“The movement at the center of so many of these poems is that of air, fire, water, nigh—of what cannot be seen, even as the speaker moves ever inward to face her own dreams, her demons and her desires. The strong central poem, ‘After the Rape,’ defines the moment from which the poet must measure the world. That she finds in the memory of a dolphin rising into air is the magic of Nancy Kuhl’s collection.” –Judith Kitchen

“Imagine a postmodern Pindar with a liberal arts education and good command of Polish; think of an Orpheus who starts out as a horny kid from the American suburbs, hits the road like Kerouac, learns a few things along the way, but still looks back—wacked! Kress has come up with some playful and surprisingly haunting sonnets that glance at the old stories but sing their own new, not too sweet songs.” –Julia Kasdorf

In Beyond the Velvet Curtain, Karen Kovacik illustrates Czeslaw Miloxz’s dictum that “the purpose of poetry is to remind us how difficult it is to remain just one person.” Peopled with such diverse characters as Richard Nixon, Nikita Khruschev, Kafka’s father, Dorothea Lange, William Carlos Williams, Lawrence Welk, Robespierre, and a feisty Catholic saint, this original collection of poems takes us on an amusement-park ride through world history and art. Kovacik’s poetry places us in the strange drama of cataclysmic events and ordinary life.

“Karen Kovacik’s poems are strong, distinctive and thoroughly wonderful works. Her personal poems such as ‘Watching My Father Pray’ make use of autobiographical detail in a way that is never insular or hermetic. And her Richard Nixon persona poems are stunning, brave, and original. American poetry, and American writing in general, tends to be sadly ahistorical, and the way these poems take on one of history’s most loved and hated figures, giving him voice and making him human, is truly impressive. Nixon and I is an amazing debut.”—Jesse Lee Kercheval

“Mindi Kirchner possesses an unblinking honesty and wit that is at once enchanting and heartbreaking. Her agile, beautifully crafted poems address the disappointments and sorrows of our uncrafted, ordinary lives and the painful distance between reality and imagination. She celebrates the joy in spite of, not because of, what is. Like a Buddhist she wishes for no other life, no reincarnation. And yet, as her reader, I can’t wait to see more, more lives, or at least many more books, from this talented new voice.”—Nin Andrews

“The image evoked by Intaglio, this first collection by Ariana-Sophia Kartsonis, rests on a paradox, one perhaps central to the poetic impulse itself: that design can be shaped by what is cut away, by the loss that surrounds it, so that what is missing creates the negative space which raises the figure in relief, presents it to sight, and touch. Relief: a word whose two meanings—one artistic and material, the other emotional and intangible, together suggest how art engraves meaning.” —Eleanor Wilner, Judge

“Honoree Jeffers is an exciting and original new poet, and the Gospel of Barbecue is her aptly titled debut work. These poems are sweet and sassy, hot and biting, flavored in an exciting blend of precise language and sharp and surprising imagery that delights. They leave a taste in your mouth, these poems; they are true to themselves and to the world. They are gospel, indeed, and this young poet will be heard more and more spreading the true word. Good news!” —Lucille Cliffton

Selected Works of Elinor Wylie contains 113 of the 161 poems Wylie chose for the volumes published in her lifetime and 100 more that appeared in Collected Poems and in Last Poems. Also included are the first chapters of each of her novels, Jennifer Lorn, The Venetian Glass Nephew, The Orphan Angel, and Mr. Hodge and Mr. Hazard. Editor and scholar Evelyn Hively chose short stories, essays, reviews, and articles to further define Wylie’s rich and broad repertoire and her place on the 1920s literary scene. Scholars and researchers of this modern woman writer and her contemporaries will find this a welcome addition to women’s literary studies.

“Kate Hancock’s poems combine intellectual rigor with emotional recklessness like oil and water under special dispensation. This rare ability is a tell-tale sign of a true poet, and the reader who lets these poems have their sure way with him or her will not forget them.”—William Matthews

“The poetry, page after page, is of the kind that keeps the reader on the critical edge, both ecstatic and lucid, both active and illumined. . . . What began in the first part of the book with the evocations of a struggle to unclench a rock-locked fist’ is projected, in the end, on the geography of the continent itself, desolate yet lyrical. Nothing more exotic here than the beauty of utterance set free.”—Stavros Deligiorgis