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— praise for GRACE ENGINE —

“Wistful, powerful, and unsparing, the poems in Grace Engine defy neat categorization. . . . A definitive example of poetic technical excellence. The duality Burton employs in showing the seen and unseen, the story behind the photograph so to speak, cannot be commended enough.”
—Salt Hill Journal

“Grace and engine, spirit and machine, divine benevolence and man-made apparatus, the warmth of prayer and the cold injustice of systematic oppression—Burton’s gut-wrenching poems interrogate these half-contradictory intersections as the poet grapples with mental illness, grief, faith, forgiveness, and a history of violence against Black people in the United States. . . . A book that looks long and hard at lynching, suicide, and grief, Grace Engine is no easy read—its subject matter and lyrical density often made me physically tired. But I can’t help but feel that the book is ultimately full of hope, and that heart of the book is survival.”
—EcoTheo Review

“Grace Engine is able to evoke emotion and feelings for a reader, even if they have never experienced some of the themes Burton writes about. Joshua Burton is not just writing for himself, or one group of people, but for everyone to further their understanding and he does it beautifully.”
—Glass Mountain