'She looks like the real thing alright, an original talent. Discovering her work reminds me of the pleasurable shock of hearing Medbh McGuckian's poetry for the first time'
                                                                     — Michael Longley, Poetry Ireland Review

Kerry Hardie's second collection extends the wonder, the 'small deep awe' of its precursor, A Furious Place. To the calm reflection of 'Monaghan Solstice' and other landscapes 'lit from elsewhere', she introduces (in 'Exiles') a narrative sweep embracing generations and questions of nationality.

Cry for the Hot Belly recognizes also the appearance of death in the author's life as a familiar visitor. Her reconciliation with mortality fosters a new freedom in which Kerry Hardie discovers a point of arrival: 'I don't have to remember or hold on. / I live this now, it is deep in the life.'