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Tanya: Poems
The award-winning poet weaves a tapestry of literary heritage and intimate reflection as she pays tribute to women artists and mentors, and circles the ongoing mysteries of friendship, love, art, and loss.
In this powerful gathering of poems about her own "influencers," as well as poems on Dadaist artist Meret Oppenheim and the young choreographer Lauren Lovette, Brenda Shaughnessy dwells in memories of 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.
In this powerful gathering of poems about her own "influencers," as well as poems on Dadaist artist Meret Oppenheim and the young choreographer Lauren Lovette, Brenda Shaughnessy dwells in memories of 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.
128 pages, Hardcover
First published March 7, 2023
7 people are currently reading
151 people want to read
About the author
Brenda Shaughnessy
17 books133 followersBrenda Shaughnessy was born in Okinawa, Japan, in 1970 and grew up in Southern California. She received her B.A. in literature and women's studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and she earned an M.F.A. at Columbia University.
She is the author of Human Dark with Sugar (Copper Canyon Press, 2008), winner of the James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets, and Interior with Sudden Joy (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1999), which was nominated for the PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award for Poetry, a Lambda Literary Award, and the Norma Farber First Book Award. Her poems have appeared in Best American Poetry, Bomb, Boston Review, Conjunctions, McSweeney’s, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The Yale Review, and elsewhere.
About her work, the poet Richard Howard writes: "The resonance of Shaughnessy's poems is that of someone speaking out of an ecstasy and into an ecstasy, momentarily pausing to let us in on the fun, the pain."
Shaughnessy is the recipient of a Bunting Fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, and a Japan/U.S. Friendship Commission Artist Fellowship. She is the poetry editor at Tin House magazine and currently teaches creative writing at Princeton University and Eugene Lang College at the New School.
She is the author of Human Dark with Sugar (Copper Canyon Press, 2008), winner of the James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets, and Interior with Sudden Joy (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1999), which was nominated for the PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award for Poetry, a Lambda Literary Award, and the Norma Farber First Book Award. Her poems have appeared in Best American Poetry, Bomb, Boston Review, Conjunctions, McSweeney’s, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The Yale Review, and elsewhere.
About her work, the poet Richard Howard writes: "The resonance of Shaughnessy's poems is that of someone speaking out of an ecstasy and into an ecstasy, momentarily pausing to let us in on the fun, the pain."
Shaughnessy is the recipient of a Bunting Fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, and a Japan/U.S. Friendship Commission Artist Fellowship. She is the poetry editor at Tin House magazine and currently teaches creative writing at Princeton University and Eugene Lang College at the New School.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
March 14, 2023
I absolutely adore Shaughnessy’s first collection of poetry. And ‘Tanya’ feels like a “grown up” version of that collection. A poem in here even looks back to the first collection like an older person reliving a memory while looking at a photo of the self in a history so long ago. How would we correct or repeat or remove what was vs what is.
October 29, 2024
I enjoyed this poetry collection 🙂
the only notes I made were:
The Impossible Lesbian Love Object(s) 3.
and
"the promise of warm fur is ancient"
🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟
accessed as a library audiobook, read by the author 🙂
the only notes I made were:
The Impossible Lesbian Love Object(s) 3.
and
"the promise of warm fur is ancient"
🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟
accessed as a library audiobook, read by the author 🙂
March 9, 2023
**I received an eARC on Netgalley in exchange for an honest review**
**Some quotes may not match the final copy found in the published book**
Brenda Shaughnessy is a new name to me, but I'm also painfully new to the poetry scene. I wasn't a fan of the beginning (it felt long and drawn-out), but the more I read, the quicker pace and the constant poetic tools kept me engaged until I finished the collection in one sitting.
TANYA encompasses women and how they shaped the narrator but also how they shape us as the reader, fellow women, and lost lovers. Yes, our mothers, sisters, and aunts guide and love us, but what about the women we meet throughout life? Is our love for other women platonic, sexual, intellectual? Can it be all three or none of the above? As a late-booming bisexual woman who realized her sexuality after marrying a man, the various relationships Shaughnessy paints drew me into different pieces of my past and made me question a lot of my "friendships."
