“Blackout indicates a caesura from which to start again, and from the first to the last word, it makes no concessions. It speaks to us of what is missing and of human hell on earth, but also of what is still possible to return to that human being who is trampled upon every day and in whom we would like, despite everything, to still believe.”
––Fabia Ghenzovich, winner of the Guido Gozzano (2009), and the Charles Darwin Scientific Poetry Prize (2014)

“We travel with Anna Lombardo in the dark; nothing is more poetic than the night that consoles between sighs that fade away while the words get stuck, and the unsaid things stagnate.
To talk about emptiness, about the horrors with, and without, war, about the love that remains, perhaps, we need a borrowed language, a traffic of words that if you let them do, they will not only do what they want, they will do what they must. But words carry the scars of our actions, and when the darkness ends, and with it, the hours counted on the fingers (after having buried even the sound of the soul), what will happen to us, or rather, what will not happen to us?”
––Brigidina Gentile, winner of Hypatia poetry prize (2011) and Mimosa prize for fiction (2015)

“Sounds form sculptures in the juxtaposition of these verses by Anna Lombardo. They are pearls strung between life and death; a thread of contrasts in the most authentic politics.”
––Sara Maino, Italian audio-visual artist, author, educator, poet and performer, film and theatre director

“Step into the profound realms of introspection and darkness with Anna Lombardo’s captivating poetry collection Blackout. With each verse, she tenderly explores the residues of love and loss, weaving a tapestry of borrowed languages and unyielding emotions. What awaits us beyond the hours counted on our fingers? In this poignant collection, Lombardo invites us to ponder not only what will happen to us, but what will not.”
––Richard Modiano, Director Emeritus Beyond Baroque Foundation

“Anna Lombardo’s poems in Blackout reach the core of the values of the world and show us our reality through beauty, sadness, and chaos––all of which in everyday life we have to deal with.
It seems that the words she uses flow naturally from her heart and soul without predetermination––for she only had today’s actuality in her mind. This spontaneity is the foundation of her poetry.”
––Gabor Gyukics, Beat Poet Laureate of Hungary and literary translator