SOURCE: A review of Restless Serpents, in The American Book Review, Vol. 11, No. 2, October, 1979, p. 20.

In the following review of Restless Serpents, Olvera elucidates the work's major themes—religion, sexuality, love, and gender warfare—concluding that Zamora's poetry reflects the reality of the human condition.

The first time I met Bernice Zamora, I was totally impressed with her vibrant, "welcome-to-the-fold" personality and mentality. Her fine form emanated auras of bright colors as she modulated and entertained the struggling writers under her care. At the time, she was a doctoral candidate at Stanford University, while teaching some literature classes at U.C. at Berkeley.

Bernice seemed to me a woman who has gone through life with her head held high and her literary aspirations as valid and as deeply held as any poet's. Her career was more than a way for her to be competitive in academia; her career...