New Books In Literature

Ronald Spatz is the editor-in-chief and co-founding editor of Alaska Quarterly Review. A formal National Endowment for the Arts Fellow, Mr. Spatz has been recognized with Alaska State Governor’s Awards in Humanities and the Arts. He is currently a full professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Alaska, Anchorage, where he also served as the founding Dean of the University Honors College and Undergraduate Research & Scholarship and as the Director of the Master of Fine Arts Program in Creative Writing. Ronald Spatz’s abiding goal for Alaska Quarterly Review is to be innovative, risk-taking, and truth-seeking, all virtues born out during this interview and by the four essays discussed here. In “Hungry Ghost” by May-lee Chaie, a cascading series of misogynistic and racist acts within the family have contributed to a devastating degree of low self-esteem. The essay confronts the emotional abyss that plagues all concerned. In “Once” by Michael Bogan, the fairy-tale like qualities of a teenage r