“Maria Gray is a poet whose lines forge that ever-so-rare balance between ferocity and tender grace, often in the same breath. Shifting effortlessly between the profane and profound, heartbreak and irrevocable joy, the voice here seems the sum total of our times, distilled into an architecture so surefooted, so capacious, it is hard to imagine that she's only getting started. We’ll be hearing from this poet, thank god, for many years to come.”
Ocean Vuong
Bestselling author of On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous and The Emperor of Gladness
“‘I got so good at lying / down,’ Maria Gray writes in this tough and haunting chapbook. Gray's poems are passionate and astute in their examination of sexual violence, illness and loss, abandonment and survival. They reflect on what is real and what is constructed, taking us in and out of medical offices, simulation games, sites of collective outcry. Science Before Fiction is a worthy contribution from a complex new voice.”
Natalie Shapero
National Book Award semifinalist and author of Stay Dead