The Valise

Poetry. Sophia Rivkin's debut collection, THE VALISE, embraces all of the terrors and joys of life from the harrowing world of her Russian grandmother to the fragile body of a dead field mouse. Rivkin's keen and unblinking eye, great verbal energy, and wry wisdom confront her subjects with continuous, genuine surprise. Terry Blackhawk notes: "Rivkin finds her truths in the surreal, the folkloric, the vibrant lie, the slightly off-kilter translation. These energetic poems let 'the stunned, ruined things . . . speak.' They help us understand the price of survival, and we pay it gladly."