In this luminous collection, Mid-Century Modern, Grace Richards’ sleek, minimal lines offer a clear accounting as she explores love and marriage. From her title poem “A mid-century house with no center; …” “The split-level design doomed us from the start, …” “… I find myself archived as your fourth // former wife, the last entry in your bio.” offers the heart and soul of Grace’s first collection. The allure and strength of Grace Richards voice blossoms from every page.
~Laura LeHew, author of Becoming (Another New Calligraphy) and Willingly Would I Burn (MoonPath Press)
Grace Richards’ astute observations for the tiniest details in everyday occurrences are engaging to this reader, as she weaves her well-crafted poems into intricate story lines. Each poem’s tale is well thought out, not mere conjecture, and draws you in because of her deep introspection, rather than fact-based narrative. As in “A Courtship,” where I was riveted, knowing what was coming, yet fearing for the suitor, Richards kept my attention with her well-chosen words. None are wasted here! “Book Signing” takes one of those tiny details I mentioned and makes it the crux of the story. All in all, the poems of Mid-Century Modern are a pleasure to read and I highly recommend it if you are looking for fun reading in modern poetry.
~C. Steven Blue, Managing Editor/Arrowcloud Press
The split-level design doomed us / from the start,” writes Grace Richards in Mid-Century Modern, the literal house of the title a masterfully imagined trope for the failed architecture of an unsuccessful marriage. With her keen sense of irony and deftly grounded language, Richards snaps the spell of “the sureness of a happy ending,” guiding her readers instead toward a future possible beyond a row of compact rooms “like a corridor one hurries through / on the way to somewhere else.” Mid-Century Modern is not only timely, it is timeless.
~Nancy Carol Moody, author of two full-length poetry collections: The House of Nobody Home and Photograph with Girls, and one chapbook: Mermaid