“Adams’ fifth full-length collection is a work of observation, connection, and expansion. Through three sequences, Adams guides the reader through a tour of language and imagery so specific and surprising that one is encouraged to linger on each page. . . . The result is the sense that one is holding a precious object.”

Sara Verstynen | Booklist

“The Book of Marys and Glaciers furthers Adams’ lyric explorations through the long thought, the long sentence; stretching a thread through a subject woven and interwoven across a carefully-sustained trajectory. . . . Adams is very good at the extended, meditative thread, held through accumulation, one careful and considered moment followed by a further moment.”

rob mclennan's blog

“This poetry is magic. Ultimately, Adams challenges her readers to observe intensely the world around us, to decide for ourselves which particulars are clues to be deciphered and which questions are asking for our answers.”

Marisa Siegel, Rumpus, Praise for Adams

“As Adams nimbly unfolds language, she opens tunnels of thought and illuminates the misconceptions we have of our emotions and our selves. Her precise and insightful language shifts and reshapes us, causes us to pause and reconsider the world we thought we lived in, the things we thought we knew.”

Laura Isaacman, Coffin Factory, Praise for Adams

“You read a lot of books of poetry when you’re a poet yourself. Some will move you and some will not. But I love the ones where you can’t read a page without wanting to write some poetry of your own because this writer inspires you that much. Carrie Olivia Adams is just such a writer.”

Chris Mansel, Galatea Resurrects, Praise for Adams

“Adams offers a graceful synthesis of poetic and scientific language. Everyday experiences become a locus for vastly different discourses—literary, scientific, and historical—which overlap and intersect as they are inscribed upon a single concrete image.”

Kristina Marie Darling, Colorado Review, Praise for Adams