“The Erotic Postulate is arresting and subtle in its exploration of the complexities, histories, and realities of gay sexuality, aesthetics, and identity. Many of these poems reveal — and revel in — the erotics of sight and the written word. It is both a cerebral and visceral pleasure to read a poet who brings so much to the page. Anyone who cares about the present — and future — of poetry should read this brilliant, groundbreaking book.”

• Alice Fulton

“Matthew Hittinger’s The Erotic Postulate is a sophisticated examination of math’s most basic equation: 1 + 1 = 2, which he reconfigures as ‘your body yours,// my body mine, one next to one as two.’ Suddenly, the politics of desire–physical attraction, emotional distance, surrender, struggle, rejection–trouble the intimacy of any unit (a pair, a couple, a marriage) located on any plane (a wrestling mat, a dance floor, a bed). But in Hittinger’s vision, the intersection of separate entities isn’t limited to one body’s connection to another, it also charts human relationship to landscape, culture, and imagination. Curious and observant, The Erotic Postulate sparkles with wonder.”

• Rigoberto González