“Jean Barrett Holloway’s honest and original poems lead into the obsessions of a world where failure, pain, sweat, blood, injury, and the inevitable ice baths are just a breath away from magic: moments when mind, bones, muscle, and the whole world’s weight become light as air and “gravity blinks.” Using technical exactness and precision as well as a seriousness that cannot be exaggerated, these poems bewitch and compel, immerse us in the dark energy of “the dungeon”, in wit, tenderness, determination, and vanity as lifters strive to perfect the transitory art of defying physics.”
—Brenda Yates, winner of the first Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center Poetry Contest
“Jean Barrett Holloway has produced a very insightful memoir of her years of involvement with a hard core weightlifting team. Her reflections bring back vivid memories to those who were there over the years. For those in the sport, it provides a glimpse of events, personalities, and unique insights to what really happened as part of hard training and stressful competition. A wonderful overview of a tribe of weightlifters that leaves one wishing for more.”
—John Garhammer, Ph.D., CSCS, Professor Emeritus,
Kinesiology Dept., Cal State Long Beach
