ReviewUtopia can only exist, as William James hypothesized, if “on the one simple condition that a certain lost soul on the far-off edge of things should lead a life of lonely torture.” Cheryl Whitehead’s struggle against the acceptance of “the fruit of such a bargain” is her great theme, enacted as a teacher, a musician, and now, in this debut collection of her work, as a poet. We can only ignore her voice at the expense of our humanity.—Charles MartinCheryl Whitehead’s resonant poetry grapples with the ghosts of a teacher’s students lost to violence. The poet gives voice to the children and their stories, which have become enmeshed with her own story. The juxtaposition creates a new music uniquely her own.—Diane ThielI can’t tell you how long I’ve waited for this audacious storyteller to step into the wash of a justified and woefully overdue limelight. These deftly-honed snapshots are crafted by a teacher, stubborn in her love for those in her care; a daughter reconciling the pull and push of family, and, through it all, a restless romantic insisting on a dance to all life’s fractured and addictive music. Cheryl Whitehead does not step gingerly into this chaos–she does so resolutely, flaunting a wild and disarming talent.—Patricia SmithAbout the AuthorCheryl Whitehead's poems have appeared in The Southern Poetry Anthology: Volume VII, Mezzo Cammin, The Hopkins Review, Measure, Callaloo, Crab Orchard Review and other journals. She has been a finalist for the New Letters and Morton Marr Poetry Prizes and the Unicorn Press First Book Award. She won an emerging artist grant from the Astraea Foundation and was invited to give a reading at A Different Light Bookstore in New York City. Whitehead has also received scholarships from the Sewanee Writers' Conference, the Quest Writers' Conference and the North Carolina Writers' Network. She currently teaches English at the Middle College at North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro, North Carolina.