Honored as one of 10 Favorite Books of 2014 Dwight Garner The New York Times Honored as a Standout Book of 2014 American Poet magazineBelieu oscillates between dark humor selfconsciousness and pointed satire in a fourth collection thats equalopportunity in its critique In the world of these poems no one is innocent everyone is confined to the complexity absurdity and above all fallibility of their human condition Anchoring the work is a conversational lyrical speaker willing to implicate herself as part of the political and social constructs she criticizes as when she depicts a Southern American culture still reeling from its history of social injustice and even the Civil War Dont tell us history Nobody hearts a cemetery like we do Its a fantastic collection Belieu desires not to dress issues up but confront themPublishers Weekly starred review A smart and nettling book of poems about love sex social class and our freefloating anxieties from a writer who is a comedian of the human spirit Her crisp free verse has as many subcurrents as a magnetic fieldDwight Garner The New York TimesPolitics pop culture and parenthood appear here along with reflections on our collective moments of hypocrisy and hope 12Step one of the most resonant entries begins innocuously with a meditation about lighthouses then the speaker gathers speed and confidence and reaches a risky but profound oneword stanzamyselfbefore ending with a haunting inversion of the Serenity Prayer used by Alcoholics Anonymous Amid the quips and the elegant observations about immortality Belieus speakers never forget their responsibilities or their possibilities Booklist From poem to poem in the smart savvy Slant Six Belieu channels an updated American idiom one of stubborn inbetweenhood Like the plainspoken poetry that plumbed the depths of American consciousness in the 20th century Belieu trawls the shallows of todays America and finds just as much caught in its oily reflections as in its murkier subcurrents Its better she suggests to forget perfection The Boston GlobeIve never read a poem by Erin Belieu that I didnt want to immediately rip from its bindings so I could fold it up and carry around in my pockets and read so many times that the paper turned back into pulp Shes just that good That honest and brave and beautiful and wise and funny She writes poems we need Poems that say who I am and who you are and how and why we got to be this way Poems that wonder if we can ever change Poems that know us and show us and grace us Poems that remember us and forget us and leave us dazzled in their dust In Slant Six shes outdone herself Its a spellbinding heartopening beauty of a book Cheryl Strayed Erin Belieu is always ready to surprise to astonish and ultimately to defy comparisonBoston Book ReviewOne of Americas finest poetsRobert Olen ButlerErin Belieus fourth collection Slant Six is an inundation of the humor and horror in contemporary American lifefrom the last saltine cracked in the sleeve to the kittycat calendar in an office cubicle With its prophecies of impending destruction and a simultaneous flood of respect for Americans Erin Belieus poems close like Ziploc bags around a human heartFrom 12StepI am consideringlighthousesin a completely new lighttheir butch neutrality their grandbut modest