Marjorie Maddox Hafer
(pen name: Marjorie Maddox)

On Line: Reviews, Honors, Publications, Other


Book Reviews/Honors
Rules of the Game: Baseball Poems

      •   WVIA August 23, 2010 ArtScene with Fiona Powell

  • Booklist: RULES OF THE GAME
    The overlap between poetry readers and baseball fans at this age range may be small, but for those in the middle of that particular Venn diagram, this is indeed a rare treat. Which isn't to say others won't gain something from this book. Sports fans will find themselves nodding in recognition of Maddox's sophisticated grasp of the game's intricacies, while language mavens will appreciate her joyous wordplay and dead-eye command of poetic devices, even if they don't quite catch all of the allusions. A knuckleball becomes "that pigeon / flapping awkwardly / out the barn door of a hand" and a line drive "a sharp swing of invisible string on which the ball careens." Some of the best lines are the simplest: a sacrifice bunt "kills it with a tap. Sandford's charcoal pencil drawings, backed by sepia-toned pages, may not exactly grab readers' eyes, but they impart a classy timelessness to the book that's a nice match to its subject. For the right reader, this could be an eye-opening glimpse of poetry doing what prose cannot.
    - Ian Chipman                                      

  • Meridian Magazine

  • New York City Government Recommended Poetry Books for Teachers

  • Project Muse: Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

Book Reviews
When the Wood Clacks Out Your Name

Book Reviews/Honors
A Crossing of Zebras: Animal Packs in Poetry

Book Reviews/Honors
Transplant, Transport, Transubstantiation

Book Reviews/Honors
Weeknights at the Cathedral

Book Reviews/Honors
Common Wealth: Contemporary Poets on Pennsylvania

Additional Links to On-line Work

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