For and Against

"McCartney is tough. She doesn't feel the obligation to rise above a heart-wrenching experience, to find a bright side, or to soften her bitterness... These are poems for feeling bad and liking it; not for regretting the vile things you've said and done, but for regretting that you now, alas, know better than to say or do them." — The Rover

"McCartney has shown a delightful felicity in previous books with stapling phrases into the memory. For and Against expands this strength with different material, and it's a testament to her talent that rawness isn't diminished by an attention to fluency." — Brian Palmu

"You don't read these poems, you feel them: hammer in the head, shod foot on the throat, stiletto in the heart. It's those combos of wild, piercing insights (or unusual but poignant images); yep, that's what makes it good for you — or kills you, laughing." — George Elliott Clarke

"Darkly obsessive, For and Against documents the rolling flux of life — the raw wounds of relationships in moments that are, in turn, anguished, edgy, droll, and affectionate. McCartney's poems are an extreme sport — one well worth playing." — Jeanette Lynes

Sharon McCartney is the author of The Love Songs of Laura Ingalls Wilder, Karenin Sings the Blues, and Under the Abdominal Wall. She has received the 2008 Acorn-Plantos People's Poetry Award and has twice been shortlisted for a National Magazine Award. She lives in Fredericton.

Shortlisted: Next Generation Indie Book Award, Poetry