Synopses & Reviews
Knock Knock chronicles the odd and unnerving,
the beautiful and tragicomic—the lyrical in
everyday life. Poems are inquisitive, introspective,
erotic, sharp.
Review
Heather Hartley's first book of poems breathes new life into language at every turn. These poems are so sly and sweet, so smart and sexy—from the poet's bemused observation of a man on the subway holding a toilet seat, to her commemoration of the haunting suicide of four sisters "in India ink." In her linguistic playfulness, she's lithe and muscular as a gymnast. All the angels may be out to lunch, as she says, but all the flags in her heart are flying.
Review
Heather Hartley steps forth boldly and beautifully
through this first published volume of her poems.
Her tread is light but sure and elegant. She
knows where she comes from and is tracing by
writing several destinations. The road consists
of the making of self through the well-crafted
stories of multiple empathies and the discipline
of poetry. She reminds us that poetry can be allencompassing
when the public is a private sorrow
or joy, but also transformative when the words
gather to become shape and sound.
About the Author
Heather Hartley is Paris Editor for Tin House magazine and her poems have
appeared in many publications including Post Road, Mississippi Review, Drunken
Boat and Pool. Her writing has also appeared in The World Within: Writers Talk
Ambition, Angst, Anarchy . . . , Food and Booze: A Tin House Literary Feast and
elsewhere. She's a co-director of the Shakespeare and Company Bookshop Literary
Festival. She lives in Paris.