'Teach the sonnet's a cell' says the speaker in one of Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon's compelling new poems, as she prepares to teach poetry to inmates at a New York State prison, 'now try to escape-'. This poet's astute and various formal choices perform exactly that work, containing the poem then constructing an opportunity for the splendidly intelligent maker of these artful forms to step into the light. ] Open Interval [ not only confirms the promise of Van Clief-Stefanon's first book but takes her work to startling new heights.--Mark Doty, author of What Is the Grass: Walt Whitman in My Life