TESTIMONIALS

If you have a poetry project that you are working on, questioning, trying to articulate, or shape, I highly suggest working with Cynthia. From the start, Cynthia worked to try and understand if and how she could best support me as a poet and my poetry. It’s so clear she loves guiding others and learning about someone’s vision before giving feedback on it. She really listened to my proposed questions and gave feedback based on what I thought I needed and then some in order to nudge my project out of what felt like years of limbo. From line edits to overall talk of organizing a full length, Cynthia had the experience and the enthusiasm about creating as well as the urgency to present art in the most intentional way possible I needed to move forward. With new confidence after my consultation I went from a confused and stuck drafting phase to an intentional editing phase of a 60+ page poetry book and images. I will be grateful for her support moving forward in my project and writing journey.
LAUREN

Cynthia’s discernment of my manuscript made me pause and ask myself, “Why this, why now?” In a hostile environment, these questions can put pressure on a poet to work harder, to scramble to “master” form and craft, or worse, to justify a speaker’s reason for being. But her perspective encourages the opposite. In the tradition of Audre Lorde’s “Poetry Is Not a Luxury,” I am asked to abandon mastery and embrace what my poems are wanting me to feel and experience, to create work that would change me when nothing else would. Sometimes, revision is about editing out the twenty forms you created to keep your heart hidden. This reading is a rigor rooted in care and the most generous a poet can hope for.
JANE

I decided to send my poetry manuscript to Cynthia Dewi Oka for an assessment because she has long been one of my poetry heroes—a poet who consistently approaches craft with dynamism, expansive energy, and a drive to always push every poem and every facet of her language beyond the expected. I was hoping that she would bring this same rigor and commitment to her editorial work, and she did not disappoint! The book I sent her was solid, already pretty well polished, but I knew in my heart that it was capable of more. And I knew that it required a radical eye to help me figure out how to bring it to the next level. Cynthia read my collection with depth and a piercing intelligence. She asked me the hard questions I’d been avoiding. Questions like: Can this book also play as hard as it hurts? She pointed out the language patterns that had become too familiar to me and offered brilliant strategies for disrupting them. She considered the book at both the micro and macro levels simultaneously. She helped me find openings and encouraged me to take risks. And most importantly, she swept away the fatigue I’d been feeling about the manuscript and made me feel excited about it again. I know that when my book ultimately finds its publishing home, it will be a stronger book than it would have been because of Cynthia’s work. And I will be a stronger poet as I move on to my next project. If you find yourself with a manuscript that feels “stuck” and are considering a manuscript assessment with Cynthia, I highly encourage you to take the plunge!
JULIA