Reviews

A very young poet who seems to have acquired a lifetime of experience while retaining a vast empathy (without a trace of sappiness) is a rare thing. These carefully calibrated poems have narratives, and form an autobiography; they have the suspense and fullness of short stories with knockout final lines. The locale may be specific (Midwest, semi-rural), the voice (adolescence on the cusp of adulthood) and themes (family, desire, exile) recognizable, but T. Cole Rachel makes the mundane feel urgent, fresh, vital. This is powerful writing by a witness wise beyond his years. The gripping poems are so good that you find yourself wanting the writer to try his hand at everything: films, novels, songs, plays-they all seem within his reach.
-Bret Easton Ellis, Author of Glamorama and American Psycho

In his first collection, T. Cole Rachel aims a precise eye on a series of beautiful, wounding, yet difficult to define moments from childhood and beyond. His book reminds us how heartbreaking, sexy, and thrilling poetry can be.
-Scott Heim, Author of In Awe and Mysterious Skin

T. Cole Rachel has created a book that is a halfway house for all the humble remains of sad lives - the I luv country bathmats, the rabbit-eared zenith. It is also a fierce hymn of a nearly cannibalistic passion for the people he has loved against all odds. His subjects are bleak but the energy and precision and respect he brings to them are heart-stoppingly affirmative.
-Edmund White, Author of A Boy's Own Story and The Married Man

Surviving the Moment of Impact is an exciting debut collection, the poems included are at once beautifully constructed, haunting, sensuous-and downright sexy. Its author, T. Cole Rachel, is one of the most remarkable young poets I've read in a very long time. His is a name that we'll be hearing a lot more of in the coming years.
-Henry Flesh, Lambda Literary Award-winning author of Michael and Massage