In Poetry Review Michael Hulse commended Justin Quinn’s ‘polished, urbane manner that owes something to Brodsky . . . its great attraction as poetry lies in the lithe lyric gift . . .’ and remarked on ‘. . . the density Quinn commands even at his seeming simplest . . . light in its touch, engaging in tone, and civilized in stance.’

For the first time since his debut in 1995 Justin Quinn in this, his fifth collection, turns his careful gaze on Ireland, from the 1980s to the present, and especially on Blackrock in County Dublin where he grew up. As the book’s title hints, embraces and battles take place at close quarters. Clashes occur both in relationships and between countries, and the poems ring the change on ‘amour and attack’ as he writes about marriage, being a parent, the cold wars and cultural exchange. A series of pastoral poems refract the months of a year while the collection confirms its author as an adept of the concise idea, a new directness of expression and a singing line.

Publication Date: May 2011

'There were some compelling new volumes: John Burnside’s Black Cat Bone and Justin Quinn’s Close Quarters are different in style and subject and gravity, but they are both unmistakable works of a master.’
                                                    — Bernard O'Donoghue, TLS.

‘The best book of new poetry this year was Justin Quinn’s Close Quarters, a collection which has creative places of its own to describe. The book spans Ireland and the Dublin suburbs (where Quinn grew up) and Prague and the Czech Republic (where he and his family live), to compelling and sometimes unsettling effect. Quinn is one of the few contemporary poets whose command of cadence and rhyme issues in forms that go beyond mechanical formalism; the result is memorable poetry of sustained lyrical power.’
                       — Peter McDonald, TLS.