Essential Themes, Eloquent Variations (on Drowning Lessons by Peter Selgin; Water: Nine Stories by Alyce Miller; Broccoli and Other Tales of Food and Love by Lara Vapnyar; Downriver by Jeanne M. Leiby; and The Poetry Life: Ten Stories by Baron Wormser)

Greg Johnson, whose reviews have appeared regularly in our pages across many years, has published two novels, five collections of short stories, and several volumes of nonfiction. He lives in Atlanta and teaches in the graduate writing program at Kennesaw State University.