Christina Hutchins’ The Stranger Dissolves is an exquisite debut volume. This superb collection is elegant, impassioned, and consistently wise in its reckonings. Few poets so carefully embody the mind’s oscillations during reflection, and the beauty of Christina Hutchins’ poems is simply beyond measure. More than any first collection I know, The Stranger Dissolves melds both mind (intelligence and thought) and heart with a startling complexity, intricacy, and intimacy. This is a volume to keep at one’s bedside. — David St. John
Congratulations to Judy Halebsky, the winner of the Sixteen Rivers chapbook contest with her manuscript Space, Gap, Interval, Distance. Our judge, Forrest Hamer, made the final selection from a strong list of entries. Judy’s first book, Sky=Empty, won the 2009 New Issues Poetry Prize and was published last year. Her chapbook will be published in spring, 2012. Congratulations to Judy, and thank you to all those who entered this contest.
