"Her writing is so alert to itself, so alert to language, it's like watching a dancer on a mirrored floor, stepping on her steps. She's practically playing with her words as she writes them down."--Robert Hass, Washington Post Book World , reviewing a previous edition or volume ".McHugh remains one of our most important and unusual poets."-- Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) , reviewing a previous edition or volume "If McHugh is serious, she's anything but grim; with all her punning, bantering, and mock scolding of herself . she brightens the shadowy corners of her world with verbal pyrotechnics."-- The New York Times Book Review , reviewing a previous edition or volume "In poems that are rich with wordplaypuns, rhymes, syntactical twistsHeather McHugh reveals the complex layers of meaning that individual words or phrases contain. The result is intellectually challenging, yet emotionally engaging verse that balances gravity with humor.

"--The MacArthur Foundation, reviewing a previous edition or volume "Approaching McHugh's poems can be like stepping through Alice's looking glass. The surface is seldom what it seems. The poet's penchant for puns, free association, made-up or deconstructed words, fragmented expressions, and anagrams keeps the reader off-kilter. Sometimes the surface inscrutability, wordplay and enigmatic turns of thought make the experience more like solving a cryptic puzzle. It is true that to engage with McHugh's poems is to make a date with surprise."--Lorna Knowles Blake, The Hudson Review.