Critical Commentary

"These poems are driven by some super high-octane duende. They spin and spill all over the place with a controlled recklessness and a sustained energy. She's ready to take flight at the smallest provocation, wings oiled up, in tune with the mad universe."
- Jim Daniels, on Ink for an Odd Cartography

"In her third chapbook, Michele Battiste presents poems of such a dynamic intelligence that the reader finds herself exhilarated: It's like riding with the top down!...Battiste has an exceedingly sharp eye and an even sharper wit. Smart, passionate, and complex, these poems remind us that our lives are far more exciting than we sometimes think."
- Kelly Cherry, on Slow the Appetite Down

"This is an extraordinary collection, and its strain of defiant, blood-shirring gypsy music is the tonic you’ve been looking for."
—Albert Goldbarth, on Uprising

"With the intimacy of lyric and the scale of epic, Uprising brings an important story of the twentieth century close to us in vital terms."
- David Mason, on Uprising