Empirical Evidence
Published by the University of Georgia Press, Empirical Evidence won the Contemporary Poetry Series prize.
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Reviews
An exceptional first book — urgent, lucid, passionately intelligent and whole.
— Thomas Lux
Kronen writes about everyday events that most people overlook and he depicts fear or anger through surprisingly quiet imagery such as snow or stars — ironically, the snow might be in Miami and the stars in a planetarium. His finest poems address even explicit sexuality with uncommon delicacy and gentleness.
— Publishers Weekly
Among the gifts we look for in a new poet is a delicacy in spirit and craft which conveys the realness of things. The personal poetry of our time requires that delicacy which Steve Kronen’s first collection, Empirical Evidence, has in abundance … Steve Kronen demonstrates Frost was right: five minutes of reading will prove Empirical Evidence is a true and welcome poetry.
— Dave Smith
These poems are variously shrewd, playful, and often plangent. Kronen displays sly humour … His resourcefulness is evident in the eclectic grab-bag of his subjects: Tolstoy on the train to Astopovo, Lot’s wife, Edward Hopper, Renaissance depictions of Madonna and child, even Jerry Falwell [in] a stunning poem … What keeps this collection from finally seeming too clever for its own good is a lyrical, even melancholy tone that whispers and sometimes howls.
— Nancy Schoenberger, Verse
Great poems are hard to write and synchronicity is hard to render; so most poets put the stars aside and settle for the lights of a distant city. Steve Kronen has both the skill and faith to show us the connections that exist in seemingly disparate worlds of mayflies, electrons, heartbeats, machine guns, Jesus, love and Zeno’s dichotomy.
— Rick Campbell, Apalachee Quarterly
Empirical Evidence reshapes what we know, as if a set of molecules were disassembled and reassembled over and over, creating something different each time. … [T]he majority of the pieces are extremely inventive, the metaphors and similes refreshingly sharp.
— Dionisio Martinez, The Miami Herald
