“Metres cements himself as a master of stylistically daring books. In Shrapnel Maps, Metres uses erasure, real documents, and alternative poetic forms to express difficult topics and literal cultural erasure.”

“This is a breathtaking collection, unrivaled in scope or execution, fit to dwell among the great collections of our time… [W]hat sets Shrapnel Maps apart from many of its contemporaries is its insistence on reaching for the light, in reaching for unity, in reaching for new definitions of peace and new definitions of a sustainable joy.”

“This is the critical collection we need today, as we’ve needed it every day—one that points to a lineage of poetry political, committed, alive. To listen to these poets—Adrienne Rich, Muriel Rukeyser, Khaled Mattawa, Mohja Kahf, and on—through Metres is to hear a practice of compassion and righteousness that is exemplary. I leave reading these essays and conversations as I often leave reading Phil Metres’s astonishing work: emboldened and awake to the possibilities of poetry as communal, as documentary, as song, as refuge and, yes, resistance.”

“Weaving between Gogol, the Neva, currents of river, musical suite, and electricity, the synesthetic panorama of Pictures at an Exhibition: A Petersburg Album invites us on a journey through the fugue of a city embodied by Saint Petersburg, and tempts us with never wanting to leave.”

“Sand Opera is among the most powerful, articulate, and accomplished examples I know of [documentary poetry’s] possibility…. Metres’ poetics and his Sand Opera resonate with another recent, staggering, and necessary volume: Claudia Rankine’s Citizen.”