In this debut collection, Caroline Szpak is the grand ventriloquist, manipulating words and voices in strange and fantastical ways. Her phrases, her metaphors and similes, slam up against each other like strangers on the street. Apologies, changes in direction, barometric pressure, objects ping and ricochet, but some residual thing clings after the parting. We acknowledge, we recognize, we nod knowingly, and not just from familiarity but because her words have snapped our head forward. And we realize the dummy on her lap, frozen and smiling, is us, and the jaw drops from laughter and dismay, but just as often it drops in awe. Advance Praise for Slinky Naive: "The urban, visceral, longing-infused poems in Slinky Naive are fast, dense, and laser-focused. And when the lines are funny, and they often are, it's like laughing before the blade comes down. Caroline Szpak is doing exactly what poets should do: she is doing something no one else is doing." (Stuart Ross, author of Pockets and A Sparrow Came Down Resplendent)