Emerging Writers Network

2021 Recorded Music

We're still listening to a fair amount of music around here, even though podcasts have snuck into the listening rotation. And being 152 years old, much of it has been done via CD, and the other great deal via iPod. Want to start off the 2021 listings with a quartet of late 2020 issues that even if we picked them up right when they came out, we didn't have much time to appreciate them last year.

Late 2020 LPs and a single

Alaska Reid - Big Bunny

Reid's first solo LP after her earlier band Alyeska had released one. The singing style and lyrics both felt reined in just a bit from previous work, and in a very good way. 

Temme Scott - Trust You, Trust You

Quite possibly the most listened to album for me from 2021 and definitely the artist I was most excited to see live, wandering down into middle Ohio to do so this summer. Great songs, full of vulnerability and honesty with a great voice.

Zilched - Doompop

It's highly probable that I didn't even pick this one up until some time in 2021 and the first mention of a local band. Slightly more aggressive material than the first two mentioned here, again excellent lyrics, and a very good vocals, with great music behind them. Caught the band at the Hamtramck Labor Day Festival too and they were just as solid live.

Alvidrez - Halo

A December release cover of the Beyonce single--a song I'd been unaware of prior to this release. As with most of Alvidrez's material--quite different from most songs out there, and very different from the original version in maybe all the best ways possible.

 

2021 Singles

More and more releases come out as singles, or EPs these days it seems. And it's nice to continuously get new material from some favorites.

Alvidrez - Flea

A song released with a full-fledged video to accompany it; it felt a bit larger than previous Alvidrez releases. Similar to previous songs it has pretty haunting vocals kept down pretty low in the mix.

Alvidrez - Coldest Colors

Maybe the poppiest of Alvidrez's songs to date, but that doesn't mean it's anywhere near a top 40 type of song--it's more a statement on just how original Alvidrez's songs are. Possibly a break-up song--it also includes "guitar swells" from Vera Ellen.

Ally Evenson - Bite My Tongue

One of my favorite songs of the year. Via videos, or livestreams, as well as the two released versions I've had the pleasure of hearing Ally play it solo, just her and her guitar, with full band, and with a piano driving the song--and all are great. Very much looking forward to seeing her live in a couple of weeks.

Emma Guzman - Clean

The first time I heard this song I was taken aback as it is piano driven, a first that I can remember for any of Emma's music. It was the third or fourth time listening to it that I started to catch the lyrics and, or course, each time I hear it I'm caught by the vocals--one of my favorite voices out there.

Emma Guzman - Stones

Another excellent song from Emma, one that pushes her vocals into some higher notes. Rumor has it that these two singles from her have finally been recorded, well after they were written back when she was in the tenth grade. 

Heaven Honey - Something About What Happens When We Talk

A really excellent cover of a Lucinda Williams song. Realize this one is a cover, but the last few HH songs have seemed a bit more focused than the earlier work (which I liked quite a bit).

Jackamo - Foundations

The first single from a local favorite, it also came with a fully functioned video. I don't know that it's possible (at least it doesn't appear to be from anything I've read about the band) to not mention the stunning harmonies between the two sibling vocalists, and it's wildly deserved. However, I'm not sure I ever read enough about the guitar work driving the songs with a very subtle hand.

Pia Roa - Stranger

The first single from another local artist. Just a really solid song--excellent vocals, great music. Looking forward to hearing more from Pia in the future.

Ryan Trager - Shiver

The first single following Trager's 2020 EP, Floodlight. The song is in the same vein but the lyrics on this one cut a bit deeper than the earlier songs. Really well done storytelling without it seeming like a story is being told.

Taylor Janzen - Push It Down

Janzen with another single release after a couple in 2020. We're hoping this means she's working on a full album as we've loved her two EPs and really liked the singles she's released since that last one. Clever songwriting, great voice with introspective lyrics.

This Life. We Lead. - Smooth

One of (I believe) a quartet of songs released throughout 2021, Smooth is my favorite of the bunch. Steven Banks simply does not do bad songs--great beats, excellent flow--just always excited to see there's something new on the horizon.

