Overview

Who Looks Outside Dreams explores themes of transformation and becoming in poems that span a life, from childhood in Romania to motherhood in America, and asks what it means to live. Mona Zamfirescu's writing is the voice of someone who is profoundly aware of the terrors and limits of her present, the loneliness of motherhood, middle age and immigration.

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9781739288129

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Reviews

The voices in Who Looks Outside Dreams belong to a seeker standing at the edge of transformation. Profoundly aware of the terrors and limits of her present, the speaker navigates the loneliness of motherhood, middle age, and immigration. And yet like prayers, these poems-especially the ghazals-don't despair so much as exude a mystical life force, channeling the humility and wisdom of a well-traveled soul. Zamfirescu dreams, walks through doors, and metamorphoses with courage and lyricism. Rosanna Young Oh, Author of The Corrected Version Sensuous and lyrical, Mona Zamfirescu's debut poetry chapbook, Who Looks Outside Dreams, explores themes of transformation and becoming in poems that span a life, from childhood in Romania to motherhood in America, and ask what it means to live - with pain, with fear, with loss, as other - and still find beauty in the everyday. Hollie Hardy, Author of Lions Like Us and How to Take a Bullet: And Other Survival Poems Strong as rope, delicate as silk, what attracts me most strongly to the poems in Mona Zamfirescu's Who Looks Outside Dreams, is the fearless, urgent way they approach the emotions of uncertainty, anxiety, worry and fear - for a son at war, for a world on the brink of disaster, and for an immigrant self that appears forever uncertain, unknowable or, even worse, ineffable. Zamfirescu seeks the strength of received poetic forms - the villanelle, the ghazal, the haibun, the elegy and the ode - and yet writes impressionistically, assembling fragments and images from nature and society to create an atmosphere of interiority and reflection. Arthur Russell, Author of At the Car Wash

Author Information

Mona Zamfirescu is a Professor of Mathematics at Baruch College, CUNY. She has recently discovered her passion as a writer, a painter and photographer. Her poetry has been published in various anthologies and has been showcased at the NYC Poetry Festival. Mona is a 2025 Pushcart Prize nominee for her poem American Soldier, published in Mayari Literature. She holds a PhD in Statistics from Columbia University. Currently, she is studying for an MFA in Creative Writing/Poetry at CCNY, CUNY.

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