That is to say, the narrator doesn't stop with romance between women. Mentorship is the highlight of "Coursework," the second part, and it further dissects the adoration we feel for each other in a realization that a woman who isn't our mother can shape us into the woman we want to be, without the expectation to be better that her. Rather, it's a focus to be better than your past self, even if you don't feel like you're better.
"I'm beloved for being art's best worst idea." The insecurity that society shoves on us for being women and feeling our emotions and seeking out that human connection in others and within ourselves when we've forgotten to love ourselves is rampant in the narrator's collection. Yes, she accepts herself and her writing, but she can also hate herself and her writing, and they're both valid sides of the same coin, and despite their countered beliefs, can coexist.
The alliteration and internal rhyme schemes create a musical glint to the words, and while some poets write lyrically and sound like folk songs, Shaughnessy comes off as a rapper on the underground scene, her words flying off the pages in anger and frustration as often as they do in adoration and thankfulness. The narrator remarks that the poet still works slowly despite the musician's constant turn out of new material, but this is again countered by the speed at which the words fly off the pages and into themselves like an orchestrated train wreck that we don't see for its synchronized beauty until we've reach the final period.
"Time can't erase it but I can." The narrator argues with time itself as they overcome love lost both in living and within the pages of letters never sent. She says that she "holds their death inside my living love," insinuating death is only a physical change, and that people can die while their love lives forever, at least until the last person who loves them also meets with them in depth. As someone who has done a lot of loving after death, this poignant line sold me on every line in the manuscript.
The writing is clever and would be even more beautiful in an audio book to hear the flow of alliteration and emotions. I loved this collection, and now I'm searching for Shaughnessy's older works to see how they've withstood the passing of time and more time.
**Some quotes may not match the final copy found in the published book**
Brenda Shaughnessy is a new name to me, but I'm also painfully new to the poetry scene. I wasn't a fan of the beginning (it felt long and drawn-out), but the more I read, the quicker pace and the constant poetic tools kept me engaged until I finished the collection in one sitting.
TANYA encompasses women and how they shaped the narrator but also how they shape us as the reader, fellow women, and lost lovers. Yes, our mothers, sisters, and aunts guide and love us, but what about the women we meet throughout life? Is our love for other women platonic, sexual, intellectual? Can it be all three or none of the above? As a late-booming bisexual woman who realized her sexuality after marrying a man, the various relationships Shaughnessy paints drew me into different pieces of my past and made me question a lot of my "friendships."
That is to say, the narrator doesn't stop with romance between women. Mentorship is the highlight of "Coursework," the second part, and it further dissects the adoration we feel for each other in a realization that a woman who isn't our mother can shape us into the woman we want to be, without the expectation to be better that her. Rather, it's a focus to be better than your past self, even if you don't feel like you're better.
"I'm beloved for being art's best worst idea." The insecurity that society shoves on us for being women and feeling our emotions and seeking out that human connection in others and within ourselves when we've forgotten to love ourselves is rampant in the narrator's collection. Yes, she accepts herself and her writing, but she can also hate herself and her writing, and they're both valid sides of the same coin, and despite their countered beliefs, can coexist.
The alliteration and internal rhyme schemes create a musical glint to the words, and while some poets write lyrically and sound like folk songs, Shaughnessy comes off as a rapper on the underground scene, her words flying off the pages in anger and frustration as often as they do in adoration and thankfulness. The narrator remarks that the poet still works slowly despite the musician's constant turn out of new material, but this is again countered by the speed at which the words fly off the pages and into themselves like an orchestrated train wreck that we don't see for its synchronized beauty until we've reach the final period.
"Time can't erase it but I can." The narrator argues with time itself as they overcome love lost both in living and within the pages of letters never sent. She says that she "holds their death inside my living love," insinuating death is only a physical change, and that people can die while their love lives forever, at least until the last person who loves them also meets with them in depth. As someone who has done a lot of loving after death, this poignant line sold me on every line in the manuscript.
The writing is clever and would be even more beautiful in an audio book to hear the flow of alliteration and emotions. I loved this collection, and now I'm searching for Shaughnessy's older works to see how they've withstood the passing of time and more time.
March 31, 2023
Of all the poets new to me that I have been reading over the last year, Brenda Shaughnessy has been one the most challenging. The early poems with their rap-like sound demanded to be spoken aloud. The way she used words forced me to reread lines, listening to what she was saying.
