North American Review

Shannon K. Winston reviews Exploding Head for North American Review, interrogating the use of the prose poem and temporality: “As it enacts different collisions of thoughts and fears, the poem shows how OCD is defined by simultaneity and frightful possibilities. Rather than prioritizing one narrative, Hoffman shows how an anxious mind can hold multiple outcomes at once.”

“With a keen poetic eye, Hoffman infuses the everyday with marvel.”

Read it here: https://northamericanreview.org/open-space/2025/shannon-k-winston/review-cynthia-marie-hoffmans-exploding-head