Black Series
“Rarely, if ever, has the contemporary lyric been both so pure and so informed with varieties of experience…This is fine work, both delicate and bold.”
—C.K. Williams
“The poems in Sheck’s wonderful book…disrobe our senses…honing our skills to see in the dark. Here nothing is borrowed; each poem’s imagery is direct, seldom beyond us, yet always challenging. We can all savor Black Series, an exhibition of lyrical surprises.”
—Yusef Komunyakaa
“Laurie Sheck is a modern shaman… ‘Listen carefully,’ she whispers; and you do, because your life depends on it.”
—Rita Dove, Washington Post Book World
“Laurie Sheck….spins wonderfully delicate connections between the inner mind and outer world…Her svelte, graceful lines encapsulate more than ever that metaphysical glance which is America’s special gift to modern poetry.”
—Ruth Padel, Financial Times
“In this ambitious, intelligent, and moving book, Sheck brings us to places and moments of trespass…crossing out from the ordinary into a lyrical place of dark and light, contradiction and strangeness.”
—Nadia Herman Colburn, Boston Review
“There is depth in her vision of brokenness… The secret life of [Laurie Sheck’s] poetry…is something we can scarcely afford to do without.”
—Phoebe Pettingell, The New Leader