Press

Small Altars

A review by Edward Journey, on the Alabama Writer’s Forum:  “I have always been a little skeptical of posthumous tributes – statues, scholarships, buildings, and the like. They may comfort the bereaved, but they’re wasted on the deceased. . . . In Small Altars, however, in trying to come to grips with his feelings after Aaron’s death, Justin Gardiner has performed the rare feat of gifting his brother with a renewed and tangible and very real presence.” 

A review by Charles Rammelkamp, on Compulsive Reader: “Small Altars is an understated but overwhelming meditation on grief, the conflicting emotions of love and sorrow and guilt it encompasses. It brought to mind my own brothers who died before me, one at the age of 57, the other at 63. Neither suffered from a disability (one did have a history of drug abuse), but I do often experience a sort of guilt for having somehow failed them, and I’ve built my own small altars to their memories. . . . Could I have done more? Justin Gardiner’s grief feels so familiar. Small Altars is a loving and introspective contemplation of family and loss.

Q&A with Deborah Kalb: “I am not really interested in a cathartic approach to making art. I was never trying to get rid of or cleanse myself of any emotion toward my brother through writing Small Altars, but I did want to go deeper into those emotions, to fully articulate them to myself, and to try and transform the heavy sense of grief I felt into something more companionable.”

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Small Altars was selected as the winner of the 2021 Faulkner-Wisdom Nonfiction Book Award administered by the Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Society.  Here is a picture of me at the awards ceremony down in New Orleans with a rented tux and a crooked gold medal:

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Naming The lifeboat

Naming the Lifeboat was reviewed by Dante Di Stefano for the Best American Poetry website. In Stefano’s words, “These are poems of pilgrimage, poems where a finely-calibrated wisdom leans into deep longing.”  Read the full review here.

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Cover Art Credits

Small Altars: Colin Sutherland              http://colinsutherland.com

Naming the Lifeboat: Billy Renkl            http://www.billyrenkl.com

Beneath the Shadow: Eric Guth               http://www.photoguth.com

Photo Credits

Headshot: Adriene Simon

Typewriter Image: Nicole McConville    https://www.nicolemcconville.com

All Other Photographs: Eric Guth            http://www.photoguth.com