Daniel Lassell

It was so wonderful to meet you in person! Big fan of your poetry — I wish we could have talked more as well! It was a busy and talkative day for sure!

Thank you so very much! I absolutely loved reading this review! 🙏

Infinite Perceptions, Inclusive Poetics A Review of Daniel Lassell’s Frame Inside a Frame (Texas Review Press, September 2025) by Susan L. Leary The title of Daniel Lassell’s newest collection, Frame Inside a Frame, captures the primary the...

Super excited to have a review of Daniel Lassell’s FRAME INSIDE A FRAME (Texas Review Press) in the new issue of Diode! A beautiful book full of so much wisdom, friends!

@dlassell.bsky.social
@diodeeditions.bsky.social

diodepoetry.com/leary_susan-...

Wow, wow, wow! Susan, this is such a beautifully written review of my book! You’ve captured its essence and intent so wonderfully—thank you so, so much! 🤩✨

Thrilled to have a new poem out in the newest issue of Sixth Finch! ✨

The Poets Weave Daniel Lassell is the author of two poetry books:Spit, published by Wheelbarrow Books in 2021, after winning the 2020 Wheelbarrow Books Poetry Prize; and Frame Inside a Frame published by Texas Review...

Thrilled to be featured on @wfiu.bsky.social's Poets Weave! Listen to me read some poems here: play.prx.org/listen?ge=pr...

🥳🥳🥳🥳

So delighted by this deeply considered book review of Frame Inside a Frame! Grateful to @adroitjournal.bsky.social and Natalie Tombasco! theadroitjournal.org/2025/09/08/a...

Thank you so much, Donna!! It was amazing to meet you! 🙏✨

It was so wonderful to meet you as well! 🙏✨

Find me places in September and beyond! www.daniel-lassell.com/events

I Do Know Some Things by Richard Siken - Copper Canyon Press

Purchase I Do Know Some Things here: www.coppercanyonpress.org/books/i-do-k...

“Daniel Lassell is a master of subtraction, of what he calls a loosening joy. The poems here are filled with song, prayer, and silence. Restless and reflective, they shift and rub against the natural world, its vastness and its granularity, with striking precision and clarity. Here, a world accumulates even as it is undone—wreckage and reverence inexorably intertwined.” —Richard Siken, author of I Do Know Some Things, War of the Foxes, and Crush

Siken is such a titan in modern American poetics—approaching him about a blurb seemed, far-and-away, a longshot for me. But I’m glad I asked. Shortly after sending him an email, he responded to me with such sincerity. And I am so incredibly honored with these gracious words he shared about my book

Siken’s prose poems are keenly crafted, expertly honed. And the thematic weaving and narrative arc of this new collection! It is his best book yet. [...]

When I encountered poems from his third book, I Do Know Some Things, I was delighted that they were these incredible prose poems! A poetry form I so strongly advocate for, that has shaped and reshaped my own development as a poet. [...]

Plus, there was Siken’s commitment to poetry as an artform beyond his own, establishing Spork Press and Sporklet to publish other poets. And then there’s his beautiful paintings! [...]

I revisited his books after Spit came out, and I considered and reconsidered what my Art had progressed into, informed by Richard Siken’s attention to form, to voice, and to image. [...]

The attention to each book as a self-contained artifact that exists separate from the book that preceded it offered me an avenue—a guidebook—into writing beyond a previous book. [...]

Then there’s his second book, War of the Foxes, which is entirely different in its thematic concerns and poetic approach. Another captivating book! One I find myself continually revisiting and learning from. [...]

His first poetry book, Crush, is one of the most influential books about panic and obsession I’ve ever encountered. The first time I read it? I couldn’t put it down. Same for the second time reading it, and the third and fourth. [...]

[In the weeks and months leading up to my book’s publication, I want to elevate the people who graciously blurbed my book.]

Who can talk about the poetry of this century without mentioning @richard-siken.bsky.social? [...]

No, Even I by Doug Paul Case …at this time cannot quite curse the world. —Hart Crane Friends, those few worthies, know to keep close the strawberry macarons known to loosen the lips once known only to part with the driest…

always a treat to get to pub Doug Paul Case, one of my fave poets.

today:

"It’s summertime. There’s no fighting depressed."

https://www.havehashad.com/f9raa

Purchase Kimonos in the Closet here: upittpress.org/books/978082...

“What delights this gallery of poetic frames offers, leading us through the labyrinths of time and memory! Reading these poems is like following some Kentucky Dante through the hinterlands and, ultimately, down into the underworld to eavesdrop on the murmuring there. But what elevates this collection into the quietly sublime is the poetic voice of Daniel Lassell—direct, honest, revelatory—a humble witness to the beauty and the carnage of our times. I hope readers enjoy this fine collection as much as I have.” —David Shumate, author of Kimonos in the Closet and The Floating Bridge

[...] and breath-like line breaks in his prose poetry form. His poetry books changed my life.

And so, it is a profound honor that he wrote a blurb for my book, Frame Inside a Frame:

Shumate’s class was transformative in every way. I changed my major to English, I took every class I could with him. I feel in love with his poetic style: the crispness, the satirical humor, the careful attention to language, [...]

David Shumate was my English teacher in college, and it was because of him that I got into poetry. He used a poetry anthology to teach first-year English composition, which struck me as unique. It was an entryway into a contemporary artform I had not known existed, and [...]

While some prose poetry may read as indistinguishable from a flash fiction piece, not Shumate’s—the poems are sound driven, multi-layered and tediously constructed, and showcasing the same urgency and tension that readers find in the very best lyrical poetry. And they’re funny too! [...]

[In the weeks and months leading up to my book’s publication, I want to elevate the people who graciously blurbed my book.]

David Shumate’s prose poetry is not a box that a lyric poem has been placed into, but a conveyer for boundless stretching, welcoming readers into it. [...]

Dark Octaves, by Frank Paino · Longleaf Press "Not since I sat down half a century ago on a bookstore floor with a paperback copy of Alan Dugan's Poems have I been so astonished. Like the Bösendorfer Imperial Grand with its nine extra bass keys, ...

Purchase Dark Octaves here: longleafpress.org/product/dark...

“Whether dealing with climate change, an unsettling encounter with a bat trapped indoors, or the larger questions of what it means to inhabit a body, Daniel Lassell’s second full-length collection, Frame Inside a Frame, refuses to succumb to the temptation of pat answers or easy binaries. Using the concept of picture frames, the poet explores his subjects from multiple perspectives, aiming for an understanding that leads, not to Utopia, ‘but a room next to it.’ Lassell is a poet of generous intellect who employs an admirable economy of words to explore a world where grief is ‘more commonplace than joy,’ and we are caught ‘between question and haunt.’” —Frank Paino, author of Dark Octaves and Obscura

And most recently, I have been astonished with Frank’s latest collection, Dark Octaves! I am so honored for these kind words he’s shared about my forthcoming collection!