Cynie Cory is an exciting voice in contemporary poetry. It has been said that the new frontier in poetry is not finding new ways to experiment, or preserving tradition, but instead carving a space for innovation within the literary landscape we have inherited. Cory is a poet with a fresh and unique take on this complex aesthetic question.
As sharp-witted as they are erudite, her poems simultaneously inhabit and deconstruct familiar literary tropes. Ranging from erasures of her own sonnets to gorgeously understated single strophe pieces, Cory’s work reveals critical engagement as performance, as gesture. These poems are an achievement, and Cory’s star is clearly rising.