“These are enormously arresting, odd, wryly humorous, gripping poems. And the variety of subject matter is astounding. I don’t know when I’ve enjoyed reading a book so much.”

—David Budbill

“Don’t be fooled by the corners on David Shumate’s exquisite texts. They may be shaped like footstools, but they move across your mind like racing shells, leaving bright images and big ideas in their wake. Emily Dickinson tells us that literature will take us where no mere boat goes, and Shumate proves her right with these poems of great beauty, of startling insight.”

—David Kirby

“I’ve run out of adjectives to describe David Shumate’s genius and trajectory as a writer, thinker, and witness to history. To find yourself in the wilderness of a Shumate poem is to be confronted with looming questions: For whom, truly, do we have compassion, and how deep are we willing to go within ourselves to find such compassion? Kimonos in the Closet is as subtle as it is inventive, as inventive as it is indispensable.”