Product Review

In Melissa Balmain's Walking in on People, the serious is lightened with a generous serving of wit and humor, and the lighthearted is enriched with abundant wisdom. She shows us how poetry can be fun yet grounded in everyday challenges and triumphs, with subjects ranging from the current and hip (Facebook posts, online dating, layoffs, retail therapy, cell-phone apps, trans fat), to the traditional and time-tested (marriage, child-rearing, love, death). Through it all, her craft is masterful, with a formal dexterity deployed with precision in a showcase of forms such as the villanelle, ballad, triolet, nonce, and the sonnet. It is little wonder then that Walking in on People is the winner of the 2013 Able Muse Book Award, as selected by the final judge, X.J. Kennedy. This is a collection that will not only entertain thoroughly, but also enlighten and reward the reader.

Winner of the 2013 Able Muse Book Award

PRAISE FOR WALKING IN ON PEOPLE:

"An infectious, often hilarious blend of the sweet and the lethal, the charming and the acidic."
~Billy Collins, former United States Poet Laureate
"Poetry these days is rarely so entertaining, so beautifully crafted, so sharp of eye, yet so wise and warm of heart."
~X.J. Kennedy, final judge, Able Muse Book Award