“With tenderness and intimacy, Somebody Else Sold the World highlights what has been lost, what might be recoverable, in these 'wrong-noted' days...what Matejka gets fascinatingly right is how the speakers in Somebody Else Sold the World balance anxieties of care against nostalgia and just how aware they are of feeling lost within the present, of being out-of-time.... Matejka’s command of melody and prosody is striking, especially in combination with the offbeat moments of humor and surrealism that strengthen the collection. What results is a kind of song that captures both lightness and heaviness of the current moment. Refusing the appeal of an uncomplicated cathartic release, Somebody Else insists on vulnerability, on admitting what has gone wrong, while acknowledging the difficulties in wrestling with 'what comes after” the selling of our world.'” (Poetry Foundation)

“Soulful, sonorous poems about romance, fatherhood, and other forms of intimacy. Matejka sings a blues of loss and longing but resists despair as a foregone conclusion, identifying potential for harmony even in sources of harm.” (The New Yorker)

“Matejka’s up-to-the-minute collection, his fifth, turns to poetry as a way to process the sometimes surreal disruptions of the pandemic, when people wore 'Different / kinds of masks for being & breathing.'” (The New York Times Book Review)