Dzifa Benson's Monster reviewed in The Guardian & Telegraph & Books of the Year
'This is an amazing collection, not only for a debut but for a poet at any stage. It’s versatile and virtuosic, experimental and moving, complex and culturally important.' – Bernardine Evaristo
Dzifa Benson's debut poetry collection Monster is a bold and lyrical exploration of the Black female body as a site of oppression and resistance. At its heart is a brilliantly imagined study of the world of Sarah Baartman, aka the Hottentot Venus, a Khoikhoi woman from South Africa who was displayed in freak shows in 19th-century Europe. In her multi-faceted, highly inventive title-sequence Dzifa Benson frames Baartman’s voice within the social, political and legal structures of the day.
Other poems draw clear parallels with Benson’s own experience as a Black woman born in London but raised in Ghana who returned to the UK at the age of 18. The collection is an exciting mix of vivid lyricism, sometimes laced with dark humour, using complex poetry, monologue and theatrical devices. The influence of Shakespeare sits comfortably with references to Ewe mythology and history in a collection of wide scope and depth.
Dzifa Benson was born in London to Ghanaian parents and grew up in Ghana, Nigeria and Togo. She is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist whose work intersects science, art, technology, the body and ritual which she explores through poetry, prose, theatre, libretto, performance, curation, visual arts, immersive technologies, essays and criticism. Her poetry has been widely anthologied and recognised with fellowships from Jerwood Compton Poetry and Hedgebrook. She was shortlisted for the inaugural James Berry Poetry Prize in 2021. Her first collection, Monster, is published by Bloodaxe Books on 24 October 2024. Dzifa has toured South Africa and the UK with the British Council, is a Ledbury Poetry Critic and holds a Masters degree in Text & Performance from RADA and Birkbeck. She lives in London.
Dzifa launched Monster online at Bloodaxe's joint online reading and discussion event on Monday 21 October 2024. Scroll down for details. Now available on YouTube.
POETRY BOOKS OF THE YEAR
The Guardian, The Best Poetry Books of 2024, online 3 December 2024, in print Saturday 7 December 2024 (TBC)
Dzifa Benson’s debut collection Monster was included in Rishi Dastidar’s best poetry books of year feature in The Guardian.
‘In a strong year for debut collections, two stood out in particular. Monster by Dzifa Benson (Bloodaxe) dazzles in its range, technique and imagination, while Camille Ralphs’s After You Were, I Am (Faber) brings a medieval spirituality vibrantly into the modern world.’ – Rishi Dastidar, The Guardian (The best poetry books of 2024)
Due to appear in print on 6 December. Available in full on The Guardian website here.
The Telegraph, Best Poetry Books of 2024, in print Saturday 16 November 2024, online 14 November 2024
Dzifa Benson’s debut collection Monster was included in Tristram Fane Saunder’s feature on the best poetry books of year in The Telegraph of 16 November.
‘Historical figures inspired two distinctive debuts: Elizabeth I’s court magician John Dee is ventriloquised with dizzying wordplay in Camille Ralphs’s metaphysical After You Were, I Am (Faber); while Dzifa Benson’s impressive Monster (Bloodaxe) finds belated justice for the “Hottentot Venus” Sarah Baartman, a Khoekhoe woman brought to 19th-century London and displayed as a curiosity.’ – Tristram Fane Saunders, The Telegraph (The best poetry books of 2024)
In print. Available online by subscription.
‘From heartbreak to hermaphroditic slugs, these extraordinary poetry collections are the perfect gifts for Christmas’
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-to-read/best-poetry-books-of-2024-christmas/
ONLINE BOOK & EVENT REVIEW
Write Out Loud, online 8 November 2024
Greg Freeman reviewed Dzifa Benson’s debut collection Monster online in Write Out Loud along with a review of her joint event at NCLA in Newcastle with Australian poet Sarah Holland-Batt.
'I am sure that this rich, multi-layered collection is a candidate for a major poetry award.' – Greg Freeman, Write Out Loud, on Monster
https://www.writeoutloud.net/public/blogentry.php?blogentryid=138646
BEST NEW BOOKS FOR OCTOBER 2024 FEATURE IN GLAMOUR
Glamour Magazine, 25 best new books for October, online 22 October 2024
Dzifa Benson’s debut collection Monster was reviewed in Glamour Magazine’s 25 best new books for October 2024 feature of 22 October. An extract from the review was featured at the top, alongside Margaret Atwood’s new poetry book: ‘Monster by Dzifa Benson needs to be on your radar – reflecting on the Black female body as a site of oppression and resistance with poems exploring injustice, identity and prejudice.’ Scroll down the article to read the full review.
