“Rochelle Ratner explores the forgotten corners of one’s life, the bits of nourishment one finds but is not given, or is given only to hunger for more... The effect of this narrative in prose poems is unsettling, as if the cobwebs in the corners of our own lives had been pulled aside.”—Jessica Treat

On House and Home:
“In writing as in life, this poet seems to have no use for undue exuberance but is plainly too strong to let herself get bogged down in the maudlin... The result is honest and unaffected writing refreshingly free of the self-conscious angst that mars the writing of some of her colleagues.”—Library Journal

“The writing's great virtue is its physicality of place and time—a fusion of word and map of nature drawn by a uniquely original poet. House and Home represents a maturity of mind and voice rare among contemporary poets.” —Rochelle Owens

“Here are the private musings of a seasoned poet, most often over domestic realities uttered matter-of-factly, However, these lyrics are elevated into a poetry of metaphoric potential, with a most moving selection of love poems that include the trials of love and the fears of its lack. There is a calm center to these carefully observed poems.”—Barry Wallenstein

“A very highly recommended addition to any poetry shelf, the images evoked are as compellingly universal as they are memorably unique.” —Midwest Book Review

“Finding the telling detail of quotidian experiences and pinning them into permanence with the least number of just-right words is Rochelle Ratner's forte as a poet.” —Bob Grumman, Small Press Review

“Although the ordinary and everyday subject matter is usually treated in an accessible and sometimes flat manner, the metaphoric implications resonate. After all, Home is a four letter word on par with Love and it is fraught with that most famous ‘F’ word: Family. These are some of the seminal archetypes of the human psyche… Throughout House and Home there is poignancy between the illusionary ideal and the less perfect, but more honest, real. One of Ratner’s fortes is her portrayal, as sharply focused as a Diane Arbus photograph, of unsparing reality”. —Lee Bellevance, Café Review

“The central idea is the way that place, rural or urban, influences and defines a family while a family endows place with emotional associations… There is a ‘dream’ of holding a life together, making it comprehensible, seeing implications of events separated by time. The ‘self’ of these poems, often in solitude, never gives up on family, spouse, or love.” —Frank Allen, One Trick Pony

“The burden of these poems does not rest as much on the specific issues they deal with as discrete events, but on the sensitivity with which they become worked out or incorporated into life over time. In this, Ratner shows her major leap ahead of the earlier poems that simply coped with loneliness, alienation, and related themes. And this is precisely where she goes beyond most ‘domestic poetry’ written in recent years… A significant part of what she seems to have been moving toward has more to do with establishing and maintaining her independence as an adult using the more easily recognizable models and icons of childhood and adolescent alienation.”—Karl Young, Sugar Mule

“This is deeply personal poetry that analyses that very fragile bond of marriage that could either withstand a sudden disease or infidelity.”—Chris Mansel, The Muse-Apprentice Guild

On Someday Songs:
“Painful and witty at the same time, the poems are simple in structure and give the reader a warm feeling for family, changing tradition, friendship, and an understanding of the pain of alienation and loss. Highly recommended.”—Library Journal
“Personal and religious encounters provide the raw material for Ratner's 13th collection of poetry. And the poems, which evoke Jewish ritual and communal life, are remarkable for their simplicity, clarity and depth of feeling. They are not so much ‘about’ religious experience as they are moments of it…. The poems are declared imitations, representations, and as such gain their power from their exactness of observation and from the poet's use of language as a mimetic tool”—Publishers Weekly

Rochelle Ratner's the author of thirteen previous poetry collections, including Practicing to Be A Woman: New and Selected Poems (Scarecrow Press, 1982) and Someday Songs (BkMk Press, 1992). A novelist as well as a poet, Coffee House Press has published two novels: Bobby's Girl (1986) and The Lion's Share (1991). An anthology she edited, Bearing Life: Women's Writings on Childlessness, was published in January 2000 by The Feminist Press. More information is available at www.rochelleratner.com