One poem that has caught me is For the Matter to Mean and the Meaning Matter, which challenges basic concepts. Its circularity interested me, and like a fugue, she plays with the concepts and then returns to her main statement.
Early on, she notes,
“A fire is what it burns to make itself fire./A door becomes something else when opened./Both many miles and zero miles walked back and forth across the same halls.”
We are “tricked” into “thinking we are complete, formed, solid.”
And toward the end,
“A fire is what it burns; until burned./A road does not travel: one travels it./A road cannot take you anywhere. You must take it.”
The poem is dedicated to Toba Khendoori, and was commissioned for the artist’s solo exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art 2016-17. Researching the artist, I discovered her painting of a fireplace withing a large black background, which image is prominent in Shaughnessey’s poem, “We like to control a piece of fire and look at it,” keeping it “smaller than it is./We like to overpower fire’s power.”
So many of these poems are written for a specific artist, teacher. Or lovers. The poems so deeply personal, I felt like an interloper.
At the end of the title poem, Tanya, she writes, “Do I refract everything I experience through everyone I experience?” And continues, “But I’m writing this toward that/knowledge of endless unknowing,” combing the “creative” and the “interpretive” in her work.
I will revisit these poems to glean more from them.
I received a free book from the publisher.
One poem that has caught me is For the Matter to Mean and the Meaning Matter, which challenges basic concepts. Its circularity interested me, and like a fugue, she plays with the concepts and then returns to her main statement.
Early on, she notes,
“A fire is what it burns to make itself fire./A door becomes something else when opened./Both many miles and zero miles walked back and forth across the same halls.”
We are “tricked” into “thinking we are complete, formed, solid.”
And toward the end,
“A fire is what it burns; until burned./A road does not travel: one travels it./A road cannot take you anywhere. You must take it.”
The poem is dedicated to Toba Khendoori, and was commissioned for the artist’s solo exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art 2016-17. Researching the artist, I discovered her painting of a fireplace withing a large black background, which image is prominent in Shaughnessey’s poem, “We like to control a piece of fire and look at it,” keeping it “smaller than it is./We like to overpower fire’s power.”
So many of these poems are written for a specific artist, teacher. Or lovers. The poems so deeply personal, I felt like an interloper.
At the end of the title poem, Tanya, she writes, “Do I refract everything I experience through everyone I experience?” And continues, “But I’m writing this toward that/knowledge of endless unknowing,” combing the “creative” and the “interpretive” in her work.
I will revisit these poems to glean more from them.
I received a free book from the publisher.
June 4, 2023
This may be obvious to you, but you should stop to look up the references she makes in the titles of the poems. It changed the reading experience for me from a 2ish to a 5. Wonderful language play.
Quotes (unformatted)
As if water didn't wave,
and bring tidings (5)
It's not a gift. It cost everything. (16)
Why not change my mind like a dress--
like the wind changes trees. (17)
How rare is something just entirely itself.
Not even water is. (20)
And I continue on
into a future which won't be mine the way her hand in mine was mine. (23)
Even a dead end ends in a place, and even that isn't an end. (27)
A fire is what it burns, until burned.
A road does not travel: one travels it.
A road cannot take you anywhere. You must take it. (30)
I'm missing
your aging every day and I'd so wanted to
know which hair turned silver and when. (34)
I was weak, or strong, depending--not interested in judging it now. (39)
Everyone's not-you to me (56)
What if I want you
eight ways and can only
have none? (65)
Why does language stop at itself? (74)
they know it's not measured in minutes or yards
but who is around and who to share
everything with. (83)
You felt silenced. Fell silent.
I didn't break it. (90)
Quotes (unformatted)
As if water didn't wave,
and bring tidings (5)
It's not a gift. It cost everything. (16)
Why not change my mind like a dress--
like the wind changes trees. (17)
How rare is something just entirely itself.
Not even water is. (20)
And I continue on
into a future which won't be mine the way her hand in mine was mine. (23)
Even a dead end ends in a place, and even that isn't an end. (27)
A fire is what it burns, until burned.
A road does not travel: one travels it.
A road cannot take you anywhere. You must take it. (30)
I'm missing
your aging every day and I'd so wanted to
know which hair turned silver and when. (34)
I was weak, or strong, depending--not interested in judging it now. (39)
Everyone's not-you to me (56)
What if I want you
eight ways and can only
have none? (65)
Why does language stop at itself? (74)
they know it's not measured in minutes or yards
but who is around and who to share
everything with. (83)
You felt silenced. Fell silent.
