Perennial

Poetry. In our society, distinctive locales are being leveled. Drive across the country on an interstate, the distinction in landscape disappears into Burger Kings, Domino's and Walmarts. Vivian Shipley's poetry preserves a uniqueness of place.--The New York Times

Vivian Shipley explores regions of the quotidian terror: erasure, the double- death of ceasing to exist and ceasing to be remembered. Shipley reminds us implicitly that poetry, unlike terror, survives, giving voice to the eternal.--War, Literature & the Arts

To take on voices or compose dramatic monologues is nothing new, of course, but what is remarkable is Shipley's facility at imbuing voices with the same conversational, even casual tone as in her autobiographical work. The readers feel as though we have sat down together with a cup of coffee or maybe a stiff drink, and a life is being shared.--Prairie Schooner