Praise for Some Problems with Autobiography (Criterion Books, 2022)
"Brian Brodeur is an original: a mandarin regionalist. His best poems exploit the music of polished speech roughened by the heartland, as in “Pessoa in the Rust Belt.” Shimmering with the felicities of James Merrill and steeped in a sense of place, “Days of 2018” discloses a note of tragedy both personal and broadly American. By turns mellifluous, wry, and fierce, Brodeur can play every instrument in the orchestra. His poems are essential listening."
–David Yezzi
"Brian Broduer’s terrific new collection examines the stories we carry, both the poet’s own and those of a cast of characters whose lives are dramatized in the tradition of Frost’s great dialogue poems. Brodeur is a master of tone, finding poetry in the measures of contemporary life, from social media algorithms to fertility tests. His sturdy and elegant forms contain contents under pressure, but they also preserve moments of clarity and sweetness, those times when ordinary noise reveals 'the yes of things.'"
–Caki Wilkinson
"Brian Brodueur’s Some Problems with Autobiography is nothing short of a revelation. His seemingly effortless use of form combined with evocative, powerful subject material made me laugh and gasp in the same stanza. Brodeur has proven time and time again, with technical finesse, that he is a necessary voice in the world of poetry. The book is a must-read."
–Alexis Sears
Purchase Some Problems with Autobiography from Amazon.com.
Praise for Every Hour Is Late (Measure Press, 2019)
"Brodeur’s Every Hour Is Late is a deft study of the natural world and new technology, the past and the present, and the wonder, or horror, that is the future. The lyricism and rhythm in his use of traditional forms brings life to the beat of a monotonous day or the throbbing pulse of tragedy. Whether writing about Achilles or Amazon's Alexa, Brodeur reminds us that while the world changes, the pleasures and pains of humanity hold tight in us all."
–Erica Dawson
"Anything and everything is on the table in these poems. In half of them, you hear the poet himself talking, and in others, he dons an astonishing array of masks. These voices rise from Brodeur's pages to sing a hymn of praise to life's terrible and delicious variety. His poems walk the walk, too, often shuffling along in slant rhymes so subtle that you don't notice that you're crossing the line between a thing and its opposite. Seamlessness is the goal here because life and art want desperately to be one entity, not two. Never has this funky world been so yummy."
–David Kirby
Purchase Every Hour Is Late from Amazon.com or from Measure Press.
Praise for Natural Causes (Autumn House, 2012)
"Brian Brodeur’s poems embrace our shadowed selves—human frailty, ignorance, even the grotesque. In Natural Causes, he reminds his readers that what we hold dear—each other, animals, the planet—is often perilously close to violence and loss […] an astute and valiant book, brimming with humanity."
–Denise Duhamel
"These are poems of startling imagery and arresting narrative: they refuse to look the other way. They are also masterfully cadenced, the author's capaciousness of feeling more than matched by suppleness of method. A book to be grateful for."
–Linda Gregerson
"Ranging widely and gracefully across our culture, these spirited poems embrace the fullness of our existence, both how we live and how we make sense of our lives."
–Bob Hicok
Read selected poems from Natural Causes, here.
Purchase Natural Causes from Amazon.com.
Praise for Other Latitudes (University of Akron Press, 2008)
"Brodeur’s world is one of layers and shadings. His diction is limpid and precise, his ear a fine-tuned instrument for registering nuance. And when he writes about nature, he’s equally adept, employing a vocabulary that does what the best nature writing can do: reinvigorate its subject. The aster, for example, 'spreads its spiny / roots through chaff, unfurls / in cold clusters, tussocks / shaking, feeds / on ditch water, the sweet / decay found there.' I’m pleased to have found such poems, and such a talent."
—Stephen Dunn
"Brian Brodeur’s impressive collection, Other Latitudes, begins with a calving, a miracle and its aftermath, and then advances its taxonomy of suffering and violence, pleasure and shame, murder, thievery, and pure erotic joy. These are poems of intelligent emotional complexity—tenderness for the blind and widowed deer hunter, a harrowing sympathy for a cutter’s self-mutilation, a nuanced appreciation of the frisson between artist and figure model, recognitions of the banality of funerals, and the unanticipated guilt in recounting what is endured in cities under siege. The language under Brodeur’s pen is as startling as his poems are wise. This book is more than a debut—it is the work of an already mature and accomplished poet."
—Carolyn Forché
Read selected poems from Other Latitudes, here.
Purchase Other Latitudes from Amazon.com or University of Akron Press.
Advance Praise for Local Fauna (Kent State University Press, 2015)
"Brian Brodeur's formal skill, his feel for the whole history beneath a sentence, a line, a syllable, is matched here only by his unsentimental compassion for the people he renders in his poems. I can think of few other poets who capture what contemporary American life actually feels, looks, and sounds like, as movingly as Brodeur does. Poems such as 'Cousins,' 'Local Fauna,' and 'The Register' will be with us for a long time indeed. Brian Brodeur is a marvel."
–Peter Campion
"Local Fauna opens with a meta-poem about Jack Spicer and I couldn’t help but think of Spicer's 'dictated' poetry, poetry as vessel, poetry getting down what needs to be said. Brian Brodeur’s poems have this urgency—life, death, cruelty, politics, war, capitalism, and love. Hard truths come through the past, radio interviews, zoo animals, neighbors, personae, and pop songs. Brian Broduer’s poetry has insistence and morality, inclusivity and beauty. Local Fauna is terrific."
–Denise Duhamel
"Brian Brodeur's poems are always honest, psychologically acute, often playful, and never less than impeccably skilled. He is a master of the formal line, of pitch-perfect dramatic monologues ('Mrs. Baumeister' and 'A Stand of Swamp Maples in Purcellville, Virginia'), and of what I'm moved to call the historical psychodrama ('Dear Proserpina' and 'Vigil,' the best poem about James Audubon I've ever read). And that's just for starters. His newest book, Local Fauna, the most recent entry in the prestigious (and unequaled) Kent State chapbook series, reads almost like a Selected, it's so rich--it's half as long and twice as good as most full-length books published this year, or any year. If you like poets like Daniel Anderson and Joshua Mehigan, then there's room on your bookshelf for Mr. Brodeur. The seriousness of his poetry is surpassed only by the pleasure one gets in reading it."
–James Cummins