Brenda Shaughnessy's Tanya reviewed in The Guardian & Poetry Review
Brenda Shaughnessy is one of America’s most audacious and thrilling poets. In Tanya she weaves a tapestry of literary heritage and intimate reflection as she pays tribute to women artists and mentors, and circles the mysteries of friendship, love, art, and loss.
In this powerful gathering of poems about her own “influencers” – as well as poems on Surrealist artist Meret Oppenheim and the young choreographer Lauren Lovette – Shaughnessy remembers the women who set her on her artistic path. In the title poem, she explores the eternal quality of an intense touchstone relationship with Tanya, about whom she writes, 'Everyone’s not you to me… Worth loving once, why not now?' We all have our own Tanya, and in this book we meet friends, mentors, sisters, lovers, who inhabit a verse classroom where Shaughnessy’s passion for literature – forged in her own formative studies, as in the poem 'Coursework' – is our teacher. In flowing stair-step tercets, Shaughnessy leads us down into her generative core, exposing moments of spiritual and intellectual awakening, her love of art and the written word, and her sense of the life force itself, which is ignited by the conversation – across time and space – with other women.
Tanya is Brenda Shaughnessy's sixth collection, her first since Liquid Flesh: New & Selected Poems (Bloodaxe Books, 2022), which introduced her work to readers in the UK. Tanya was published in the UK and Ireland in April 2024.
Brenda Shaughnessy is an Okinawan-Irish American poet who grew up in Southern California. Her six full-length collections include The Octopus Museum (Knopf, 2019), a New York Times Notable Book, and Our Andromeda (Copper Canyon, 2012), a finalist for the Griffin International Prize, the PEN/Open Book Award, and the Kingsley Tufts Prize. Her first UK publication, Liquid Flesh: New & Selected Poems, was published by Bloodaxe in October 2022, followed by her sixth collection Tanya, which was published by Knopf in the US in 2023 and by Bloodaxe Books in the UK in April 2024. She is Professor of English at Rutgers University-Newark.
Brenda came to the UK in October 2022 to give three launch readings in London and Newcastle upon Tyne. She launched her sixth collection Tanya at the Cúirt International Festival of Literature in April 2024. Scroll down to watch a video of her reading from her two Bloodaxe titles, filmed by Neil Astley in Galway.
REVIEW COVERAGE IN THE GUARDIAN & THE POETRY REVIEW
The Guardian, Best recent poetry, online Friday 2 August 2024
Brenda Shaughnessy’s sixth collection Tanya was very well reviewed by Rebecca Tamás in her August 2024 poetry round-up in the online edition of The Guardian. Rebecca previously reviewed Brenda’s UK retrospective Liquid Flesh: New & Selected Poems in December 2022 (read here).
‘The Okinawan-Irish American poet’s sixth collection is an ode to influence and inspiration. Numerous poems engage with the female artists who have expanded her thinking, including choreographer Lauren Lovette and painter Torkwase Dyson; poems that are acts of homage, and explorations of what it means to create […] Shaughnessy’s rhythmic, sonically intense poetry embodies … motion, restlessly interrogating the communal experience of artmaking.’ – Rebecca Tamás, The Guardian (Best recent poetry)
https://www.theguardian.com/books/article/2024/aug/02/the-best-recent-poetry-review-roundup
The Poetry Review, Summer 2024
Brenda Shaughnessy’s sixth collection Tanya was given an excellent review by Clare Pollard in the Summer 2024 issue of The Poetry Review as part of a joint review with Anne Carson’s new book Wrong Norma (Jonathan Cape). Describing the impact of Anne Carson and Brenda Shaughnessy on herself and other UK poets, Clare Pollard writes: 'Both poets inspired a new ardour, and their impact was outsized – it felt as though, overnight, poems began to behave differently, moving in loose associations and giddy jumps.'
'In Tanya, whilst many poems respond to female artists, she is still drawn to the body and its sensations [...] But Shaughnessy’s poetry is more frequently abstract now, and often ultimately about poetry. In the long poem ‘Tanya’, written in ‘stair-step tercets’ that tumble down the page in memory of an intense past relationship, Shaughnessy’s interest in capturing her thoughts in the moment of writing becomes very meta, commenting wittily on its own process.' – Clare Pollard, The Poetry Review
In print and online:
https://poetrysociety.org.uk/book-review-asking-in-itself/
BOOKS OF THE YEAR COVERAGE 2023
Broken Sleep Books, Books of the Year 2023, online 2 January 2024
Broken Sleep Books asked a selection of their authors for their favourite poetry books of 2023. American poet Brenda Shaughnessy’s sixth collection Tanya, forthcoming in the UK in April 2024, was also chosen by Nathaniel Rosenthalis.
