Ocean Vuong on Bryan Borland: Someone "whose vision, generosity, and perennial kindness sees the seed in you long before you realize it," while placing Sibling Rivalry Press in a hallowed literary lineage alongside New Directions, City Lights in San Francisco, and New York Review Books.
- From Listen, Kid Intro, Ocean Vuong
"Bryan Borland's poems are rendered with depth and sensitivity. Written with unflinching candor, his work invites us into a world where memory gives way to reverie, where personal history becomes myth, and where love and loss are never far apart. Borland weaves together family, friendship, and grief to create something both mythic and achingly real. His poems carry the social and political awareness, and the sharp-eyed critique of American life, that have long defined his voice. This is a beautiful collection-one that belongs in the hands of every poetry lover. But it reaches further: these poems have the power to move even those who don't typically read poetry. There is richness here for everyone."
- Paul Romero, Longtime Curator of the Bryant Park Reading Room, New York City
"The most hackneyed of literary genres-the love poem-gets a serious shaking up and makeover in Bryan Borland's wonderful work. There's an honesty and openness, a willingness to explore dark corners of relationships and the past but also to celebrate the many sides of the sheer joy of being young and together that illuminates every page. These poems are fresh as tomorrow."
- Felice Picano, author of Nights at Rizzoli
"Bryan Borland wields a deft and lyrical hand, cracks open the heart, and imagines a mind where madness is beautiful and 'everything is instinct.' He chronicles a marriage that is not your mother's marriage, but that you will recognize as true love. He unflinchingly examines (as he digs) and records (as he pens) the intimacies of our 'human countries,' gifting the reader with poems that are radical, witty, and tender. Be prepared for Borland's large and unadulteratedly queer vision. Bring a hankie-aqua, gold, or anything in between."
- Denise Duhamel, guest editor of Best American Poetry, and Maureen Seaton, author of Fibonacci Batman: New and Selected Poems
"Bryan Borland['s poetry] is a gravitational pull toward love. The poet creates a special place in the world that didn't exist before in spite of a plethora of gay literature. Borland lifts a banner for not only his own relationships, but a systemic brotherhood; and beneath startling verse is a rational blueprint for male love. Borland's temperament is playful and tender and at times raw. He details sensuality as a personal masterwork, honoring the sexual with high angle reported. Borland's poetic formulations, with their complexities, artfully integrate to build a community of connections, starting with look at me, and how and why I love."
- Grace Cavalieri, Washington Independent Review of Books
