“In Leeanne Quinn’s poetry, both her way of seeing
and her way of saying not only draw in the reader but
open up and expand that reader’s experience.
BeforeYou (2012), Quinn’s impressive first collection, included poems that explored relationships, loss, art, urban life and a sequence prompted by Elizabeth Bishop’s letters.
Her second is even more assured and its modest title belies its range and power. Those some lives, especially those of dissident, courageous activists Osip and Nadezha Mandelstam, Marina Tsvetaeva, Anna Akhmatova, Jakob van Hoddis, are
given voice and presence in this compelling collection, in poems that are challenging, allusive and engagingly mysterious …
Narrative and lyric poems are in counterpoint, as are past and present, now and then, in a beautifully orchestrated collection, and Quinn’s handling of rhythm and repetition is pitch
perfect.”
— Niall McMonagle
