Praise for Black Bell
"Just as Alison C. Rollins's stunning and wildly expansive Black Bell resists neat description, so the collection compels us to confront the limits of language. A librarian as well as a poet, both callings that invite curiosity, Rollins opens door after door after door in these poems with the hope that the reader will step through. . . . Entrenched in the archive, Black Bell illustrates the power of liberation and love, tracing history's dizzying connections to the present while illuminating visions of the future."-Diana Arterian, Los Angeles Review of Books
"Black Bell showcases the elegant, eloquent, deftly crafted, memorable poetry and clearly marks [Alison C. Rollins] as an accomplished and gifted wordsmith of the first order. Unreservedly recommended for community and college/university library Contemporary American Poetry collections."-Midwest Review of Books
Praise for Alison C. Rollins
"Like sunflowers turning towards the sun, readers will turn to this astounding poet." -Booklist (Starred Review)
"The range of Rollins' poetic skill is remarkable. The result is a collection of poetry which is magnificently crafted, readable, and crucially important." -New York Journal of Books
"In poem after poem, Rollins demonstrates that she is finding her own way, shining a light, making darkness apparent." -Publishers Weekly
"In a stunning debut collection of poems, Alison C. Rollins makes use of imagery relating to archives, texts, figures from history, card catalogs, classifications-libraries as evocative troves of imagery, blurring eras, familiar phrases and identities." -Naomi Shihab Nye, New York Times Magazine
"Much-welcomed newcomer Rollins offers keen insights that librarians and their readers will appreciate." -Library Journal
"Some dense and haunting, Rollins' poems are always precise and exacting of attention from the reader...The poems continue to give upon each reading." -Ms. Magazine
"Alison Rollins's debut collection sparkles with a compassionate intelligence that relentlessly catalogs suffering in the hopes that enumeration might somehow assuage or make meaning of it, or at least serve as a mode of connection." -The Adroit Journal
Yes, these poems are lit and enlightened, but Alison C. Rollins's lively charms are always rooted to a notion that 'only things kept in the dark know the true weight of light.' The small and large darknesses catalogued here make this a book of remarkable depth. [Library of Small Catastrophes] is an electrifying debut. -Terrance Hayes
