Recent Spotlights

The Penmen Review: Anthropologist|Ethnographic Novelist John Colman Wood

by Rebecca LeBoeuf The author of two novels, “When Men Are Women” (1999) and “The Names of Things” (2012), anthropologist John Colman Wood incorporated his field research on a group of nomadic, camel-herding Africans into his writing. “The Names of Things,” a story that deals with love and grief as well…

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The Penmen Profile: Memoirist for Survivors, Laurie Jean Cannady

by Rebecca LeBoeuf Memoirist Laurie Jean Cannady focuses on poverty in the United States, community and domestic violence and women’s issues in her writing and lectures. Her first book, “Crave: Sojourn of a Hungry Soul” (2015), was selected as an Indiefab Book of the Year 2015 finalist and The Root…

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The Penmen Profile: Journalist Turned Memoirist Nancy Nau Sullivan

by Rebecca LeBoeuf Nancy Nau Sullivan’s background as a journalist has proven beneficial throughout her career as a writer, but has provided some challenges as well—particularly in fiction and memoir, which don’t adhere to the concise rules of journalism. Her memoir, “The Last Cadillac: A Memoir,” published in April 2016. Sullivan’s short stories have appeared in…

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