"We are deeply impressed by Southard's thorough research on the topic of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki and how she crafts the facts into such stunning prose. This is
a story whose time has come, and Southard is the only one who can write it."

~ Arizona Commission on the Arts – from panel
   comments upon award of 2008 Individual Artist Project Grant

"The matter of our nuclear attacks on Japan is common enough in our history, but our sense of the true costs doesn't come out in our telling of the stories. Susan Southard's work with the stories of Japanese victims is profound and moving, an intersection of journalism and prose at its most poetic. It presents fact and moves us, as the best nonfiction does, to see through the haze of language into true experience."

~ Todd Peterson, fiction writer and
   2008 Bill Desmond Writing Award judge

"Beautifully written, weaving in history and story."

~ Sharman Apt Russell, author of
   Hunger: An Unnatural History