"These deeply satisfying poems, with their lush images and fluid sound movements, unfold in elegance, settling the spirit. In every stanza, Schumann’s honest voice feels compelling and humble—nothing forced, nothing labored. What a treat.”

—Naomi Shihab Nye, chancellor of the Academy of American Poets (2010–2015). Author of 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East and Voices in the Air.

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"What I admire most in Praising the Paradox is the resilience throughout, and an awareness of the common world that both comforts and devastates. These poems navigate a landscape of loss where what goes on is the sway of stoplights, the waitress with her coffee-pot suspended in mid-air, the everyday moments that gather momentum and make a life. These poems celebrate the small gestures, carrying pain alongside joy, reminding us we are alive.”

—Dorianne Laux, author of The Book of Men and Facts About the Moon. Winner of the Paterson Prize and the Oregon Book Award.

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"Schumann's poems address the big questions successfully because the poet is honest in her self-reflective moments, rigorous in her moments of intellectual parry, playful linguistically, and keen in her perceptions of those off-the-radar states of being that are so tricky to catch in an accurate way."

—Lia Purpura, author of It Shouldn’t Have Been Beautiful (Viking/Penguin) and finalist for the National Book Award.