Publicity

 “Hawkins is a superb impressionist as well as a salty prose writer of American miniatures, artful distillations of our humor and humanity.”
— New York Times

“Bobbie Louise Hawkins is able in just a sentence or two to turn an ordinary event into a wry meditation on life, death, and everything in between.”
—Pacific Northwest Review of Books

“Her work offers what much contemporary writing leaves its audience hungering for — a deep feeling for real human experience, for the poignant sense of life in the day to day, the quiet heroism of simple people. Her prose is language operating at its ultimate; an energy and movement, a subtle mounting toward a climax often found only in poetry.”
— The San Diego Reader

“Pride, courage, spirit, and a lot to share.”
— Twin Cities Reader

“A no-bullshit attitude and a sense of humor.”
— Boston Phoenix

“Her prose was vivid, tinged with sarcasm and wisdom. A writer with a distinctive and memorable style.”
— Boston Sojourner

“She has an incredible confidence and style as a performer. Her stories were sassy, they were funny, they were great. No one went home without at least one of her revelations to treasure.”
— Buffalo Evening News

“Her deep sensitivity to the lives of her characters, her keen sense of what makes them unique, is thorough.”
— San Diego Reader

“A wise and wonderful book [Back to Texas]. These adventures sneak, holler, hurt, love, and outsmart each other through this book with a clean, hard look and sound as detailed as an imagist poem cut with a whipsaw wit bent on maintaining itself and its loved ones no matter what. A ceaseless and deep-stiffing affection for the common effort. The fine line of this book’s attention and its rigorous modesty combine with a stunning sense of spoken language to crisp-out a full-scaled life as memorable as it is well written.”
— SoHo Weekly News

“Hawkins is a marvelous writer whose pieces vibrate with humor and sensitivity. Her work unravels her experiences in wonderfully perceptive descriptions, often with feminist overtones.”
— Buffalo Evening News

“A composite of experiences causing an introspective look into one’s own existence. A standing ovation when the performance was concluded.”
— The Toledo Collegian

“Her ear is exact — the dialogue is sharp as splinters, as devastating and ironic as any dialogue set down by Raymond Carver or Ann Beattie.”
— Toronto Globe & Mail

“Hawkins punctuates her stories with laugh-provoking one-liners, but much of the humor comes from the faithful observation of character and the plausible rendering of circumstances.”
— The San Diego Union

“Hawkins is keenly aware of the complicated vastness of even just one little human universe. Her sentences do not meet the universe head-on but at a slight angle. Hawkins’ writing participates in a tradition of American Modernism in prose that sometimes achieves an almost hallucinatory precision. A thoughtful artist’s eye informs the writing.”
— The Vajradhatu Sun

“She excels at the short take, the oblique view, and the sort of incident that allows the storyteller leeway to expand, change and alter the fundamental nugget of actuality. Her curious, witty and occasionally militant slants make her writing unclassifiable but altogether beguiling.”
— Los Angeles Times Books Review

“Hawkins moves with apparent ease from tale to tale, suffusing each with irony, anger or love as the occasion demands. Pieces of varying length are juxtaposed and, once fit together, the life of a woman emerges.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Hawkins, a splendidly handsome figure, is a poet and writer of poetic prose. In a voice as beautiful and sensitive as a grand opera diva or the grandest of jazz singers, she reads from her works. She is a priceless artist who captures in every line a past that becomes a slice of American social history.”
— San Francisco Examiner