"In Dancing on the Rim of Light, Barbara Novack displays a talent for turning the ordinary into the extraordinary. Red checkered tablecloths, Irish soda bread, a mother and child on a bus, gravestones, old photographs: nothing is solid, nothing endures; and, like her favorite painter Magritte, nothing she gives the reader is what it seems to be. Haunted by the dual tragedies of 9/11 and Hurricane Sandy, the poems in this fine collection hover between birth and death, birth again, and death again, as Novack dances on the rim of light defending herself and the world against chaos."

-- Mary Mackey, winner of the 2019 Eric Hoffer Small Press Award for

The Jaguars That Prowl Our Dreams, and the

2012 Oakland PEN Josephine Miles Award for Sugar Zone

"Rich in details and feelings, Barbara Novack's poems in Dancing on the Rim of Light convey the texture of observable things and capture the spirit of things unseen. From the "Simple Gifts" of nature's cycle to the intricate interactions she witnesses on the street to the moving poems about her family, this poet paints pictures that are memorable."

-- Patti Tana, Walt Whitman Birthplace Association Long Island

Poet of the Year 2009, author of nine books of poetry, most recently,

All I Can Gather & Give

"Barbara Novack's poetry is clean, uncluttered. She's aware, seeing things that most people don't see; they register with her. She can identify the intrinsic nature, the indispensable qualities, the character of something and evoke it succinctly, and that is a wonderful talent."

-- Deborah Nagler, life artist