"There’s a clear and compelling thread that stitches these poems together. It speaks to the dangers the women who inhabit the poems face—and how the mutations of past dangers linger in present time. These poems are methodically observant and detailed, attuned to the natural world, the world of medicine and science, and the elusive world in between—the wondrous space that poetry can access. I admire the defiance in these poems, the relentlessness, the sharp focus and surprise, how the tight coils of detail unwind: “Cold & clear. The ice has begun to crack & sound like musket fire.” It’s the seeing and the seeking that’s so compelling. With ferocity and aplomb, each poem houses its own kind of anthropological excavation or historical reexamination, its own splendid fight."
--Yona Harvey, Contest Judge for the Coniston Prize


"I’ve heard many times throughout my life that a good ending should feel both inevitable and truly surprising, and I maybe never fully understood that until reading this poem. It covers so much ground but with such stunning economy. I loved and trusted the unadorned language, which makes me think of Baldwin talking about writing a sentence “clean as a bone.” The vividness of the images was emphasized for me by the straightforwardness of the diction, and the effect was like having this poem injected directly into my heart."  --Safia Elhillo, Contest Judge for Palette Poetry 2022 Emerging Poet Prize