Here We Are Among the Living
Kerry Clare called it “one of the best books of 2012”: “I loved it, and it’s truly one of the most remarkable books I’ve read this year. I’m so glad that the folks at the BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction think so too.” (Picklemethis)
Emily Keeler really hated it. “Here We Are Among the Living manages to somehow both hew too closely to reality, through those aforementioned banalities, and also to eclipse the world in its wonder; though Bernstein can, on the sentence by sentence level, make me marvel (“…the elephant of my passion sitting on the April ice of my understanding” stunned me with the strength of its imagery, and its veracity to the exact feeling of trying to defend a deeply held conviction, regardless of its empirical truth), ultimately the book leaves very little space for the richness of revelation.” (National Post)
Spit on the Devil
“In a sassy combination of the domestic and the political, in long lines and short, Samantha Bernstein meditates on relationships, how to take a stand, the crumbling world around her, motherhood, and daughterhood, too. She quips, she expounds, she considers life as a poet—and as the daughter of an iconic poet, Irving Layton. In her in her splendid debut volume, Spit on the Devil, Bernstein is resolutely her own artist, speaking boldly, with Whitmanesque self-definition, proudly creating a woman’s 21st-century Canadian poetics.” —Molly Peacock, author of The Analyst
“The strong confident voice in this debut book of poems from Samantha Bernstein signals the arrival of an assured literary intelligence in full bloom. Probing, elegant poetry that rewards many readings and deserves many readers.” —Robert Priest, author of Previously Feared Darkness
“Political and precise, honest and humble, intimate and intelligent, Spit on the Devil is poetry for everyone. At its core is a heart pumping fo happiness in a world destined to challenge it, and a sweet-singing voice leading us down a road paved with a mother’s wisdom, guided by a poet’s philosophical compass, and a light so bright we can see both inwards and towards.” —Vanessa Sheilds, author of Look at Her
“Bernstein’s easy command of form and rhythm undergirds a searching intelligence. Facing a skein of everyday realities – a weekend walk, a rusting Toronto building, a Hallmark greeting card – this book weaves a graceful answer to the question of what it means to be alive. It’s a lyrical book and a wise one.” —David Goldstein, author of Lost Originals
“Striking in imagery, experimental in form, and alternately dark and wistful.” —Jessi MacEachern, “Tender but Uneasy”
Listed in 49th Shelf’s “16 Seriously Funny Poets”
Kitchen Island Poems
“I first became familiar with this poet through her collection “Spit on the Devil” (Mansfield Press, 2017), and so I was very pleased to see her name among the Gap Riot Season 7 roster. “Kitchen Island Poems” is reflective, political, and bears a beautifully engaging cover. I particularly enjoyed how much of this poetry operated as/in conversation with the publishers as artists.” (The Ex-Puritan)