Other Commentary:

Brave, honest, and profoundly good, Lisa Lenzo has never been afraid of places where less angelic writers fear to tread. 

--JAIMY GORDON, National Book Award winner, Lord of Misrule

Between her earlier book, Within the Lighted City, and now with these memorable stories in her new collection, Unblinking, Lisa Lenzo has forged her own personal Detroit literary tradition. Her work, like that of iconic Detroit poets such as Robert Hayden and Philip Levine, sings with soul and compassion.

--STUART DYBEK, MacArthur Fellow, author of Paper Lantern: Love Stories, Ecstatic Cahoots, The Coast of Chicago, I Sailed With Magellan, and most recently, The Start of Something: Selected Stories.

Lisa Lenzo writes with an open heart and an open mind, exploring, through her diverse cast of characters, the thorniest of America's cultural issues. Lenzo's compassionate sensibility is a salve in troubled times, and Unblinking is an uncommon collection of thoughtful and playful voices that teach us about love, loss, nourishing food, and politics at its most humane.

--BONNIE JO CAMPBELL, author of Mothers, Tell your Daughters, Once Upon a River, and American Salvage (National Book Award finalist)

Lisa Lenzo writes with grace and courage. In the ten stories that make upÝUnblinking, her characters mine memories, music, and the magnetic city of Detroit in their search for connection and self-realization. These stories are especially interested in change,Ýwhether it occurs over a lifetime or in cataclysmic moments, and the ambivalence of its aftermath. Along the way, readers can count on Lenzo to find the humor and heart that keeps us all hanging on.

--ANNA CLARK, author of The Poisoned City: Flint's Water and the American Urban Tragedy

UnblinkingÝreads like a love letter to caregivers. Anyone who has ever provided hands-on, often grueling, care for someone they love will find solace in these stories. Lenzo reveals the transcendent joy we feel when, fearing the worst from our communities, we instead encounter the best.

LAURA HULTHEN THOMAS, author of States of Motion