"In East and West, Laura Ritland (b. 1990) demonstrates technical sophistication and a fascination with the anxiety and disenchantment of young adulthood.... She is perpetually on the verge of something, and in moments of indecision she persists, observing, noticing. Ritland is, to resort to a cliché that she would forbear, a poet to watch. No—a poet to watch watching." - Nicholas Bradley, Canadian Literature

“What I love most in these poems is their insistence on being of two minds. There is such tension here between past and present, contact and isolation, heart and head, the resignation of our species to this current moment and its stubborn hopes for a future. What a smart, moving first
book!” – Julie Bruck

“A phrase maker of astonishing power, Laura Ritland’s subjects are civility, kindness, hysteria, the body, art and migration. An achingly elegiac work, East and West surveys the ruins of memory, family and selfhood, and draws out of them a poetic identity rooted in compassion and realism. This
book is magnificent.” – Richard Greene

In East and West, Laura Ritland deploys a penetrating wit, explosive technical prowess, and profound ability to discern the human truths within the muddle of the human condition. The cognitive leaps of this bold and beautiful book.” –Rhea Tregebov