A speaking dirt-mound; a helpful Clytaemnestra advising Cassandra to “Leap before you look”; a self-portrait via descriptions of four trees; a Polish artist's literal and mental wanderings: Bradford Gray Telford’s Perfect Hurt is a perfectly dizzying collection of tragicomic reflections on people and places, family and friends, life and art, suffering and love – one that dazzles too with its formal mastery, its gorgeous descriptive textures, and its effortless blend of wit and pathos.

–Rachel Wetzsteon