The authority of the voice in Sherry
Chandler’s poems arrives firmly from
the skilled and powerful imagination
behind the work. Weaving a New Eden
is personal, historical, political,
inspired—a thoroughly satisfying work
of art. This is a moving and original
book wrought from a mature and subtle
vision.

      — Maurice Manning

More than a work of history in verse,
Weaving a New Eden represents poet
Sherry Chandler’s confrontation with
mortality, invisibility, loss and
change. Few poets can move, dazzle,
and enlighten us in a single book, but
Sherry Chandler can – and does – in
this volume of poems. From the deft
personal lyrics that open *Weaving a
New Eden*, through acrostic poems and
blank verse histories to the stunning
and graceful sonnet crown that closes
the volume, Sherry Chandler bears her
readers into the past and back out
again with a sure hand. In poems both
scholarly and witty, Chandler lifts
Rebecca Boone out of the shadows of
history to sturdy, quirky reality and
gives us glimpses of the other
invisible women whose lives make up
the hidden half of history. In *Weaving
a New Eden* Sherry Chandler proves
herself a gifted poet at ease in a
range of forms and subjects. Her work
deserves a wide readership.

      — Leatha Kendrick