 

 

2021 EPs

Dani Darling - The Future

Such a cool album--I frequently find myself playing it in full either proceeded by, or followed by, Pink Floyd's Animals as a perfect combination. Darling's vocals are great and the music flows wonderfully. It absolutely creates a mood.

Ghosts of Sunset - Headed West

One that came out single by single for the first 2 or 3 before finally being released in full. It tells the story of a midwestern band heading to the Sunset Strip circa mid-to-late 80's, rising to fame and then losing said fame. This EP honors the hair metal era (and in fact has some guest guitarists from some of those bands) and does so proudly.

Purple Witch of Culver - EP #1

After a handful of singles, Purple Witch of Culver added one more and released everything as an EP. There aren't many bands as diverse song to song, while maintaining a sound that always indicates it's them as PWoC. Spoken word, varying rhythms, saxophone, something all in a single song, but not always. Lyrics like poetry, excellent vocals (from both members); just a really excellent set of songs.

Tom Iscariot - In the Fall

A second EP from Thomas Trimble's Tom Iscariot. This has the usual Trimble stapes: excellent lyrics, solid vocals, great guitar playing and just songs that you want to play over and over again.

2021 LPs

Alison Lewis - Our Lady of the Highway

Lewis' first new music via album in a decade and it's as good, or better than, the earlier material (which are among our favorites). Detroit right now is full of many great singer-songwriters--Alison is one of, if not, the best. The title song alone gets you your money's worth.

Anna Tivel - Blue World

An artist I'd not heard of until Emily Rose queried about who was attending her show at 20 Front Street mid-summer. Took a chance and wandered out and ended up buying all of her albums close to immediately. 

Japanese Breakfast

Not a huge surprise as it seems this album is on every top ten list I've seen. The combination of this along with a New York Times best-selling memoir has seemingly made it a pretty excellent year for this artist.

Julien Baker - Little Oblivions

Her third album--my favorite aspect of Baker's albums are her vocals, always pushing a little harder and further than I think that most would expect the songs to be pushed. Add to that, excellent lyrics and you've got something I'll turn to frequently.

John Salvage - Coyote Hasten

A local singer-songwriter that to be honest I didn't know much about prior to buying the album based on some that I trust stating how much they liked it. Vocals remind me a bit of Perry Farrell and the music's a bit more upbeat than many singer-songwriter albums. Some really great stuff.

Kate Hinote Trio - Near

Mixing David Johnson's guitar, Matthew Parmenter's violin and Kate Hinote's incredible vocals creates a wonderful sound. There are originals, as well as covers of some of Detroit's other songwriters and it was interesting upon first listen of immediately recognizing, not the songs, but the songwriting styles of 3 or 4 of those covered. 

Katy Kirby - Cool Dry Place

Was completely unaware of Kirby or this album prior to seeing her open for Waxahatchee at the Majestic this summer and really liking the songs. Picked this up a day or two later and find myself putting in on every few weeks or so.

Libby de Camp - Westward and Faster

I'd picked up a previously released EP by de Camp and liked it, and have seen her play live a couple of times. This album seems to be at least a short push away from the standard folk, or country, or bluegrass songs and into a more personal style. Incorporation of banjo along with electric guitar and some other various instruments and percussion and her fairly unique voice, this album is a good spin.

Lucy Dacus - Home Video

Lucy Dacus' follow-up to her very well received Historian, and this one has the same aspects to it--great vocals, catchy songs, and excellent lyrics. The song that seemed to garner the most attention was VBS, short for Vacation Bible School, as it seemed to take an honest look at such a summer school.

Lu Fuki and Divine Providence - Elephants and Mountains

Back in June the full band released this four song album (it's over 50 minutes long so I'm not including it in the EPs) and it has the aspects that made me really like their earlier Inner Horizons--incredible guitar, great beats, multiple instruments and Tazeen's lovely voice. 

Lu Fuki - First Light

A full album that is a bit more mood music. Mostly just Lu Fuki on guitars or synths (or wind instruments) though Tazeen plays a flute. More songs than the previous album, but shorter. If you ever have a chance to see any iteration of this band, Lu Fuki, Lu Fuki and Tazeen, the full Lu Fuki and Divine Providence--take it, they are fantastic live as well as on record.

