This is prose where every word matters, even the articles, each scene a self-contained prose-poem.

Finely-honed and whetted, Smith’s lines are as sharp and clean as fishbones, pliantly molded into shapes both formal and inventive.

This sorcerous’s brew contains the soulful warmth of a therapist, the thoughtful pedagogy of a beloved teacher, a poet’s sensitivity to language’s intricacies, and a feminist’s clear-eyed truth and rebel yell.

I read this collection as much as a feminist manifesto as a personal one; a love letter to all women who secretly know their strength and quietly go about the work of attending to their ambitions and desires.

Despite all odds, the soul finds redemption by witnessing, naming, and appreciating those aspects of the world which still have meaning, are lasting, and can’t be bought and sold.