Sanctuary at Unity Farm by Sherri Stepakoff

In Sanctuary at Unity Farm, Stepakoff has established herself as the William Blake of the Barnyard Set.

–Francisco Goldman, author of Monkey Boy

Sherri Stepakoff’s poetry is not just about a sanctuary, it is a sanctuary. This is a book to keep by your side and read, and then re-read. Her poems offer a place of comfort, of humor, of love and a reminder, as she wrote, of “the impulse to live on.”

–Jeffrey S. Cramer, editor of The Portable Thoreau

In her debut collection, Sherri Stepakoff documents the comfort her speaker derives from living among rescued animals who survive and find joy despite the challenges of their previous lives. Like the creatures who sing through brays, grunts, calls and cries, the poet sings her truth, too, always conscious of her role, to shape words artfully to give voice to deep emotions. Rhymed couplets, praise poem, meditation, villanelle, Ars poetica, free verse—Stepakoff skillfully deploys a range of poetic forms, giving strong proof of her raison d’etre: “I record these things, and some that I invent, in my poems.”

–Lynne Viti, poet laureate emerita of Westwood, Massachusetts