Brenda Shaughnessy (born 1970) is an Asian American poet most known for her poetry books Our Andromeda and So Much Synth. Her book, Our Andromeda, was named a Library Journal "Book of the Year," one of The New York Times's "100 Best Books of 2013." Additionally, The New York Times and Publishers Weekly named So Much Synth as one of the best poetry collections of 2016. Shaughnessy works as an Associate Professor of English in the MFA Creative Writing program at Rutgers University–Newark.

Brenda Shaughnessy
Shaughnessy in 2019
Shaughnessy in 2019
Born1970
Okinawa Island, USCAR
LanguageEnglish
NationalityAmerican
Alma materUniversity of California, Santa Cruz
Columbia University

Life

edit

Shaughnessy was born in Okinawa and grew up in Southern California. She received her BA in literature and women's studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz and MFA at Columbia University.

Her poems have appeared in Best American Poetry, BOMB,[1] Conjunctions, McSweeney's, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The Yale Review, and elsewhere. Our Andromeda (2012) was selected as a Library Journal "Book of the Year" and as one of the "100 Best Books of 2013" by The New York Times[2] as well as being shortlisted for both the 2013 PEN/Open Book Award[3] and the 2013 International Griffin Poetry Prize. So Much Synth was published in 2016 by Copper Canyon Press and was named one of the best poetry collections of 2016 by the New York Times and Publishers Weekly.[4][5] Her fifth book of poems, The Octopus Museum, was published by Knopf in 2019.[6]

She is an Associate Professor of English in the MFA Program at Rutgers-Newark.[5][7] She lives in Verona, New Jersey with her husband, the poet and editor Craig Morgan Teicher, and their children.

Awards

edit

Bibliography

edit

Poetry

edit
Collections
  • So Much Synth. Copper Canyon Press. 2016. ISBN 978-1-55659-487-8.
  • Our Andromeda. Copper Canyon Press. 2012. ISBN 978-1-55659-410-6.
  • Human Dark with Sugar. Copper Canyon Press. 2008. ISBN 978-1-55659-276-8.
  • Interior with Sudden Joy. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2000. ISBN 978-0-374-52698-6.
  • The Octopus Museum. Knopf. 2019. ISBN 978-0525655657.
  • Tanya. Knopf. 7 March 2023. ISBN 978-0-593-53593-6. [9]
Anthologies
List of poems
Title Year First published Reprinted/collected
I'm over the moon 2005 Shaughnessy, Brenda (October 1, 2005). "Three poems". BOMB Magazine. 93.
Three summers mark only two years 2005 Shaughnessy, Brenda (October 1, 2005). "Three poems". BOMB Magazine. 93.
Straight's the new gay 2005 Shaughnessy, Brenda (October 1, 2005). "Three poems". BOMB Magazine. 93.
I have a time machine 2015 Shaughnessy, Brenda (July 20, 2015). "I have a time machine". The New Yorker. 91 (20): 46–47.
Too hot can't stop 2022 Shaughnessy, Brenda (September 5, 2022). "Too hot can't stop". The New Yorker. 98 (27): 42.

References

edit
  1. ^ "BOMB Magazine: Three Poems by Brenda Shaughnessy". Archived from the original on 2011-07-08. Retrieved 2009-05-27.
  2. ^ "100 Notable Books of 2013". The New York Times. November 27, 2013.
  3. ^ a b "PEN Open Book Award". June 10, 2020.
  4. ^ "So Much Synth by Brenda Shaughnessy".
  5. ^ a b Charles, Ron (January 31, 2013). "Brenda Shaughnessy to discuss the 'Life of a Poet' at Hill Center". The Washington Post. Retrieved July 11, 2023.
  6. ^ Nelson, Juliann (2019-05-20). "The PEN Ten: An Interview with Poet Brenda Shaughnessy". PEN America. Retrieved 2023-07-11.
  7. ^ "A New Day for the RU-N MFA In Creative Writing, and a Boon For Incoming MFA Students". www.newark.rutgers.edu. Retrieved 2023-07-11.
  8. ^ Viva Staff (January 26, 2009). "Roberto Bolaño finalist for National Book Critics Circle award". The New York Daily NEws.
  9. ^ Gerstler, Amy (2023-03-27). "Love, Absence and Loss, Filtered Through Philosophical Poems". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-06-23.