Immortal Medusa

Book excerpt: Poetry. Women's Studies. Jewish Studies. Always original, intelligent, hilarious, Ungar serves us another chapter in the on- going saga of life-on- Earth. Her deft and inventive mixtures of science, family, history, pop-culture, philosophy, and art keep the reader swimming deeper and deeper into the human experience, amazed at the landmarks both familiar and surprising. "This poetry collection is like a bowl of fruit and cream: it's so delicious, and it all goes down so easily, that you forget how much nutrition is there." Kirkus, starred review "A very elegiac mood courses through these lines, enlivening them with wisdom. Like any great seeker, Ungar pursues the truth beneath surfaces available to the naked eye. Reading these poems, we are seized by the worlds she reveals. It is the feeling we call ravishment." Greg Pardlo "Ungar paints unforgettable images water-spider shoes, sepia knickers and a shining white shirt, the near-endangered Waccamaw fatmucket and Ozark hellbender that leave us 'chanting to the sky' then diving to see what we 'can retrieve / from the deep floor where / pearls are formed in secret.'" Meg Kearney"