Poetry. "Maxine Chernoff's THE TURNING turns at the moment 'when we survive our disappearances,' 'when murder chastises history,' in other words, right now--when all that's left is the leveled playing field of the page, where graffiti scrawled on a wall is just as likely to carry import as Kristeva or Emerson or 'memory or Memorex.' In stanzas taut as guitar strings--or purse strings pulled tight against the chest--these poems recall a kind of classic Ahkmatovan cry (though they never plangent) combined with a Tsvetaeva-like pluckiness, all of which gets overridden by Chernoff's supreme humanity, ferocity, intelligence, wit, honesty: 'I had thought I knew how the world would end, but all I really know is how to stare and point.' Then the book takes yet another turn, beyond the staring and pointing"--Gillian Conoley.

Author Hometown: MILL VALLEY, CA USA



About the author: Maxine Chernoff was born in Chicago, Illinois, in the year of 1952, where she grew up, and attended the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She is an American novelist, writer, poet, academic and literary magazine editor. Maxine Chernoff is a professor and Chair of the Creative Writing program at San Francisco State University. With her husband, Paul Hoover, she edits the long-running literary journal NEW AMERICAN WRITING. She is the author of six books of fiction and nine books of poetry, most recently WITHOUT (Shearsman Books, 2012), TO BE READ IN THE DARK (Omnidawn, 2011), THE TURNING (Apogee Press, 2008), and AMONG THE NAMES (Apogee Press, 2005). She currently lives in Mill Valley, California, with her husband and three children.

Reviews:
Mike McDonough in Coldfront Magazine