• “Render / An Apocalypse” by Rebecca Gayle Howell, Cutbank, 2014

Howell has given the literary world a truly unique offering which finds the common ground between poetry, horror, and (human) nature.

• “Your Invitation to a Modest Breakfast” by Hannah Gamble, Cutbank, 2013

Gamble’s work extends beyond voice; her voice attains a sense of personhood.

• “Museum of Accidents” by Rachel Zucker, A Bradstreet, 2013

As a poet she is part stunning spectacle, part strangulation, with the ability to make a reader gasp as if before a freefall, a contraction.

• “Otherwise, Soft White Ash” by Kelli Allen, Rattle, 2012

In the same way a person in a straight jacket appears both contained and yet not, these poems throb and push against their form.

• “Flies” by Michael Dickman, Rattle, 2012

I have breaking news for the literary world; you can judge Michael Dickman’s award-winning book, Flies, by its cover.

• “Sasha Sings the Laundry on the Line” by Sean Thomas Dougherty, Rattle, 2011

It’s like my father just walked in wearing a Tupac t-shirt.