Atypical Cells of Undetermined Significance

by Brenna Womer

Brenna Womer’s debut collection Atypical Cells of Undetermined Significance is a book of creative nonfiction, poetry, and hybrid work that begins on an exam-room table and ends at the register of a 7-Eleven. In the pages between, Womer feels and hurts and learns her body and wonders at the world’s reactions to it. Her essays and poems exist in the liminal spaces approaching binaries: the childless mother, the loveless lover, the objective neurotic, and the military child whose heart aches for a home it cannot know. In this collection, Womer explores, in all the grit and gore and glory she can own, what it is to be—just one, but still—a woman

Genres: Poetry

54 pages, Paperback

Published March 15, 2018

About the author

Brenna Womer (she/they) is a queer, childfree, Latine prose writer and poet and an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at California State University, Fresno. She’s the author of the full-length, mixed-genre collections Unbrained (FlowerSong Press, 2023) and Honeypot (Spuyten Duyvil, 2019), as well as the chapbooks Atypical Cells of Undetermined Significance (C&R Press, 2018) and cost of living (Finishing Line Press, 2022). Her work has appeared in North American Review, Indiana Review, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, The Pinch, DIAGRAM, and elsewhere.

Brenna was a Visiting Assistant Professor of English at W&L University in rural Virginia from 2021–2023, where she served as interim Editor-in-Chief of Shenandoah, and at Louisiana State University for the 2020/21 academic year, where she served as Faculty Advisor for New Delta Review and the Delta Mouth Literary Festival. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Northern Michigan University as well as an MA in English and a BA in English Literature from Missouri State University. At NMU, she was an Associate Editor of Passages North and served as an Assistant Editor of Moon City Review and Intern for Moon City Press at Missouri State. Brenna was raised on Air Force bases in the US and abroad and now resides in Fresno with her rescue pups Honey, Dot, & Pico.

Reviews

[Lindsay Cole · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful. Honest. Raw. Every sentence felt like a gift.

[Shane · Rating 5 out of 5]

The project feels like a single dialogue. I just wanted to open up and be present for it. I’m glad I did. I will read this again.

Update three years later: I did read it again

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Taking in the stories of others, especially when they feel this honest and are this personal, leaves a mark; and gives one the impression of being that much more human.

[Michael Nye · Rating 5 out of 5]

A terrific debut from a writer who deftly navigates between nonfiction and poetry. This hybrid collection is intimate yet confident, working through a series of memories, experience, and images that link the narrator in the here and now with the person she used to be. The language is memorable and exacting, and the landscapes of both place and people that are explored resonate throughout the book. It's definitely worth reading twice so you can see the way these pieces subtly work together to enrich and deepen the work. This is a writer you'll be reading for a long time to come.

[Nadia · Rating 5 out of 5]

A quick and insightful read, full of descriptive language. Prose, short fiction, poetry all combine to form a wonderful chapbook. My favorite quote: "I was-am-terrified of being owned. By a god or a man or a child or a place. By anything or anyone but myself", so aptly describing me.

[Cindy van Wyk · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very quick read, even when savoured, Brenna Womer's debut is a collection of poems + essays that feels like not enough bang for your buck. The essays are magnificent, the poetry significantly less so. She plays a little with form but her best is when she writes from the heart without all the pretense. Stand-outs are Empire Blue + Sate.

[Pádraig Hogan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A powerful and beautiful collection detailing so much of what it is to be raised as so many things and growing to realize you are so many different things. Tactfully ordered, each piece puts together a different part of the puzzle without making the reader feel left out or confused. Pet Euthanasia Consent in particular was striking, especially for its clever form. A perfect debut.

[Suwilanji Namusamba · Rating 5 out of 5]

Might be my fave chapbook ever!

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

WOW I loved this collection - I wish Brenna Womer had more books for me to dig into, I am eagerly awaiting her next publication. This is a really engaging collection of poems about female bodies and how they are treated in society, and Womer skillful says a lot about that experience I think many of us with a uterus and vagina can relate to, or have experienced directly.