Press

Articles and Reviews

"The arrangement of this tightly composed collection moves like the plot 
of a satisfying story, building suspense as pressure gradually inches upward 
in  “Transformation,” relaxing momentarily in the idyllic, pensive “Night
Shift,” and nearly reaching the breaking point in “The Dam” before releasing
tension in “Exhalation.” The poems range from spiritual (“the marriage / of
commutator and slip ring,” in “Turbine”; the image of the Eucharist, as the
“entrant precedes with the oxygen monitor” in “Confined Space Entry”) to the 
ruggedly mechanical, technical, scientific....Burning Number Five drives the
reader to consider mere humanity in light of the big questions governed by 
the laws of thermodynamics."

–Barbara Brannon in the April 15, 2016 issue of Lone Star Literary Life

"Not unlike the poems of Phillip Levine, who put in his time as a
worker for Chevy, Gear, and Axle in late-1940s Detroit, Cindy Huyser's poems 
come from blue-collar experience."

–Ken Fontenot in the Spring 2015 issue of Concho River Review.

"Blue collar in nature and placed solely in the place where Huyser was 
previously employed, Burning Number Five is an exploration of grit, danger,
admiration, and sensuality-yes, sensuality.... Most impressive in Burning
Number Five are Huyser’s poems that personify the plant as “her.” The 
relationship between her and the worker is personal, and ideas that allude 
to or suggest that the two need each other–to take care of one another– is 
apparent...the plant...becomes a commentary on sexuality and an intimate 
portrayal of a woman’s desire."

— Blot Lit Reviews, February 4, 2015.

"From the very real dangers posed by the powerful machines to the human drama 
behind keeping air conditioners humming during hot summer days, the poems
mesmerize with their unexpected turns as technology transforms into art."

— Polly Ross Hughes,”The poet and the power plant,” Texas Energy Report, December 23, 2014