On Allison Benis

Ms. Benis has the gifted ability to relay intensity through quiet, subtle language. I am impressed also by her direct, insightful statements which keep the poems tense and alive. I, as you, read a great deal of new poetry, and I am happy (and relieved) to read work that doesn't just convey sincerity, but which is undeniably genuine. Her use of the prose poem form is particularly suited to profundity hidden in the everyday, to a kind of casual brilliance. It strikes me that, more important than being poetic, Ms. Benis has tried to be a feeling human, and then has worked carefully to craft that discipline into beauty.

—Killarney Clary, author of By Common Salt, Who Whispered Near Me, and Potential Stranger. Recipient of a Lannan Foundation Fellowship, she has taught the Graduate Writing Workshops at the University of California, Irvine and the University of Iowa.