Maxine Kumin: “She is both lyrical and pragmatic, nostalgic and tough-minded.”
Mark Doty: “With courage and formal acuity, humor and tenderness, Lambeth ‘veils and burns’ a moving debut,
a suite of poems that are forthright, adult, and entirely humane.”
Hilary Holladay in Shenandoah (Spring/Summer 2009):
“Riveting and disturbing debut collection of poems”
“These lines blend practicality, realism, & muted sorrow--a complex viewpoint that informs the whole volume”
“Veil and Burn is a hard one to set down.”
Michael Northen in Wordgathering: A Journal of Disability Poetry
“From the opening lines of Veil and Burn readers know they are in for something special and not the usual first book of poems. Laurie Clements Lambeth has given us a book of poetry about disability that is at once both searing and sensuous.”
“Veil and Burn is a book that is doubly rewarding to read: the first time, for the sheer joy of the ride, and the next few times for the ingenuity and richness of the poetry. Though it is a book whose whole is certainly larger than the sum of its parts, it contains many individual poems that readers will want to come back to again and again. No one who takes a chance on the book is likely to be disappointed.”
“A worthy addition to the National Poetry Series”
“It is by examining contrasts throughout her work that Lambeth is able to bring about an integration of the most important aspects of life, including its end, an integration defiant & hopeful, & rooted in the making of art.”
“These short, lyric pieces engage the mind, the spirit, the senses, and the heart.”
