Hippocampus Magazine and Books

08/09/2025

Our next bimonthly issue hits "shelves" this week! Be on the lookout for new essays, flash CNF, reviews, interviews, and columns soon! Until then, there's much to explore in our current edition and the archives!

07/09/2025

"For this reader at least, unfamiliar aches and pains incite intense reflection, if not rumination, about what lies ahead for this body and its parts. But instead of allowing fear to guide her pen, Lichtenstein takes honest inventory of the parts that made her and make her who she is."

– from Amy Goldmacher's review of "Body: My Life in Parts" by Nina B. Lichtenstein. Link to full review in the comments.

07/09/2025

WRITING LIFE: "There's a well-worn trope in the literary world that publishing a book is an act of creation analogous to producing a human life."

– from Amy Gallo Ryan's writing life column, "Publishing and Infertility." Link to full essay in the comments.

06/09/2025

"Tourmaline assembles facts as if they were small tiles that create a glorious mosaic of Marsha."

– from Nan Bauer's review of "Marsha: The Joy and Defiance of Marsha P Johnson" by Tourmaline. Link to full issue review in comments.

05/09/2025

"'No Offense' is a coming-out memoir that details the many twists and turns Jackie experiences as they not only grapple with their own authentic identities, first as a le***an, then as a nonbinary person, but also as they struggle to claim and share those identities."

– from Brian Watson's review of "No Offense: A Memoir in Essays" by Jackie Domenus. Link to full review in the comments.

04/09/2025

"DeWolfe's crisp writing takes readers by the hand and guides them through situations that, given pseudonyms and lots of little lies, could be confusing were it narrated by a less capable author."

– from Anthony J. Mohr's review of "Alias Agnes: The Notorious Tale of a Gilded Age Spy" by Elizabeth A. DeWolfe.

Link to full review in the comments.

04/09/2025

"In each essay, phrases of beauty fill the page, such as in the opening of the second, "Planetarium," which begins, "Overhead, our stories are as big as the sky."

– from Sandra Eliason's review of "Abbreviate" by Sarah Fawn Montgomery. Link to full review in the comments.

03/09/2025

"From the first essay, Moore invites us into a life lived on the edge of invisibility — young, poor, a mother before she was ready, thinking deeply in a place that doesn't always welcome thoughtfulness, especially from women. And yet, she stays, looks closer, and makes art out of it."

– from Elizabeth Austin's review of "Thank You for Staying With Me: Essays" by Bailey Gaylin Moore. Link to full review in the comments.

03/09/2025

Congratulations to one of our wonderful book reviewers, Elizabeth Austin, for her very first byline in the New York Times! The most touching and lovely true stories can come from anywhere - even from a big, ugly sofa. 😍

Buying a new, adult couch in a space of my own felt monumental.

03/09/2025

"Stephens writes with honesty and candor, allowing her readers to witness her vulnerability while she moves through the twelve steps of sobriety. She digs deep into her psyche, sharing the most intimate details of her life, and she does this to heal. Her self-reflection leads to insightful revelations."

– from Angela L. Eckhart's review of "Uncorked: A Memoir of Letting Go and Starting Over" by Mary Alice Stephens. Link to full review in the comments.

02/09/2025

"I love the essay form. I love the spaces that exist between essays. There's breathing room that invites the reader in a way that's unique from other modes. I like the messiness of letting myself figure some things out on the page."

– Melissa Fraterrigo, author of "The Perils of Girlhood: A Memoir" in Essays, interviewed by Amy Goldmacher.

Link to full interview in the comments.

02/09/2025

"Stanfill's Imagine a Door contains plenty of exercises for unlocking creativity, helping writers find their "why" and their desired path (or door) forward, and more."

– from Dorothy Rice's review of "Imagine a Door" by Laura Stanfill. Link to full review in the comments.