‘Poems exploring injustice, identity and joy allow Benson’s lyrical prose and innovative structure to pull readers into a world that reflects the author’s experience as a Black woman born in London and raised in Ghana. Confronting themes of race, gender, and the monstrous in society, this poetry collection is both visceral and mythological, imagining the life of Sarah Baartman, a South African Khoikhoi woman displayed in freak shows in 19th century Europe. It packs an almighty punch.’ – Chaya Colman and Sophie Ezra, Glamour (25 best new books of October 2024)
https://www.glamourmagazine.co.uk/gallery/best-new-books
ONLINE POEM OF THE WEEK FEATURE IN THE GUARDIAN
The Guardian, Poem of the Week, online Monday 21 October 2024
Carol Rumens featured ‘The Hottentot Venus Hails Botticelli's on the High Seas' from Dzifa Benson’s debut collection Monster in her online Poem of the Week column in The Guardian on 21 October. The poem was accompanied by Carol’s perceptive and sensitive commentary. The column linked to Rishi Dastidar's excellent review of Monster in The Guardian of 5 October.
'For the multimedia poet and dramatist Dzifa Benson, Baartman and her story are central among the minds, bodies and cultures she examines in her first collection, Monster. The impressive title sequence demonstrates how biography can be transformed into poetry without sacrifice either of poetry or realism. [...] She employs a variety of poetic forms, ranging from the traditional to the innovative. Redaction (words and segments of a given script partly blacked-out) and the use of white font on black background provide deeply thought-through, more than visual, illumination of whiteness through blackness' – Carol Rumens, Poem of the Week, The Guardian
The feature went online on Monday 21 October, the day of Bloodaxe’s joint livestreamed launch for our three October titles.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/series/poemoftheweek
POETRY BOOK OF THE MONTH REVIEW IN THE TELEGRAPH
The Telegraph, Poetry Book of the Month, online 14 October 2024
Dzifa Benson’s debut collection Monster is reviewed in depth by Declan Ryan as his Poetry Book of the Month for October 2024 in The Telegraph.
“One language is never enough”, Dzifa Benson writes in the first section of Monster, her capacious debut collection. That opening sequence orbits around Sarah Baartman, a Khoekhoe South African woman who was toured around Europe in the 19th century as an object of curiosity, known as the “Hottentot Venus”. In Monster, Benson looks to bring both Baartman and her milieu to life, evoking a chorus of voices to demonstrate the bodily horror, racism and misogyny which surrounded her treatment and celebrity. Benson is sharp on what it means to have a body. She shows bodily animalness, its flesh, as well as the weight – literal and figurative – of gaining notoriety for having one. […] She takes a maximalist approach: her variety of formal approaches culminating in something of a hall-of-mirrors effect, with language extracted from contemporary newspapers, the sounds of publicists, defenders and exploiters of Baartman. Then there are poems written in the voice of Baartman herself: a mix of Khoekhoe dialect words and euphonic, often musical, phrasing.’ – Declan Ryan, The Telegraph (Poetry Book of the Month for October 2024)
Available online in full by subscription.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-to-read/best-poetry-books-2024-reviews-month/#october
REVIEW COVERAGE IN THE GUARDIAN
The Guardian, Poetry Books of the Month, Saturday 5 October 2024
Dzifa Benson’s debut collection Monster was given a brilliant review in Rishi Dastidar’s best recent poetry round-up in The Guardian of 5 October ahead of publication later in the month.
‘The tactile language and eclectic techniques take the breath away, with the book featuring playlets, remixes of quotes from Enlightenment thinkers such as Descartes, even a poem layered on to a reproduction of a fragment of a genome. Imaginative, rigorous and playful, this is a showstopper of a debut.’ – Rishi Dastidar, The Guardian
In print. Available online on The Guardian website.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/oct/04/the-best-recent-poetry-review-roundup
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Online launch event, Monday 21 October 2024
Online launch reading by Dzifa Benson, Nia Davies and Helen Ivory celebrating the publication of their new titles. All three poets were reading live and discussing their work with each other and with the host, Bloodaxe editor Neil Astley. Now available on YouTube.
Dzifa Benson: 'Self-portrait as a Creature of Numbers'
Dzifa Benson reads her poem 'Self-portrait as a Creature of Numbers' from the Bloodaxe anthology Staying Human at Oxford House in London in 2020 on the eve of the second national lockdown. This poem is included in Monster.
[09 October 2024]