Madison Cunningham - Broken Heart

I honestly do not remember where I heard Cunningham's name first, but after dipping into some music online I ended up buying everything she's recorded and went out to see her play a great show at The Ark in Ann Arbor. Really great musician as well as songwriter and singer.

Ohly - Landlines

Picked up on the recommendation of member, Pia Roa, after letting her know how much I'd enjoyed her song. A really good album of great songs. Looking forward to the chance to see them live sometime soon.

Vera Ellen - It's Your Birthday

I'd listened to some of Ellen's earlier works--she's a guitarist originally from New Zealand that was playing/singing in Los Angeles band Girl Friday when I first heard her. Her solo songs are much more straightforward than her GF bandmate Alvidrez's (see singles above) and while I liked the earlier songs, this album is a big step up in my opinion. Excellent writing, singing and guitar work.

A couple I somehow thought were released in 2020 (I listened to both quite a bit earlier this year):

Lily Talmers - Remember Me as Holy

I saw Lily play at a show at Armageddon Beach Party where I'd gone to see a couple of the other acts and really liked her set. Then I promptly forgot the name until hearing about this album, buying and listening to it and realizing I was hearing songs I'd heard in the past. Caught her again after this was released opening for the aforementioned Anna Tivel at 20 Front Street and she's another as good live as on record.

Mike Ward - The Darkness and the Light

I really like Mike's two previous albums, but found this to be a huge step forward. Great lyrics about the world we're currently in sung with an incredible combination of hope and exhaustion. If you dig around the internet you can hear some of these while enjoying wonderful videos his son created. 

 

It was another solid to excellent year for music additions to the CD and iPod collections around here--hopefully there'll be more chances to see them all live in the somewhat near future.

What Books I'm Looking Forward to in 2022

While I'm sure that by the time I'm finished typing this post, I'll have heard of another few titles that I'm going to look forward to---the following are the ones as of this very moment and all fourteen of them are works I'm extremely excited to get to read next year:

 

JANUARY

If You { }: Fabula, Fantasy, F**kery, Hope by Colin Fleming via Dzanc Books

One of a couple of these that I've had the pleasure of reading already but still look very much forward to getting a hard copy and enjoying the stories all over again. This is one to order now--so it arrives early next month! Any book that Colin Fleming publishes will be read by the EWN for sure.

From Dzanc's website:

A relationship ends in the space between [ ]. Abe Lincoln and Edgar Allan Poe Two stroll the river in the afterlife, debating a second death. Two boys navigate jazz, baseball, and growing up in the second between the pitch and the swing. And a man from Living Dangerously sets off across the ocean on a pile of lobster traps, seeking the truth of the smoke on the wind.

With If You [ ], author Colin Fleming breaks the unwritten rule of the short story collection. In over thirty different styles, Fleming delivers a punk rock triple album in book form—compositions that display a dizzying range of fearless artistry, from horror to hyper-experimental to a story disguised as a grocery list. Together, these pieces resonate with unexpected chords, exploring the breadth of human experience and affirming that that narrative is everywhere, if we are able and willing to see it.

 

Constellation Route by Matthew Olzmann via Alice James Books

A writer I've been enjoying the poems of for 15 years now since he co-ran a reading series out Detroit's Scarab Club for a time. Back when I could only read his work in literary journals and then via chapbook. This is his third full collection with the publisher.

From Publishers Weekly:

“Conceived as the assembled contents of a mail carrier’s pouch, the intimate and affecting third book by Olzmann (Contradictions in the Design) presents the poet as sender, receiver, and courier. … In language at once direct and artful, Olzmann memorably explores the question of how one might speak across the gulfs dividing humankind.”

 

The Unfamiliar Garden by Benjamin Percy via Mariner

A long-time favorite around here, ever since before The Land of Elk was published, Percy follows The Ninth Metal with the sequel, the second title in his Comet Cycle. Enjoyed the first one quite a bit and looking forward to this one.

