Joe Wilkins writes his truths straight from the broken heart of a broken land. When I read his personal stories, so lyrically and wondrously imagined, I feel a beautiful and sometimes terrifying emotion rise up in me—mythic, redemptive, and sustaining. If you want to read what matters, read this. -Kim Barnes, Pulitzer Prize Finalist for In the Wilderness

One way to define love is fidelity to experience, and if this is so, then Wilkins demonstrates such love over and over in his ruthless, entirely unsentimental efforts to imagine and understand the world he inhabits—and the one that inhabits him. These are the sorts of poems one keeps close by when they’re most needed, when one can feel most lost. -Sam Green, Washington State Book Award Winner for The Grace of Necessity

Joe Wilkins has a big, true, highway‑running American voice. When you see a new book of his, you should celebrate. Just buy it, put down the window, and let the music blow back your hair. It’s nothing but alive. -Luis Alberto Urrea, Pulitzer Prize Finalist for The Devil’s Highway