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"Sabrina Orah Mark’s debut collection is uncommonly taut, an achievement made all the more remarkable given that its poems are anything but spare…"

THE BABIES

The Babies, by Sabrina Orah Mark, is the premier winner of the Saturnalia Books Poetry Contest, judged by renowned poet Jane Miller (Memory at These Speeds: New and Selected Poetry).

Of The Babies, poet Claudia Rankine writes, “Rarely do we encounter poems that are so precisely framed, though on their surface seemingly whimsical and erratic. These poems are gorgeous, intelligent, and disturbing.”

"In place of poetic epiphany and absolute closure, Orah Mark infuses in The Babies, the world’s disorder—its chords are those of disruption, confusion, uncertainty. The vividness with which Orah Mark processes such chaos is exacting; however amplified, its pitch almost always feels authentic.” - Shara Lessley, Diagram

“Like the blouses to which Mark repeatedly refers, blouses opened and buttoned again, sometimes loose and sometimes confining, these poems remain tatter and patch and scrap, but also become whole.” - Ray McDaniel, Constant Critic

“War, dark drafts, desertions, abandoned homes—these poems move darkly down, as the poem, The Babies, concludes, ‘into a past I still swear I never had.’ They offer a look at a time we must face, or else face its consequences. It happens that, in The Babies, we aren’t sure if we are looking at past, present, or future. Sabrina Orah Mark ultimately posits what is surely meant as praise for poetry: timelessness.” - Jane Miller