Black Ocean (Boston, MA) | March 2013
Book 2 in the No Volta Pentalogy
Named one of the Best Books of the Year in poetry by Amazon
and named among the Top 40 Poetry Books by Coldfront for 2013.
I can’t remember the last time a book of poems gave me such a bewildered, deep pleasure. It’s as if Joshua Marie Wilkinson made himself translucent so that these perfect, mysterious arrangements of world and word could shimmer through. I waited on every word, every line break, consistently taken by surprise, totally convinced and awed.—Maggie Nelson
Swamp Isthmus puts into the eye everything you’ve ever imagined wanting but didn't know how to see. Star image, “a lake of bees” over the eye-mind, what feeling is is what happens here. These poems know our questions before we know them, the things of our questions, and how we long into them—some deep yearning and also some re-recognition. I have a strong instinct to lick these pages.—Dawn Lundy Martin
Reviews of Swamp Isthmus:
Cutbank | The Rumpus | Kenyon Review | Heavy Feather Review |
Publishers Weekly | Coldfront | Lana Turner | Actuary Lit | Siblíní
Htmlgiant | Colorado Review | Los Angeles Review | Mclennan's blog
Interviews about Swamp Isthmus:
Green Mountains Review | Under a Warm Green Linden