author and The Headlight Review 2021 chapbook prize winner, Lisa Alletson, to discuss her new collection, Good Mother Lizard.
Book Reviews
Here you'll find books received for review from a variety of presses.
Mountain Madness by Clinton Crockett Peters is a collection of essays detailing the author’s hiking treks in both Japan, during his tenure as a twenty-something English teacher, and in the United States during his time as an outdoor guide. His essays weave together both the physical details of his outdoor adventures and the emotional reflections and meanings of these experiences more than a decade later.
THR Poetry Editor Tyra Douyon reports on Chioma Urama’s epic collection in this poetic and historical exploration of dispossession and kinship—“because nothing, like the memory of water, is ever lost.”
Kaylee Westra’s take on Anjali Enjeti’s new essay collection.