"Martinez understands the power of story to transmute experience into knowledge, and the power of poetry to question story's power. Her scope is global, her vision historical, and her voice—by turns tender, sardonic, full of rage or humbled awe—is eloquently contemporary. Here is a book that presses back against reality. 'Not a story, not an image. It is a map.'" —Suzanne Buffam, author of A Pillow Book
"...the selves in these beautifully wrought poems are wide-eyed in their wisdoms and whole-hearted in their songs. In poem after poem, they show the myriad possibilities in our extraordinary and surprising lives." —Adrian Matejka, author of Somebody Else Sold the World
Winner of the 2019 Backbone Press Chapbook Prize Eric Hoffer Awards, Honorable Mention
"A masterful, intimate and informed work of art about culture itself, and the boundless forms of identity." —Robert Pinsky, former US Poet Laureate
"Attuned to both the insights and the limits of visitation, the poems inside Corner Shrine are ripe with scene and sense as they contemplate the wonders of arrival alongside the worries of transience." —Geffrey Davis, author of Night Angler and judge of the 2019 Backbone Press Chapbook Prize
"To amble through the passages of Corner Shrine is to be guided by a keen and reliable hand through a hall of mirrors, reflecting the mystery, beauty, and hungers of being fully human." —Angela Narciso Torres, author of Blood Orange
