WARSAW BIKINI Sandra Simonds

“In Sandra Simonds’ poetry, a terrific, nihilistic dislike of herself and others (her heroine ‘dires’ men) vies with an extreme will to prevail in full color. The tension is sustained by an imagination of remarkable fertility and a rich and crowded verbal palette. Simonds writes to sting. She’s like a Plath whose capacity for erotic altruism has thoroughly imploded, producing a crisis that only a brilliant talent could turn into a field of triumphantly exhibited power. Simonds has such a talent.” —Cal Bedient

“From the opening lines, Warsaw Bikini, the debut book of poems by Sandra Simonds, gushes forth with a verbose intensity that does not relent until the final line of the last poem. Ranging from free verse lyrics to tender elegies, the poems create a frenzy, an avalanche of words that may bury the reader. For there is a certain violence at work here. We can prepare for the onslaught, but no one is safe. Not even the author.” —Gina Myers, Bookslut