I didn't break it. (90)
June 14, 2024
I like Shaughnessy's unusual syntax and rhetoric. Her poems are talky, and sometimes get more abstract than you'd expect for a poem. But they sound like someone tentatively exploring an idea, posing unconfident questions, reversing what she had just written, searching for a phrase to reach out to the reader. Many of the poems in Tanya take off from artists (ekphrastic poems) and discuss poetry itself (ars poetica).
On the other hand, Shaughnessy's tendency toward abstraction gets in the way of her confessional poems, I feel, particularly Coursework. But the final series, concerning the Tanya of the book's title as well as poetry, mortality, friendship, and more, were very engaging. Some of her word play, to me, contributes to the poetry ("I made our time last like last time"), but some doesn't.
On the other hand, Shaughnessy's tendency toward abstraction gets in the way of her confessional poems, I feel, particularly Coursework. But the final series, concerning the Tanya of the book's title as well as poetry, mortality, friendship, and more, were very engaging. Some of her word play, to me, contributes to the poetry ("I made our time last like last time"), but some doesn't.
May 25, 2023
Brenda Shaughnessy's poems always sit in an interesting place in my head: I often love them and get infuriated with them. Shaughnessy has a line hand and yet manages always to be maximalist in her aesthetics: here, where she writes homages to those women who influenced and formed her, this particularly works. In work focused on woman and both aurally demanding, and yet somehow chatty, one gets that femininity, art, love is always and necessarily an unfinished project. Beautiful.
June 4, 2023
Lovely book of poetry. I hadn’t been familiar with this writer, but I will absolutely be on the lookout for more from Brenda Shaughnessy.
Thank you to the publisher, Knopf, for sending me a free copy of this book.
Thank you to the publisher, Knopf, for sending me a free copy of this book.
March 17, 2023
Beautiful. Treat yourself to this collection - stunning.
January 16, 2024
This was a great collection of poetry!
August 11, 2025
Especially loved the titular poem. So many incredible transitions between stanzas & sections.
August 8, 2023
EDIT: After speaking with the author, hearing her reading, bumping up to 4 stars and now desperate to rad the rest of her poetry.
ORIGINAL: Not *quite* sure how to really rate a book of poems. I read this for my MFA program coming up and liked it! Coursework is very powerful, I also really liked the beginning. The end section confused me a bit-- but I honestly can't wait to talk it out with the author at the residency!
Will come back with a further review. I hope my 3 stars don't seem too harsh, I would recommend this and will be sharing it with friends who like poetry, I'm just not sure I would read it over again, which tends to be how I judge a book being a 4 or 5.
<3 A
ORIGINAL: Not *quite* sure how to really rate a book of poems. I read this for my MFA program coming up and liked it! Coursework is very powerful, I also really liked the beginning. The end section confused me a bit-- but I honestly can't wait to talk it out with the author at the residency!
Will come back with a further review. I hope my 3 stars don't seem too harsh, I would recommend this and will be sharing it with friends who like poetry, I'm just not sure I would read it over again, which tends to be how I judge a book being a 4 or 5.
<3 A
April 27, 2023
Reflecting on artists, creativity, inspiration, and making, this marvelous collection from the author of The Octopus Museum is philosophical and women-drenched. Organized into three parts, “Saeculum” introduces the book: “She was Woman of the Year that year. She got a plaque.” I scrawled down sentences brimming with wisdom to hold close. And I scrawled down this one from “Moving Far Away” because it paused my breath in my body: “I’ll never forget you told me never to forget // but I did.”
from “If You Like This Prose Book, Read This Poetry Collection” via BOOK RIOT: https://bookriot.com/poetry-recommend...
from “If You Like This Prose Book, Read This Poetry Collection” via BOOK RIOT: https://bookriot.com/poetry-recommend...
July 31, 2023
READING VLOG
butch poems for the lesbian ceramicist who wants to understand your body by making it into a nice mug.
"𝘌𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘪𝘴𝘯'𝘵 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘦;
𝘪𝘴𝘯'𝘵 𝘦𝘨𝘨-𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘭-𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦
(𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘷𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘦𝘨