In "The Midwest Hotel," poet Chris Coulson has created a variety of personae that teach and delight a reader. From a woman wanting her husband to join her in a dance to a recovered alcoholic, who describes "those years were like living in a cave," he carves characters with wit and powers of observation akin to Mark Twain's. This work will catch your emotions. Be prepared to chuckle, laugh outloud, or shed a tear. - Lindsey Martin-Bowen author of "Inside Virgil's Garage" and "Standing on the Edge of the World" Chris Coulson's words make you angry and sad, laugh out loud happy, and mostly stare at the page in astonishment telling yourself the world he describes, so tantalizingly familiar, simply can't be. - Peter Schuyler, writer and filmmaker