"Choose Your Own Poem's deceptively light-hearted premise drops you with a thud into the darkness; each decisively crafted poem asks you to either accept your demise or to, as the author puts it, "cut from the night what's coming for your throat." Kelsey's poetic prowess is demonstrated through these poems that both comfort and confront the reader. She, at times, uses this clever and cogent collection as a medium to juxtapose the concepts of sovereignty and suffocation but, more often, she reminds us of their surprising similarities. This demonstrated ability to sabotage the reader, to leave their fate hanging in the balance while still maintaining their trust, is a superlative skill "which, like verbal rhythm, can't be taught."" - Olivia Pierce Graham, author of Gloom of Excruciating Desires"

Wildly quirky, musical, and honest to the bone, the lyrical narratives of Candice Kelsey’s Choose Your Own Poem unfold with ease and stunning clarity: "Who hears/your songs echo from lost Alabama factories producing/White Owl cigars for the working man, sweet blend of five/varied nations?" Resolutions to existentialist quandaries in the book are offered by way of contrasting laugh-out-loud options: "If you’re tired of being hunted," Kelsey says in her instructions after the poem, “The Most Dangerous Game,” "turn to page 12 // If you think you can write better than this poet, turn to the next page." In other poems, she delves into the inner workings of the psyche giving us insights into our own foibles: “The dregs reveal you will drag one foot toward poets & children who / take bullets again & again.” Hands down, Choose Your Own Poem marks one of the best new collections I’ve read. -Dzvinia Orlowsky, author of Bad Harvest and Silvertone

"Candice Kelsey's highly inventive, sobering, beautiful and remarkable collection Choose Your Own Poem is a triumph. This poetic homage to the Choose Your Own Adventure narratives reinvents what it means to read poetry. The juxtaposition of poems is now partly in the hands of the reader: you are delighted to find yourself rereading a poem in a new way and you choose to do so again and again. Do you keep reading? Do you revel in the dark and sophisticated joy Candice has built here? Yes and Yes. Now turn back to page 1." -Jared Beloff, author of Who Will Cradle Your Head

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