Praise for Soft Boy

“There's not really much that's soft about Soft Boy. It is the hardened aftermath of many emotional sidelinings and heartbreaks, and it is a nuanced exploration of those heartbreaks. Art and truth make several appearances, but the central emotional conflicts involved are never shied away from therein. Bertolero is too smart and too wizened to say that these artistic or emotional objects are truth, so he gives us another way out through the ephemeral connection of all three.”

— Blake Wallin, author of Michelin



“Soft Boy is a delicate dance of love and lust. It silently stuns you with it's quiet brilliance, while giving you hope and breaking your heart every other line.” 

— Jo Barchi, author of It’s Fine



“Kevin Bertolero's poetry reminds me of how it feels to be young and vulnerable again, as we all are young and vulnerable in love. Exploring tenderness, every poem in this book makes me wish I was in love again, just so I could be hurt and reborn in the same light. A pivotal work in queer poetry, Bertolero brings a gentle sacredness to the everyday” 

— Erin Taylor, author of OOOO



“Soft Boy takes place in the liminal spaces of desire, poems balanced somewhere between lust and heartbreak. This is not a soft book.” 

— Deirdre Coyle, author of How to Talk to Writers at Parties