The Sacred Heart Motel is a map for lapses in time, for the air between the dust. Poems in a multiverse narrative bring the reader on a tour of the motel, from amenities to rooms to back alleys, through the generations of ghosts and queer love stories, until they are left alone with the heart at the centre of the narrative. Music forms the rungs of this manuscript, from nighttime quiet to an orchestral intermission to a crescendo of exposed interiors. New poet Grace Kwan is ruthless and nimble, guiding us through the recesses of body and roadside space.

Grace Kwan's profile page

"These section-opening poems build a yearning in the reader for what is lasting and, paradoxically, an appreciation for the momentary. In this way, Kwan guides us closer to their poetics: without rejecting confession, the greater concern is with atmosphere, feelings, and the mysteries of an embodied present-possibly our one true home." -Marguerite Pigeon, The British Columbia Review

"One of the sheer brilliances of Kwan's book is turning migration into a love poem and love into a migration. Don't even try to separate the political from the personal; there are too many transient rooms in the heart, unregistered hearts in any given room. And, of course, there's the border - of desire, home, identity - where all the action happens: 'the convergence of lives, motivations / riding shotgun,' as Kwan puts it, or rather wrenches it from our very hearts." -Carlos A. Pittella, Montreal Review of Books