What She Wants

Praise for What She Wants

“Desires, both feral and mundane, are slung across these pages in a crescendo of sexual longing and urgent vitality. There's something gleeful in the undercurrent of darkness that runs through these verses.”—Amanda Youngman, Store Manager, Barnes & Noble at The Grove

"Psychologically astute and playfully resolute at evoking the irrevocable desire for love, attraction, seduction, and yes, companionship, What She Wants belongs on every bookshelf: not just for poetry lovers. But the poetry is there, singing its echoing delight through the lines, like desire itself, and enticing, resolving, and picturing the myriad ways we are compelled by desire and all its fruits.” —John Evans, Diesel Bookstore

“Kim Dower captures the timeless art of storytelling through verse with raw and unfiltered emotions, lyrical language, and vivid imagery. With every turn of the page, readers will find themselves drawn deeper into a world where words hold the power to inspire, delight, and transform.”—Julie Slavinsky, Director of Events, Warwick’s Bookstore

"From whispered secrets to consuming obsessions, these poems unveil the complexities of love, longing, and the urgency that prods us to pursue the objects of one's desire."—Luisa Smith, Buying Director, Book Passage Bookstore

Kim Dower’s Poetry is

“Unexpected and sublime.”—O Magazine

 “Sensual and evocative . . . seamlessly combines humor and heartache.”—The Los Angeles Times

“A dark chocolate fever dream of love. Kim Dower dares you into the dark.”—Erica Jong, author of #1 New York Times Bestseller Fear of Flying

“A kind of miracle . . .”—Thomas Lux, Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award Winner and Guggenheim Fellow

“”Bold and sexy and smart.”—Stephen Dunn, 2001 Pulitzer Prize Winner for Poetry

“A moving blend of sexual experimentation and loss.”—Library Journal

“Absolutely charming and compelling, accessible and profound, combining humor and heartbreak, while exploring the personal and universal.”—Lisa See, New York Times bestselling author

“Like the voice of an old, trusted friend who knows you, who has come to visit and remind you of who you are and what a life is all about. Poems that speak not of the highs and lows, but about the grey space between tragedy and tenderness, memory and loss, fragility and perseverance—that space where the soul and the truest self live.”—Richard Blanco, Presidential Inaugural Poet

Praise for Kim Dower’s last collection I Wore This Dress Today for You, Mom

“Beware Kim Dower’s poetry. Again and again, this crafty writer invites you in for a casual chat and then wallops you . . . This fantastic collection revolves around quotidian details of domestic life, but existential questions are always lurking beneath the surface.”—The Washington Post

“Widely admired for her ability to texturize the everyday with the sublime, Kim Dower captures with poetic grace exquisite remembrances of childhood with vibrant imagery. These gorgeous gems are energized by the sheer power of her wit and irreverent style.”—Shelf Awareness

“Deftly constructed, inherently interesting, impressively insightful, thought-provoking, and truly memorable”—The Midwest Book Review

“By turns exuberant, sexy and sobering, Kim Dower’s remarkable poems are known for their extraordinary range. Attuned to the oddness of the quotidian and grounding the metaphysical in the sharp sensations of daily life, her poems invite us to live as fully and generously as the poet herself.”—Chris Kraus, bestselling author of I Love Dick and After Kathy Acker