Little Witness - by Connie Roberts (Paperback)

Review Quotes

In the arresting poems of her debut volume, Little Witness, Connie Roberts displays a stunning craft and candor. With consummate command of language, Roberts portrays a child with no command of anything, and with her dazzling dexterity of form, she depicts a woman who dignifies her memories simply by remembering without sentiment. Her poet's progress begins in an Irish orphanage and proceeds through work and love to a full identity. Though the terror-defying journey makes the poems remarkable, and the resolute character of their speaker ennobles them, it's their stately observations and formal fierceness that distinguish them. Each poem is a song, both shocking and hard, yet a song nonetheless, with warmth, depth, and revelation.--Molly Peacock, author of The Second Blush and The Paper Garden

Poetry and history meet in this work in a powerful confluence of energies. Here we are given the formation of a compassionate and loving soul, and also a lens through which we are gifted a clear-eyed vision of the young Irish state. This is brave and generous work, technically accomplished, beautifully crafted and deeply moving.--Paula Meehan, Ireland Professor of Poetry

This is the poetry of rock-hard experience. It will skin your soul.--Dan Barry, New York Times journalist and author of Pull Me Up: A Memoir

About the Author

Connie Roberts, a County Offaly native, emigrated from Ireland to the United States in 1983. Her poetry has been published in journals in the U.S. and Europe. She teaches creative writing at Hofstra University, New York and is part of Hofstra's Irish Studies program.