Spotlit Girl

"Kevin Oberlin's deft sonnets, like the Texas chanteuse they describe, are lively and picaresque, 'nervy' and 'coy,' and they unreel their story with dazzling speed." - Michael Collier "In sonnets so marvelously subtle and fluid that we don't even wake up to the fact that they are sonnets, Kevin Oberlin guides us into the life of a girl in the spotlight. These little A-list marvels of craft open up the world of a young B-list Texas jazz singer, her over-the-top mother, her venues, her agent, and her creepy fans.... He's written an ars poetica, a poet's take on a singer's soul. There's no chaff here, only a handful of beautiful, flexible, elastic sonnets written with natural ease." - Molly Peacock "No star-struck lover or dark mistress inhabits these lively sonnets but a flesh-and-blood, poker-playing Texan with a cell phone, an agent, an anxious mother, and a load of her own worries as she tries to make it in the music business. From the Star Spangled Banner at a racetrack to the warm-up for B. B. King, Spotlit Girl is a nimble character study that captures both the craziness of a performer's life and the time-stopping intimacy between a vocalist and her audience. The singer's in the spotlight, and Kevin Oberlin has the focus and the dazzle to make her shine." - Don Bogen"