Let the Empire Down

"An incredible feat of vision and voice . . . technically, nothing is out of Oliver's grasp. Her go-to iambic pentameter can swallow anything in its path."—The National Post

“Alexandra Oliver has many arrows in her quiver—all of them sharpened to a fine point. In satirical work like “The Classics Lesson,” she is mordantly funny. Yet she can also treat her subjects quietly and with touching understatement, as in “Chinese Food with Gavra, Aged Three.” Ms. Oliver is, moreover, technically resourceful in the best sense ... This is an excellent and entertaining collection.”—Timothy Steele, author of Sapphics against Anger and Other Poems

“It is sometimes argued that our disjunctive times need to be mirrored by disjunctive forms: only aesthetic disorder can respond to our experience. Such a simplicity is disproven by Alexandra Oliver’s Meeting the Tormentors in Safeway, in which disjunctions of many kinds (such as the one in her title) are brought to order by the poet’s refining passion and corrosive wit. Here are brilliantly contemporary poems in traditional forms, the work of a stunning new voice.”—Charles Martin, author of Unwritten

“Alexandra Oliver is in full command of a saber wit and impeccable ear. With these she tackles nothing less than the unsettling hazards, absurd encounters, and oddball ironies of our modern predicament to make poems that bite and entertain… Lucky the reader along for the ride.”—Jeanne Marie Beaumont, author of Placebo Effects

"One of the most exciting things about her work is the way she takes a different route from the in-your-face newness and hybridity our market now demands."—The Walrus

"An incredible feat of vision and voice . . . technically, nothing is out of Oliver's grasp. Her go-to iambic pentameter can swallow anything in its path."—The National Post

“Alexandra Oliver has many arrows in her quiver—all of them sharpened to a fine point. In satirical work like “The Classics Lesson,” she is mordantly funny. Yet she can also treat her subjects quietly and with touching understatement, as in “Chinese Food with Gavra, Aged Three.” Ms. Oliver is, moreover, technically resourceful in the best sense ... This is an excellent and entertaining collection.”—Timothy Steele, author of Sapphics against Anger and Other Poems

“It is sometimes argued that our disjunctive times need to be mirrored by disjunctive forms: only aesthetic disorder can respond to our experience. Such a simplicity is disproven by Alexandra Oliver’s Meeting the Tormentors in Safeway, in which disjunctions of many kinds (such as the one in her title) are brought to order by the poet’s refining passion and corrosive wit. Here are brilliantly contemporary poems in traditional forms, the work of a stunning new voice.”—Charles Martin, author of Unwritten

“Alexandra Oliver is in full command of a saber wit and impeccable ear. With these she tackles nothing less than the unsettling hazards, absurd encounters, and oddball ironies of our modern predicament to make poems that bite and entertain… Lucky the reader along for the ride.”—Jeanne Marie Beaumont, author of Placebo Effects

"One of the most exciting things about her work is the way she takes a different route from the in-your-face newness and hybridity our market now demands."—The Walrus