She founded the series in part to help writers feel less isolated and encourage a fellowship of poets.

[9] In a review of The Common (1995), Jennifer Clarvoe wrote that the poems in the fourth section "confront and do not soften the impact of genuine hurt and death and loss".

[12] At Harvard Review, Tina Barr wrote that in Zeppo's First Wife (2005), Mazur's poems let readers encounter "the recognition of the importance of a civil conscience all but lost from the larger culture".

Joyce Peseroff, writing at On the Seawall, wrote that Mazur's poems in this collection reflect how art and imagination can give relief from sorrow.

[15] At Hyperallergic, John Yau noticed that Mazur never analyzes her feelings in Forbidden City (2016), which makes the poetry more powerful.