Praise for MIXTAPES

 

MIXTAPES shows us the connections between memories and dreams and nightmares like no other collection of poetry I have ever read. This collection does not hesitate to push boundaries and break expectations. Ambitious, daring and human. Rachael Crosbie has outdone herself.

— Tristan Cody, Creative Director of POCKETFIRE

Rachael Crosbie’s MIXTAPES is a melodic dichotomy. In side 1, Crosbie frames the past self as a “you” in absentia, elegizing them at a distance, while her B-sides take a wistful turn toward a world where one’s self is all there is. On both sides of this titular tape, lyrical, visceral visions will strike a chord with every reader. Long after reading, Crosbie’s MIXTAPES will play on in your mind and heart.

— Isaura Ren, editor-in-chief of perhappened and author of interlucent (2020)

Aptly named, editor, songwriter, and poet Rachael Crosbie’s collection, MIXTAPES, is a marriage of poetry and musical lyricism. Side 1: You in Absentia and Side 2: The B-Sides, though different, are two halves of a whole. Like a cassette loaded with precise and powerful imagery, each poem clicks into the next seamlessly. The speaker crones to the reader with each poem painting a picture of emotional yet tender. In a voice completely her own, Crosbie calls on the universal and is able to do something almost impossible: shape unrelenting emotion into unique, beautiful, melancholic language.

— Keana Aguila Labra, editor-in-chief of Marías at Sampaguitas and author of NO SAINTS (2020)