Crossing a Different Bridge is a powerful revelation of the growth of an artist and an important documentation of a particular Oklahoma chapter of Catholic history in danger of becoming merely monastic ruins, cemeteries, and footnotes. Judith Tate O'Brien's distilled memories of a life in the oil patch, Catholic boarding schools, and the convent are honest and intense. Her spare, precise language and unflinching inward gaze crystallize harsh experience into high art. Readers will be forever grateful that Judith "converted to poetry" at an early age. -Terry Britton, President, Rose State College
