“Permeated with tropical colors, smells, flowers, trees, volcanos, and people, these poems constitute a beautiful and moving collection, that will interest both undergraduate and undergraduate libraries.”
--Choice
“The noted author of Flowers from the Volcano speaks of political realities with an impassioned objectivity in these poems about Central America, which confront the loss of lives as well as the slow extinction of spirit, of a culture’s mythology, when war and political tyranny invade the heart of both private and public worlds.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Alegria’s vese is plainspoken, not at all given to elusive metaphor or dense language, as though her mission were too urgent for such roadblocks. Her tools are a keen visual memory (or as she says, ‘anaconda eyes’), an ear for a good story, and a knack for building to a flourish. . . . Woman of the River shows that Claribel Alegría has the grace to take new risks and land on her feet.”
—The Village Voice