Naton Leslie's New Book
“A collection of open verse sonnets on the theme of mothers and children in art, religion, literature, history, and in the life of the writer. A foray into formalism with a twist.”
“Leslie’s stories focus on uncertain relationships between characters with questionable futures. Their dialogue is as raw as real speech, filling the air with authentic awkwardness...It’s clear that Marconi’s Dream broadcasts on a unique frequency.”
Joe Taleroski, The Ohioana Quarterly
"A flowing narrative and Leslie’s mischievous sense of humor make That Might Be Useful a delight to read."
Bob Walch, Register-Pajaronian
“Leslie has excavated from Emma’s world an unconsciously poetic voice from a lost landscape. This book delivers the truth that each life, lived genuinely and long, is an epic tale.”
Stuart Bartow, author of Whelk, The Perseids, Mythology of Stone, Reasons to Hate the Sky
"Anyone who has grown up in the ‘rust belt’ of Ohio or Pennsylvania can recognize the urban landscapes in Naton Leslie’s poetry. Perhaps, like Leslie, they too are haunted by them....However, Leslie, a Warren, Ohio, native, refuses to just stand back and aestheticize the rusting of the rust belt. The speakers in these poems live and breathe in their labor, and when their work is no longer needed, they have not choice but to move on.”
Ohioana Quarterly
“Recently it has been argued that contemporary poetry has become too academic to speak to everyday folks....Is this true of Naton Leslie’s poetry? The cheeky, melancholy grit of his verse, the unglamorous landscape of junkshops, trailer parks, and steel towns, the scrappy cast of fighting, drunken fathers and tough-guy friends—all seem to refute this hands down.”
Elaine Arvan Andrews, The Ohioana Quarterly
"We do what we can," says one of the speakers in Naton Leslie's newest collections of poetry, Egress. "I do this for you, to keep it/from getting thin, the rive of rich/lightning around me in farmlands/fanned out, unfeatured, a crudely healed wound." The people inhabiting these poems are constantly in search of healing, of connections in an unfeatured world, any way they can. Egress is Leslie's richest and deepest collection yet. "
Publisher, WordTech Communications