Coping with Emotions and Otters

"a delightful and poignant satire of our narcissistic and celebrity-obsessed culture. Del Bucchia has a radar for the ridiculous: our propensity to deify celebrities (even if they're otters), our love of navel-gazing, our desire for transformation in ten easy steps. ... If this book was only funny though, it would become tiresome. It isn't. There is beautiful and moving writing in these pages."
- PRISM International

"Dina Del Bucchia aims her sassy wit at 'jealousy,' 'happiness,' 'guilt' and other subjective experiences-if you're unable to admit how these wily emotions truly manifest for you, Del Bucchia is more than willing. Her poems are like hot gossip from whip-smart grapevine that you simply can't help but overhear."
- Amber Dawn, author of Sub Rosa and How Poetry Saved My Life

"A poetic piss-take on the self-help genre."
- Malvern Books Reviews

"Coping with Emotions and Otters is subversive, sly, and hilarious. In it, Dina Del Bucchia not only reveals the emotional landscapes of the beautiful-on-the-outside urbanites, but also treats us to wry and unexpectedly poignant step-by-step guides on how to properly achieve these feelings ourselves. Sharp and candid, Del Bucchia deftly holds a comic mirror to our own awkward lives in this exciting, accomplished debut."
- Marita Dachsel, author of All Things Said & Done

"Dina Del Bucchia's debut is funny, perversely beautiful, and satirical without being judgmental. Here, all emotions are to be revelled in, from happiness ('soft lighting, WiFi connection, rat poison') to shame ('catch the glimpse of uncertainty / as you mispronounce countries'). Buy, read, and clutch to your chest this comforting poetic guide for painful times."
- Jennica Harper, author of The Octopus and Other Poems and What It Feels Like For a Girl

"Del Bucchia's parodic machinery works at full throttle... These pieces achieve a taut balance between satiric distance & sad self-laceration. ... I'm not sure what, exactly, Del Bucchia wants to do, but I'm pretty sure she sympathizes. Coping with Emotions and Otters has pushed firmly if in a roundabout way to that final line."
- Eclectic Ruckus

"In any case, Coping with Emotions and Otters, as the title indicates, is unlike any book of poetry you've ever read. And while it sends up the self-help genre, you'll still feel like a better person after reading it, although not for the reasons you think."
- Jacqueline Turner, Georgia Straight