"Alphabet as cosmology is an idea at least as old as Kabbalah, and here Schonning cycles through abecedarian combinations and permutations that spell the world as he knows it. A praise song to creation accrues through these pages made luminous by constraints that reveal a maker of deep tact and unwavering faith in language. Both elegant and gentle, and effortless in its virtuosity, As When Waking is a first book of rare formal mastery and metaphysical grace."--Brian Teare, author of "Poem Bitten by a Man"

"Part love letter to the alphabet, part alphabet's love letter to us, Schonning's miraculous debut is one where miracle is nothing more and nothing less than opening our eyes--as if for the first time--after what had seemed an endless sleep. With a mystic's faith that word still conjures world, a musician's ear, and a child's sense of wonder, Schonning teaches us the one word we most need to say, a word so simple it's easy to forget: yes. These abecedarians say yes, brightly."--Dan Beachy-Quick, author of "Variations on Dawn and Dusk"

"Schonning takes up a popular and time-honored poetic constraint: an English abecedarian. It is within the seeming simplicity and accessibility of the form that his innovation, improvisation, surprise, and risk find their most well-appointed playgrounds. Looping through the alphabet, Schonning deftly shows us the opportunities we let slip when we stop at z. There are amazements, wonders, and magics in this collection."--Douglas Kearney, Phoenix Poets consulting editor and author of "Optic Subwoof"

"In As When Waking, Schonning delves into English with great attention, discovering, even within syllables, a spirit of sound and a forecast of cadences that are entirely refreshing and undistorted by irony. Schonning is a poet of extraordinary, unguarded candor and deserves our trust."--Donald Revell, author of "Canandaigua"