From Publishers Weekly:

"Percy’s masterful second Comet Cycle genre-bender (after The Ninth Metal) combines a missing-person case, romantic reconciliation, and a riveting sci-fi what-if imagining of a sentient fungi, spawned by debris from a passing comet, that symbiotically absorbs flora and fauna—including human beings. On the day the comet swept Earth with a dramatic meteor shower, “fun dad” Jack, a mycologist, took his eight-year-old daughter, Mia, on a mushroom study trip through a dank forest outside Seattle—where she vanished. This devastating loss breaks up Jack’s marriage to Nora, a type A police detective. Now, five years later, Nora investigates a series of eerie, ritualistic Seattle homicides, while Jack boozily self-destructs his academic career. The pair gradually reconnect by probing into the ominous fungal invasion—a line of inquiry that may lead them to Mia. Meanwhile, a sinister governmental operation attempts to militarize the fungus, developing it into a mind control serum. The juxtaposition of malignant military-industrial machinations and well-delineated human tension works wonderfully, and sci-fi fans will appreciate Percy’s extraterrestrial biological lore. It’s a thoroughly satisfying near-future glimpse of both disaster and salvation."

 

The Stars Are Not Yet Bells by Hannah Lillith Assadi via Riverhead

We really enjoyed Assadi's debut Sonora a few years back and have kept our eyes out for a second novel or story collection. 

From the publisher's website:

Through the scrim of fading memory, an elderly woman confronts a lifetime of secrets and betrayal, under the mysterious skies of her island home

Off the coast of Georgia, near Savannah, generations have been tempted by strange blue lights in the sky near an island called Lyra. At the height of WWII, impressionable young Elle Ranier leaves New York City to forge a new life together on the island with her new husband, Simon. There they will live for decades, raising a family while waging a quixotic campaign to find the source of the mysterious blue offshore light—and the elusive minerals rumored to lurk beneath the surface.

Fifty years later,  Elle looks back at her life on the mysterious island—and at a secret she herself has guarded for decades. As her memory recedes into the mists of Alzheimer’s disease, her life seems a tangle of questions: How did her husband’s business, now shuttered, survive so long without ever finding the legendary Lyra stones? How did her own life crumble under treatment for depression? And what became of Gabriel—the handsome, raffish other man who came to the island with them and risked everything to follow the lights?

Darkly romantic and deeply haunting, The Stars Are Not Yet Bells pulls us into a story of the tantalizing, faithless relationship between ourselves and the lives and souls we leave behind.

 

FEBRUARY

Moon Witch, Spider King by Marlon James via Riverhead

Another author whose previous works, including the prequel to this novel, we've enjoyed in the past and generally always look forward to the next from.

From the author via an article in Brittle Paper:

We also know that the Dark Star trilogy is not a linear trilogy, meaning that readers who haven’t read Black Leopard, Red Wolf can begin with the new story. Moon Witch, Spider King is also not a typical sequel in the sense that it is not necessarily revealing a different period in the story’s chronology. Instead offers a different perspective. It essentially tells “the same” story but from a different perspective, this time Sogolon, the witch who goes on an odyssey with Tracker, the first book’s main character. James shared all this in an interview with Gizmodo.com. He says that apart form the alternative perspective, Sogolon’s account will challenge Tracker’s account of the story in the first book, especially his representation of Sogolon in extremely negative light. With this new book, Sogolon gets a chance to include her perspective on the already deeply complicated story.

 

Spontaneous Human Combustion by Richard Thomas via Keylight Books

Been enjoying Richard's work for about half a decade now it seems. Really enjoy his short work so this collection of stories should be right up our alley.

From a Starred Publishers Weekly review:

"Thomas (The Soul Standard) breathes fresh air into the genre of dark speculative fiction with a brilliant collection that teems with haunting elements, dark nostalgia for lost love, dysfunctional families, and self-torment. These 14 stories ably demonstrate Thomas’s skill at conjuring visceral emotion through immaculate detail work. The gut-wrenching “Repent,” about a crooked ex-cop who makes the ultimate sacrifice to save his dying son, is told with an artist’s attention to scene setting. “Hiraeth,” about a farm boy with a “hole in his chest” who is robbed and subsequently punished by the men in the family, bristles with astonishing detail, realistic characters, and emotional depth. In “Ring of Fire,” an isolated scientist with an altered memory runs strange experiments on minerals, splicing horror and science fiction elements into an eerie tale about the evolution of the human mind amid isolation and interference. Equally devastating and refreshing, this is a collection to be savored by horror fans and literary readers alike."

