Black Swan

A series of dramatic portraits: the landscape of a Florida landscape too hot to touch, the mother's Pentecostal Old Testament law of judgment, a father's recklessness in the mindless spreading of seed, male malingering with no meaningful work, and little instruction by example. . . . Ecstatic lyric, ritual grace under extreme pressure, realized.

Van Clief-Stefanon has created a poetry collection that makes Greek mythology relevant to a different culture and ethnicity. But because she chose poetry as her vehicle, the message reads universal. . .Black Swan births a new Helen, but the 'the Ideal' is a constant and as old as time. It's a 'new poetry' that grows from what has preceded it. It's poetry—pure and simple and without any deception at all.

. . . striking debut collection." "Black, Pentecostal, female, the poet writes humanely about and from these perspectives. White, agnostic, male, I love Lyrae and Black Swan.

A dazzling first book. Read it.

This review is not to crown Van Clief-Stefanon as the next big thing, but I would gladly bow before her in awe of her talent. . . . [She] writes . . . poems that possess an emotional force rarely captured in modern poetry. . . . As personal as any poetry as I have ever read . . . her delivery is entrancing. . . .When you find something this good you cannot wait to share. I look forward to watching this Black Swan take flight.

Van Clief-Stefanon orchestrates each poem as if it were one movement of a jazz suite, rich in texture and sly accordance.

A thoughtful debut. . . .[she has an] ability to produce an ever-yielding, superallusive, multivocal text . . . keen focus and quiet maturity.

An ambitious mix of themes and styles, and a rewarding read. . . . gives a clear and elegant voice to women, both real and mythical, whose stories are ultimately our own.