Reviews of Bandit Letters
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"So many originalities––of phrasing and figure, of temperament and tone––make Sarah Messer's poems, and even more her poetry, a matter of some deliberation for new readers. But so dramatic is her attention, in each circumstance, to all these fresh starts that we are hooked right off, and thereafter not at liberty: such is Circe's way with the barnyard."

––Richard Howard

"Bandit Letters has the risky allure of the riverboat gambler, the alleyway drifter, the black widow eater-of-men. The cordite of Jesse James supplies its tang, and Bonnie Parker's adrenaline lends it a whiff. But for all of its clever historical romping, this is a book about us, now, about our very human and very American need to flirt with the nameless dark stranger. It is smart, saucy, and dangerously good."

—Albert Goldbarth