‘This book inspired me with its agile, living poems that move like quicksilver— such speed and lightness remind me of that chiaroscuro quality of paintings in the Met that seem impossibly dimensional.’ – Nathaniel Rosenthalis, Broken Sleep Books (Books of the Year 2023), on Tanya
https://www.brokensleepbooks.com/post/books-of-the-year-2023
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INTERNATIONAL ONLINE LAUNCH EVENT, 30 APRIL 2024
Brenda Shaughnessy launched Tanya at a joint live-streamed reading and discussion hosted by Bloodaxe editor Neil Astley. She was reading alongside Ellen Cranitch and Helen Farish. All three collections draw on personal experiences of important relationships, and this led to an excellent discussion after the readings. Brenda read last in each set.
Brenda Shaughnessy reads from Tanya
Brenda Shaughnessy reads a selection from Tanya: ‘Saeculum’, ‘Moving Far Away’, ‘The Poets Are Dying’, ‘Afterlife’, and part XII of the title-poem ‘Tanya’. Neil Astley filmed Brenda Shaughnessy reading from both her Bloodaxe titles in April 2024 during Cúirt International Festival of Literature in Galway, Ireland.
Brenda Shaughnessy reads from Liquid Flesh
Brenda Shaughnessy reads six poems from Liquid Flesh: New & Selected Poems: ‘Dancing in My Room Alone’, ‘Head Handed’, ‘Miracles’, ‘Big Game’, ‘Identity and Community’ and ‘Blueberries for Cal’. Filmed by Neil Astley in April 2024 during Cúirt International Festival of Literature in Galway, Ireland.
SOME REVIEW COVERAGE FOR LIQUID FLESH
IRISH REVIEW COVERAGE
The Irish Times, Saturday 4 February 2023
Martina Evans gave Brenda Shaughnessy’s retrospective Liquid Flesh: New & Selected Poems an excellent review at the top of her Irish Times poetry round-up of 4 February 2023. Brenda Shaughnessy is an Okinawan-Irish American poet who grew up in Southern California. The Irish is on her father’s side – both his parents were Irish American.
‘Liquid Flesh: New & Selected Poems is a terrific and substantial introduction to Shaughnessy’s world – sensual, subversive, forever dancing around a series of hyper-aware ludic questions…’ – Martina Evans, The Irish Times
Available online by subscription here.
REVIEW & FEATURE COVERAGE IN THE GUARDIAN
The Guardian, Best recent poetry round-up, Saturday 10 December 2022
Brenda Shuaghnessy’s UK retrospective Liquid Flesh: New & Selected Poems was well reviewed by Rebecca Tamás in her December poetry round-up in The Guardian’s Saturday magazine.
‘This collection showcases Okinawan-Irish American poet Brenda Shaughnessy as one of contemporary poetry’s most original and important voices… This rich, vivid book is a worthy testament to a poet who knows how to render the endlessly varied encounters of bodily life.’ – Rebecca Tamás, The Guardian (Best recent poetry)
Read Rebecca Tamás's full review here.
'Brenda Shaughnessy's Liquid Flesh - a dazzling career retrospective - spans twenty-two years, five collections, and a selection of new works... Shaughnessy maintains a slick and relentless wit, her works bursting with colour, life and contradiction.' - Kate Simpson, The Poetry Review
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LONDON REVIEW BOOKSHOP PODCAST – BRENDA SHAUGHNESSY
Brenda Shaughnessy came to London and Newcastle in October 2022 to launch her UK retrospective Liquid Flesh: New & Selected Poems. London Review Bookshop have made a podcast available of their event on 25 October 2022 hosted by fellow Bloodaxe poet Amy Key (Isn’t Forever).
https://www.londonreviewbookshop.co.uk/podcasts-video/podcasts/brenda-shaughnessy-amy-key
[02 August 2024]
