Katje van Loon is the clear, forthright voice of a generation as hooked on poetry as any in history. By turns yearning, outraged, wistful, and funny, these poems won’t let us get away with forgetting the past or denying the present. Her muscular command of language demonstrates what it means to be a young word-wrighter today. Poetry’s future rests in good hands.

Katje van Loon is a runaway who not only clearly sees what she’s fleeing, she definitely knows what she’s seeking: a place where the world makes better sense and writing really can make, enrich, and save your life. Her instruments are ones “of soul and sass,” and her good work will thoroughly kick that part of your anatomy that rhymes with the latter as she wrings your brain with necessary thought. Don’t be glancing around as you read; she’s speaking to you.