Praise for Index of Women
Gerstler brings her customary wit, playfulness, and emotional range to poems that expose the contradictions in ancient and contemporary concepts of femininity. These poems—some dramatic monologues, others more quiet lyrics—vividly render their chief thematic concern . . . This wonderfully intelligent and imaginative collection upends conventional gender norms in favor of illustrating womanhood in all its idiosyncrasy, complexity, and fullness.
-Publisher’s Weekly
“Intimate, funny, poignant, present . . . true to the inner lives of so many women . . . beautifully crafted . . . what’s miraculous […] is that this clamor of voices across continents and centuries somehow amounts to the experience of a single mortal: she contains our multitudes.”
—Dinah Lenney, in Los Angeles Review of Books, author of The Object Parade
Praise for the poetry of Amy Gerstler:
"[Gerstler's poetry is] extremely rich. But not cluttered and not loud . . . the supernatural, the sexy mundane, the out-of-sight are simply her materials, employed as they might be in a piece of religious art."
—Eileen Myles, author of Evolution
"[Gerstler has been] one of my favorite poets since I read her book Bitter Angel. Now I have every book of hers on my shelves." —Maggie Smith, author of Good Bones
"[Gerstler's] poem has me crying in the airport."
—Ada Limón, author of Bright Dead Things
".....Gerstler is skilled in every kind of comedy, from slapstick to whimsy. Yet there’s a deep seriousness in every one of these poems..... As grave as they are amusing and always bittersweet, these poems pay up again and again. “Dearest Creature” is an A.T.M. — the letters standing, in this case, for “artistic thrill machine.” In Amy Gerstler I trust."
—David Kirby, in the New York Times, author of Talking About Movies with Jesus.