Materialist, feminist, queer, hybrid—channeling the sensibilities of Gloria Anzaldua, Rosario Castellanos, Mary Kelly, Teresa Hak Kyung Cha, Cecilia Vicuna, Patssi Valdez, and Bernadette Mayer—Amy Sara Carroll’s second collection of prose poems and “wordimages” contemplates the cost of living in an era of “cruel optimism.” Procedurally formalizing self-editing and indecision, Carroll undocuments the quotidian’s shades of gray/grey, the contingencies of post-Fordist relationality in the pre-Occupy window of time between Sept. 11, 2001, and the 2008 recession. Claudia Rankine, who chose the volume for Fordham University’s 2011-12 Poets Out Loud prize, sings its praises: “The intelligence, compassion, and dimensionality of this collection place it in a category all its own—it belongs to and is crafted out of the psychic anxieties of the 21st century. I, for one, was both exhilarated and humbled by Fannie + Freddie.” Carroll is assistant professor of American Culture, Latina/o Studies, and English at U-M, and the author of Secession.