"Tavel’s Plash and Levitation, as the title suggests, attacks with sardonic lancets. Humor, erudition and a witty talent for sheer invention set this volume apart."

Cleaver Magazine

"Tavel belies his young age with an amazing group of poems in Plast & Levitation. They offer a mature depth of psychological insight and quality of language that tell the reader here is something new."

Delmarva Review

"Tavel’s book is a playful arrangement of grittiness and grand inquiry. It's a collection powered by voice and framed by referentiality; think Tom Waits reading the part of Prospero. . . . This is a collection with a loose, mobile center. . . .Tavel is more interested in breadth and dissonance than unity, allowing the reader to bounce around the collection’s winding hall of mirrors, often reflecting fatherhood and frailty, and it's very enjoyable. . . . Plash and Levitation reads as a daring collection of poems that pushes forward. It's smart and edgy, an impressive first book from a poet with a truly unique voice."
 

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