“ . . . Barresi’s real strength is her humor, and she shows it off in hilarious riffs on the circus of beautification . . . And when she has a subject that hits right on her central obsession,  Barresi’s wit can shine brightly, as in her elegy to a burlesque star . . . a real atom smasher.”
--New York Times Book Review

“‘Rouge Pulp’ is one of the most memorable, original books of poetry to appear in a long time.”
”Part Sylvia Plath, part John Donne, Barresi handles both surprise and expectation with deftness, displaying uncommon verbal ingenuity and inteligence of investigation.  . . . ‘Rouge Pulp’ spins poems of startling megaphysical imagae shot through with slang and pop culture.  . . . How many poets can be simultaneously funny and terrifying? Not many, but Dorothy Barresi is one of them.”
“Is this a sock-hop, a strip-tease, or a dance of death? The poems of Rouge Pulp are, astonishingly, all of these. . . . Barresi’s work transcends category or camp, and Rouge Pulp is one of the most memorable, original books of poetry to appear in a long time.”
--Pleiades

"Always sassy and reckless, always poignant and heart-wrenching, Dorothy Barresi’s astonishing poems constantly fill us with a rare, bare-knuckled exuberance about the world. Stylistically inventive and dancing with her trademark verbal jazz, these new poems distinguish Rouge Pulp as one of the finest collections of recent years."—David St. John