“This book grows on you. Enters your blood. This is compassionate, carefully crafted poetry fascinating to read and worthy of detailed study.”
– George Anderson, Bold Monkey “Straight talk, boiled down from experience, with the fat of fancy skimmed off the top. That’s what we’ve got here. Carstens gets it – he doesn’t waste time with the flowers; he digs in the dirt, about six feet down, to the root of it all.”
– R L Raymond, Pigeon Bike Review “Wolfgang Carstens debuts here with a rock-solid collection of poems where you can sense the presence of the viscera under the blood-coated muscle that is the text.”
– David McLean, author of Cadaver’s Dance “Wolfgang’s book Crudely Mistaken for Life is a tour de force of poetic skill that you won’t put down until the sun is coming up and your tears are spent and the bottle of Patron next to you is bone dry.”
– Diana Rose, Write and Radio | “This book is stunningly evocative. Be careful when you pick up this book, you might not be able to put it down.”
– Tony Moffeit, author of Luminous Animal “Carstens goes places you don’t want to follow, but, inevitably you do (and for the better). This is poetry, rich, full and brimming with life, even that wrought from the darkest corners.”
– Jack Henry, author of With The Patience Of Monuments “Inside these pages you will find some truth, maybe yourself. I’ll trade $15.50 for that any day.”
– Scot Young, The Rusty Truck “Watching Acme safes fall slowly from the sky... death as random and meaningless as life, only the moment is real so better have that laugh or that orgasm or that shot of life right now... that’s how I felt reading Wolfgang Carstens’ excellent collection Crudely Mistaken For Life.”
– Puma Perl, author of Knuckle Tattoos |
Crudely Mistaken For Life Reviewed:
by George Andersonby David Mclean | by Tony Moffeitby Todd Moore |







