It is difficult to resist the temptation to compare Mary Mackey to Elizabeth Bishop. In both we experience the elusive spirit of life south of the Equator; both poets are stunningly imagistic and musical and awake to topography, sociology, and the world beyond. –The Huffington Post

Mary Mackey joins other visionary poets of dépaysement Henri Michaux in Asia, John Ash in Anatolia, Sharon Doubiago in Peru, Lorca in Manhattan . . . recovering a lost part of herself in the edgy lyricism of the tropics, haunted by fado, forró, and death. The lines are tense with the vulnerability of lovers, strangers, and travelers with no ticket home. –D. S. Nurske

Mackey’s crisp-edged perceptions are set down with a sensuous, compassionate, and utterly unflinching eye. –Jane Hirshfield