"Brian Teare's poetry is turning the lyric on its ear, along with the Southern Gothic, the fairy tale, the Old Testament—anything that gets in the way of his powerful voice gets pulled in, chewed up, spit out as a new and frightening (and sexy!) utterance. No one is safe in any of these poems, in any sense of the word. What a brave new voice, livid and gutsy and fresh."—D. A. Powell, author of Tea and Lunch
"Precious few first books possess the range, ambition, and erudition of Brian Teare's. Yet Teare's formidable intelligence always derives from emotional necessity, from an urgency of feeling and a sure command of song which allow him to meet with courage subjects that are sometimes harrowing, sometimes sublime. The Room Where I Was Born is a remarkable debut."—David Wojahn, author of Spirit Cabinet
"In some poetry you feel there is too little lived experience—here you feel there is almost more than you can take in: you must both let the lines carry you swiftly, as they do, and read them slowly, for all they give you to ponder. For all their differences—and they are almost night and day—I would place this book next to the coming-of-age classic Housekeeping, for its deep, eerie beauty."—Jean Valentine, author of Cradle of the Real Life