 

MARCH

Chevy in the Hole by Kelsey Ronan via Henry Holt

Another one that I've read in advanced copy form but very much look forward to getting the copy I pre-ordered that has the actual cover on it and not just the title. Aspects of this novel hit me due to familiarity (lived in Flint for a couple of years two decades ago) and others didn't hit for that reason (never had any drug issues) but in both cases the work hit me just right. Found it to be honest about Flint, and the main relationship. Found the moving through the history of Flint and the main player's families from the mid-40's through recent water related events to be a great mechanism for keeping the story moving.

From the publisher website:

A gorgeous, unflinching love letter to Flint, Michigan, and the resilience of its people, Chevy in the Hole follows multiple generations of two families making their homes there, with a stunning contemporary love story at its center.

In the opening pages of Chevy in the Hole, August “Gus” Molloy has just overdosed in a bathroom stall of the Detroit farm-to-table restaurant where he works. Shortly after, he packs it in and returns home to his family in Flint. This latest slip and recommitment to sobriety doesn’t feel too terribly different from the others, until Gus meets Monae, an urban farmer trying to coax a tenuous rebirth from the city’s damaged land. Through her eyes, he sees what might be possible in a city everyone else seems to have forgotten or, worse, given up on. But as they begin dreaming up an oasis together, even the most essential resources can’t be counted on.

Woven throughout their story are the stories of their families—Gus’s white and Monae’s Black—members of which have had their own triumphs and devastating setbacks trying to survive and thrive in Flint. A novel about the things that change over time and the things that don’t, Chevy in the Hole reminds us again and again what people need from one another and from the city they call home.

 

APRIL

Stay Gone Days by Steve Yarbrough via Ig Publishing

We've read everything that Yarbrough has published and always look forward to the next one--looking forward to this one expanding on the setting for his work.

From the author's website:

After a childhood in Mississippi marred by a horrific family scandal, teenage sisters Ella and Caroline Cole escape their hometown, losing all connection to each other. While Ella finds stable domesticity in Boston, Caroline travels the world, from California to Poland, fleeing regrets and a man intent on violence. Despite the decades apart, each sister is never far from the other’s thoughts. Then, one day, Ella walks into a bookstore and sees a novel called Stay Gone Days. Will this novel, a heartbreaking tale of estranged sisters, help Ella and Caroline find each other and start down the hard road of reconciliation and forgiveness?

 

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel via Knopf

Like the author of the previous novel on this list, her first novel (first three actually) was published by Unbridled Books. Great books. Since then her work has exploded, Station Eleven was a best-seller that is currently seeing an interpretation on HBO Max. Another whose work I always look forward to the next. one.

From the publisher's website:

A novel of art, time, love, and plague that takes the reader from Vancouver Island in 1912 to a dark colony on the moon five hundred years later, unfurling a story of humanity across centuries and space...A virtuoso performance that is as human and tender as it is intellectually playful, Sea of Tranquility is a novel of time travel and metaphysics that precisely captures the reality of our current moment.

 

A Better Class of People: a Novel in Stories by Robert Lopez via Dzanc Books

As is becoming a fairly common refrain here--Lopez is one whose work we've been reading regularly since Dzanc published his 2nd novel, Kamby Bolongo Mean River a little over a decade ago. We even read the books he publishes with other publishing houses!

From the publisher's website:

In an uncanny, distorted version of New York City, a man rides the subway through the chaos of an ordinary commute. He may have a gun in his pocket. He may be looking for someone—a woman named Esperanza.

Between stops, we shuttle back and forth through time and see a man who stands in traffic, the same man seizing and shuddering on a sidewalk, an institution where the man is housed with other undesirables, a neighborhood where all the residents have forgotten their names. Over everything looms the specter of a nameless menace, a pervasive sense that something—more than just a ride—is coming to an end. 

