"The work of Colette Love Hilliard is tragic, beautiful, and inspiring. Her ability to balance grief and hope with simplicity is breathtaking. A Wonderful Catastrophe is an engaging work of art that is empathetic to the struggles of loss but captures the resilience of the human spirit."
— John Carroll, Founder of Make Blackout Poetry and Author of Hidden Messages of Hope
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"In A Wonderful Catastrophe by Colette Love Hilliard, the act of poetic creation is the landscape through which a would-be mother wrestles with the reality of what it means to be unable to create another human being. As the narrative of infertility develops across these erasures, the practice of marking out some words and leaving others behind gains significance. What survives in the wake of infertility is a new understanding of despair and hope; what survives in the wake of each erasure is a persistent lyric voice. It is Love Hilliard's voice that is the most compelling accomplishment of these meetings between art and poetry, a voice that rings out in this collection as earned, engaging, and alive."
— José Angel Araguz, Author of Until We Are Level Again (Mongrel Empire Press)
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"Colette Love Hilliard declares that she is the remains of A Wonderful Catastrophe. She grapples with each new day and deftly tugs at our heartstrings by inviting the reader into her world of pain, where “to reason is maddening.” The erasures and art work in perfect tandem to convey Hilliard’s “struggle and a certain relief.” She transforms the broken into something miraculous and reminds us that “loss could be beautiful.” This book is power-packed with raw emotions — courage, hope, tender love, and a vulnerability that makes us realize we are never truly alone in our battles. Hilliard encourages us to walk past what may seem like the “end of the road."
— Shloka Shankar, Founding Editor of Sonic Boom & Yavanika Press