Critics on Grace Bauer
“Grace Bauer is a poet at the height of her powers . . . the landscape of American poetry is brightened considerably be the verve of Mean/Time. Marilyn Kallet
In Mean/Time, truth and its necessary consolations grace our lives as we go about “maintaining / the sacred by performing the mundane.” Michael Waters
“Grace Bauer’s The Women At The Well is a marvelous addition to this body of (midrash) literature. . . I welcome the reprinting of this courageous and wise book of poems. Alicia Suskin Ostriker
“Grace Bauer celebrates the power of poetry to transform our sense of the world – to help us understand the qualities of mortality, love, human frailty, and the divine. There is an intricate mind at work in these poems, and Grace Bauer is a poet of true intuition and depth. Kevin Prufer
“Grace Bauer’s poems . . . do everything all at once and quite successfully – mixing a tender sense of human and worldly presence with a lush instinct for sound, a compact flow of narrative, the perfect weight of wry humor, and an acutely attentive vigilance to all surroundings. Bauer’s balancing perspectives help “illuminate a greater regard” about everything mysterious and wondrous we are living.” Naomi Shihab Nye
“Anne Sexton, Elizabeth Bishop, Carolyn Kizer – let them make room for Grace Bauer. Sexton’s equal in sardonic vision, Bishop’s equal in the music of speech, Kizer’s equal in rapier wit . . . . . I, for one, will try to read every word this woman writes.” Will Slattery
“Grace Bauer has a rare power: whether it is the appearance of Mormon missionaries at her door or finding an answer to an eight year old boy’s question, ‘what’s Nebraska?’ She transforms life into perfect poems.” Jesse Lee Kercheval
“Bauer at her full range is earthy, gutsy, brainy, ruefully funny, and loaded with talent.” Julie Kane