With Robert Lopez’s signature innovation, A Better Class of People delivers a network of stories interconnected and careening like subway tunnels through the realities of modern America: immigration, gun violence, police brutality, sexual harassment, climate change, and the point of fracture at which we find ourselves, where reality and perception are indistinguishable.

 

148 Charles Street by Tracy Daugherty via University of Nebraska Press

We're fans of Daugherty's fiction, and have a couple of the literary biographies he's written but don't believe we've read them yet. This seems to be maybe merging the two in the best ways possible. 

From the publisher's website:

Tracy Daugherty’s historical novel 148 Charles Street explores the fascinating story of Willa Cather’s friendship with Elizabeth Shepley Sergeant. The women shared a passion for writing, for New York, and for the desert Southwest, but their sensibilities could not have been more different: Cather, the novelist of lyrical landscapes and aesthetic refinement, and Sergeant, the muckraking journalist and literary activist. Their friendship is sorely tested when Cather fictionalizes a war that Sergeant covered as a reporter, calling into question, for both women, the uses of art and journalism, the power of imagination and witness. 148 Charles Street is a testament to the bonds that endure despite disagreements and misunderstandings, and in the relentlessness of a vanishing past.

 

Poolside at the Dearborn Inn by Cal Freeman via R&R Press

Cal's third full collection--we've enjoyed the first two quite a bit--and have seen him read, most likely some of these poems, a few times now.

From the publisher's website:

Written in the shadow of the Ford Empire, Poolside at the Dearborn Inn touches on everything that tangled history connotes: labor battles, cars, ecological peril, and the inexorable strength of the human spirit. Freeman uses the lyric to annotate his world with an eye toward preserving the natural treasures of The Great Lakes Basin.

 

MAY

The Shared World: Poems by Vievee Francis vis Triquarterly Press

We were fortunate enough to catch a Francis reading shortly after her debut (three books ago) came out and have followed her work ever since. Each collection is different from the previous collection and always interesting. No cover to this one yet that we've been able to scare up.

From an interview Francis did with BrooklynPoets.org:

"The title is taken from a Naomi Shihab Nye poem. I wanted a larger framework to discuss and interrogate what I have always discussed and interrogated in my work, interconnectedness. Human to Human. Human to Nature. Human to Clime."

 

AUGUST

Don't Fear the Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones via Gallery Press

A sequel to this past year's best seller My Heart is a Chainsaw--nobody writes horror movies in book form better than Stephen Graham Jones. The most difficult thing in being an SGJ fan is trying to keep up with his output (similar to the guy at the top of this list). Really enjoyed the first one so looking forward to the sequel.

From the publisher's website:

Four years after her tumultuous senior year, Jade Daniels is released from prison right before Christmas when her conviction is overturned. But life beyond bars takes a dangerous turn as soon as she returns to Proofrock. Convicted Serial Killer, Dark Mill South, seeking revenge for thirty-eight Dakota men hanged in 1862, escapes from his prison transfer due to a blizzard, just outside of Proofrock, Idaho.

Dark Mill South’s Reunion Tour began on December 12th, 2019, a Thursday.

Thirty-six hours and twenty bodies later, on Friday the 13th, it would be over.

 

SEPTEMBER

Campfires of the Dead, and the Living: Collected Stories of Peter Christopher via 11:11 Press

Peter Christopher's Campfires of the Dead is probably one of our two or three favorite collections that were published by Knopf when Gordon Lish was editing there. It's a collection we've read more than a few times and had hoped to include one day in Dzanc's rEprint series. If that couldn't happen, we're thrilled to see this--the book coming back to print, with more than a little boost.

From the publisher's website:

In September of 2022, we will be publishing the stories in Campfires of the Dead along with an unpublished story collection titled, The Living, in one collection.

 

NOVEMBER

Dr. No by Percival Everett via Graywolf Press

Well, this one has no real details yet online, nor a cover, but it's by Percival Everett so we are very much looking forward to it. There aren't many authors that have published 20+ books that we can say we've read each one, but Everett is certainly one of them.