Customs

Witty and incisive… [Sharif] masterfully traverses the landscape of exile and all its complicated grief * New York Times *
This collection, while shaking an elegant fist at “the wide hallways / of a great endowment”, is a useful dispatch from within such rooms * GUARDIAN, Best recent poetry *
Striking * BOOKSELLER *
A thought provoking and enjoyable read * PULSAR POETRY *
Sharif gives us a poetry (and a person) caught at the adjunct between two possibilities, the border at which ambiguity (that most faithful repository for poets through the ages) can be weaponised. But it is the beauty of Customs that, in standing at this boundary, we can catch the light beyond * THE ARTS DESK *
I really love ... Solmaz Sharif’s Customs. I love the book’s precision and truthfulness and find I continue to turn to it for something like help -- R. O. Kwan * The Cut *
Sharif masterfully blends, develops, and transforms her imagery throughout Customs in such a seamless and unexpected way that the reader effortlessly follows these gorgeous, golden, and intelligent threads all the way to the brink of epiphany and beyond * New York Review of Books *
Rooted in unrootedness; migration, borders and displacement are all themes in Sharif’s poems. This book asks us to consider how powerful language can be, and to use it carefully * NPR, Books We Love *
As she masterfully traverses the landscape of exile and all its complicated grief, Sharif manages, with conviction and consistency, to make the reader feel welcome * New York Times Book Review *
The ostensible clarity of borders and checkpoints gives way to a terrain of fundamental uncertainty, a geography of elusive thresholds * New Yorker, Best Books of 2022 *
Dazzling . . . Sharif’s language is spare and all the more sharp for what remains, for all that she has left out, as the sculptor does with a slab of marble. . . . This is poetry – this is a poet – that marvels us in manners minute and majestic -- Mandana Chaffa * Ploughshares *
Sharif masterfully blends, develops, and transforms her imagery throughout Customs in such a seamless and unexpected way that the reader effortlessly follows these gorgeous, golden, and intelligent threads all the way to the brink of epiphany and beyond * New York Journal of Books *
Blistering in its clear-sightedness, this collection offers a fierce, beautiful closing that dares to imagine ‘a beckoning, a way.’ A bold and uncompromising book with virtuosic emotional range; highly recommended * Library Journal, starred review *
Sharif's commanding voice reverberates throughout this complex and confident collection * Publishers Weekly, starred review *
Sharif demonstrates remarkable talent in her ability to so deftly portray the traumatizing balance required to live in the West with deep roots in Iran * Booklist, starred review *
Spectacular . . . In a massive feat, Customs continues the work of Look, pushing its mission forward with a new slate of sharp, memorable pieces that are set to inspire yet another generation * Cleveland Review of Books *
Sharif’s ruminations on language in Customs - and how to keep it alive and potent - cement her position as one of the most thoughtful poets working today * Harvard Review *