D.W. Baker, submerging poet

D.W. on work by Other Writers

“Musical Order and New Babel: on Apocalypse Dance by Ethan McGuire” (Wipf & Stock: 2025), Radix Magazine, online, December 2025

“Soundscape, Landscape, Ghost: on Firefall by Heather Lang-Cassera” (Unsolicited Press: 2025), Panorama: Journal of Travel, Place, and Nature, online, November 2025

“Residuum and Reclamation: on Our Human Shores by Josh Fomon” (Black Ocean: 2025), Variant Lit, online, October 2025

“In Review: Free Bleeding by Lydia Rae Bush” (dogleech books: 2025), Vagabond City Lit, online, July 2025

“Timelines and Traumas: on It Skips A Generation by Alison Lubar” (Stanchion Books: 2023), fifth wheel press, online, June 2025

“Multilingualism and Metaphor: on Desire/Halves by Jaia Hamid Bashir” (Nine Syllables Press: 2024), Philly Poetry Chapbook Review, online, May 2025

“Atonal Apocalypse: on Milk Sickness by David Greenspan” (Querencia Press: 2025), The Marrow (BAM), online, April 2025

“Rage and Roses: on D A N G E R O U S B O D I E S / A N G E R O D E S by stevie redwood” (Sundress Publications: 2024), Paraselene, online, April 2025

“Dancing With the Dead: On Ragnarök At the Father-Daughter Dance by Todd Dillard” (Variant Lit: 2024), Philly Poetry Chapbook Review, online, January 2025

“Knowing and Naming: On These Strange Bodies by Court Ludwick” (ELJ Editions: 2024), Variant Lit, online, January 2025

“Sense Tools: on Barbara Duffey’s ‘Epistemological,’ ‘More nothing will happen,’ and ‘The Wilderness,’” ballast, online, January 2025

“Beginning in the Body: On Heat Death of the Universe by Leela Raj-Sankar” (fifth wheel press: 2023), The Loveliest Review, online and print, November 2024

FOrthcoming

One essay on poetics is currently scheduled for future publication:

“Meander, Erosion, and Deposition in the Contrapuntal Poem”

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If you are interested in having me review your book, please query first via email: dwbakerpoetry ~ʇɐ~ gmail ~°~ com

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Other Writers On work by D.W.

“fallen species / etched in song: Barbara Duffey on ‘Proverbs 2:22,’ ‘[ringed death],’ and ‘There Was a Forest,’” ballast, online, January 2025

“When Poems Become Pictures,” by Suchita Senthil Kumar, Self Portrait, online, October 2024

D.W. on poetics, craft, & form

“Sonic Pressure and The Lexical Poem,” Version (9) Magazine, online, September 2025

“Sense Tools: on Barbara Duffey’s ‘Epistemological,’ ‘More nothing will happen,’ and ‘The Wilderness,’” ballast, online, January 2025

Most of my reviews are truly short essays, in the range of 800-1500 words, that aim to balance review and criticism of poetry (and hybrid) collections. I strive not only to present generous and representative samples of a book’s language, but also to thoughtfully integrate intellectual exploration that remains grounded in clear examples from the text. Most of the titles I review engage either with topics of embodiment or with unique experiments in form and structure. My favorite books are those which use strange forms and techniques as vehicles for uncommon insight about the body in its environments.