Radiant Press
The Jewish Independent Review
01 April, 2025 Filed in: Reviews
Review of Steven’s novel The Island Gospel According to Samson Grief on the Australian web site The Jewish Independent.
I Think We've Been Here Before
06 January, 2025 Filed in: Reviews
Steve’s review of I Think We’ve Been Here Before (Radiant Press, 2024) by Suzy Krause on the River Street Writing blog.
Yellow Barks Spider
09 November, 2024 Filed in: Reviews
Steven reviewed Yellow Barks Spider by Harman Burns (Radiant Press, 2024) on the River Street Writing blog.
Reviewer-in-Residence
Steven is now Reviewer-in-Residence for River Street Writing.
Let RSW founder, publicist and award-winning writer Hollay Ghadery tell you the rest:
"As part of our mission to celebrate amazing books from small presses in Canada and champion a variety of approaches to and perspectives on literary criticism, we’re delighted to announce we’re kicking-off a Reviewer-in-Residence (RIR) program. Each RIR term will last six months and come with a honorarium.
Our inaugural RIR is the wonderful Steven Mayoff. Not only is Steven a small press CanLit author, but he is a champion of small press titles, and has been championing books with us since the very beginning.
For Steven’s first review, he looks at Realia (poetry) by three-time Saskatchewan Book Award winner Michael Trussler. Realia was published earlier this year by Saskatchewan’s spectacular little press on the prairie, Radiant Press."
From Steven's review: “The reality of poetry is its ability to speak to a part of ourselves that is asleep much of the time. When that part awakens, what is real and what is metaphor can seem indistinguishable. A sense of unreality enters our belief systems, altering how we see the world. The poetic world of Realia by Michael Trussler (Radiant Press, 2024) takes nothing for granted.“
Click here to read the full review.
For more info on River Street Writing's RIR program, feel free to send them a message through the contact form on their website.
Let RSW founder, publicist and award-winning writer Hollay Ghadery tell you the rest:
"As part of our mission to celebrate amazing books from small presses in Canada and champion a variety of approaches to and perspectives on literary criticism, we’re delighted to announce we’re kicking-off a Reviewer-in-Residence (RIR) program. Each RIR term will last six months and come with a honorarium.
Our inaugural RIR is the wonderful Steven Mayoff. Not only is Steven a small press CanLit author, but he is a champion of small press titles, and has been championing books with us since the very beginning.
For Steven’s first review, he looks at Realia (poetry) by three-time Saskatchewan Book Award winner Michael Trussler. Realia was published earlier this year by Saskatchewan’s spectacular little press on the prairie, Radiant Press."
From Steven's review: “The reality of poetry is its ability to speak to a part of ourselves that is asleep much of the time. When that part awakens, what is real and what is metaphor can seem indistinguishable. A sense of unreality enters our belief systems, altering how we see the world. The poetic world of Realia by Michael Trussler (Radiant Press, 2024) takes nothing for granted.“
Click here to read the full review.
For more info on River Street Writing's RIR program, feel free to send them a message through the contact form on their website.
Realia Review
14 September, 2024 Filed in: Reviews
Samson Grief Unboxed
After years of writing and rewriting, getting to finally hold your book in your hands is thrilling. Watch the magic as Steven unboxes his copies of The Island Gospel According to Samson Grief.
Miramichi Reader and Book Trailer
Having a busy and interesting week in advance of the October 17, 2023 publication of my new novel, The Island Gospel According to Samson Grief. My short essay was included in the Why I Wrote This Book series in The Miramichi Reader, Issue #16.
And my publishers, Radiant Press, have released a great trailer for the novel. Things are getting exciting!
And my publishers, Radiant Press, have released a great trailer for the novel. Things are getting exciting!
The Island Gospel According to Samson Grief
31 July, 2023 Filed in: Books
Steven’s new book The Island Gospel According to Samson Grief will be released by Radiant Press on October 17, 2023.
Satirical magic-realism abounds in this modern myth narrated by Samson Grief, a reclusive painter living in Mount Russet, Prince Edward Island. While struggling with a creative block, he is confronted by three redheaded strangers who identify themselves as Judas, Shylock and Fagin, figments of Samson’s imagination and messengers sent by a genderless deity named the Supreme One. Having decreed the Middle East to be a hopeless mess, the Supreme One wants PEI to be the new Promised Land and tasks Samson with building the Island’s first synagogue to get the cosmic wheels rolling. Scared, confused and seriously doubting his sanity, Samson eventually, though grudgingly, accepts the challenge and comes up against political intrigue as well as other obstacles along the way.
Readers of Steven Mayoff’s darkly humorous novel should prepare themselves to expect the unexpected. The Island Gospel According to Samson Grief provides a rollicking journey through an audaciously reimagined Prince Edward Island, a place bubbling over with intrigue, crowded with unforgettable characters both odious and ordinary, and where divine intervention is a daily occurrence. Utterly original and wildly entertaining. . - Ian Colford, author of Witness and The Confessions of Joseph Blanchard, winner of of the 2022 Guernica Prize.
Hilarious ontological and cultural satire canopied by sacred mystery: layered and intelligent, comforting and terrifying, schmaltzy and bittersweet. The Island Gospel According to Samson Grief fuses realism, magic realism, zeitgeist, fear, and love into a most delicious and satisfying novel. - Michelle Butler Hallett, author of Constant Nobody, winner of the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Prize
Satirical magic-realism abounds in this modern myth narrated by Samson Grief, a reclusive painter living in Mount Russet, Prince Edward Island. While struggling with a creative block, he is confronted by three redheaded strangers who identify themselves as Judas, Shylock and Fagin, figments of Samson’s imagination and messengers sent by a genderless deity named the Supreme One. Having decreed the Middle East to be a hopeless mess, the Supreme One wants PEI to be the new Promised Land and tasks Samson with building the Island’s first synagogue to get the cosmic wheels rolling. Scared, confused and seriously doubting his sanity, Samson eventually, though grudgingly, accepts the challenge and comes up against political intrigue as well as other obstacles along the way.
Readers of Steven Mayoff’s darkly humorous novel should prepare themselves to expect the unexpected. The Island Gospel According to Samson Grief provides a rollicking journey through an audaciously reimagined Prince Edward Island, a place bubbling over with intrigue, crowded with unforgettable characters both odious and ordinary, and where divine intervention is a daily occurrence. Utterly original and wildly entertaining. . - Ian Colford, author of Witness and The Confessions of Joseph Blanchard, winner of of the 2022 Guernica Prize.
Hilarious ontological and cultural satire canopied by sacred mystery: layered and intelligent, comforting and terrifying, schmaltzy and bittersweet. The Island Gospel According to Samson Grief fuses realism, magic realism, zeitgeist, fear, and love into a most delicious and satisfying novel. - Michelle Butler Hallett, author of Constant Nobody, winner of the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Prize
