Ira Sadoff is the author of eight collections of poetry, most recently Country, Living (Alice James). He's published a novel, a critical study on poetry and aesthetics, History Matters, An Ira Sadoff Reader, and currently lives in the Hudson Valley, in New York state.

“These poems, even the briefest—and none are longer than two pages—are so full and satisfying in their humanity and the sense of a speaker who has lived an expansive life and seen broadly. … This is a book that satisfies, that reaffirms, especially after a long period of isolation, that life and companionship and even art are all worthwhile.”
—Shawn Delgado for Story South

“…the poems Sadoff has written are filled with history, the past, art, religion, wine, nature, and the human experience. … His poetry shows the younger writers of today that self-reflection and looking at the world can be the best muse.”
—Victoria Cox for The Carolinian

"Writing about Sadoff’s writing seems an unfair and impossible task because it is just that elegant and well-crafted. Sadoff is able to simply paint a picture of imagery, setting, description, emotion, and story with one broad brushstroke."
—The Harvard Crimson

"Sadoff’s poetry has always embraced the irrational—the nutrient that feeds spontaneity, experimentation, and improvisation—but it holds no allegiance to happenstance. ... Country, Living, does, however, arrive at a kind of resting place in the development of his poetry: after decades marked and driven by restlessness, by dissatisfaction with standing still, Sadoff ... finds “a moment’s calm."
—Steven Cramer for On the Seawall

"Sadoff evokes complex philosophical ideas with a deceptive simplicity throughout. This is an accomplished addition to his impressive body of work."
—Publishers Weekly

”To read an Ira Sadoff poem is to experience a dizzying journey. A single poem might move from the culturally and historically informed cynicism of his dominant tone, to introspection, even irrational joy--- a movement which becomes part of the subject matter itself and which is powered by the  magical workings of humor and the stubbornness of hope. With each book hope and joy gain a little more ground, despite the accrual of reasons to despair. I go to Sadoff’s poems for their rich honesty, their deep humanness, their complexity of vision and their energy. He is original, wholly relevant….indispensable.“
—Jane Mead

“Ira Sadoff’s Country, Living, has so much goddamned soul, by which I mean the thicket of hurt, shittalk, analysis, eros, mourning, and love made into truly beautiful music.  Music that somehow makes me breathe different, makes my actual body be different.  Music that makes my solitude, my sorrow, crack the window.  It feels so lucky to be in the presence and care of such soul.  Such poetry.”
—Ross Gay

"There is an ecstatic abandon in these poems—and there is also the knowledge of experience, of our end. It’s a book where the essential, elemental force is given a vivid, unmistakable voice: ‘A good plan / to live by: I survived a tornado, / a marriage, a war…/ Many loved the sheen of cheerfulness, / but the animal in me kept on growling.’ The poet is always announcing his love for this world, yet is first to admit: ‘I know I’m worth fifteen cents to the universe.’ This honesty, this vivid and open contradiction is the key to staying awake in this new century of our failed empire. Ira Sadoff shows us how to listen to the fire of the lyric, how to become its “favorite stranger.” It is a beautiful, wise book."
—Ilya Kaminsky, author of Deaf Republic and Dancing in Odessa

Anonymous
Anne Marie Macari
Yesenia Montilla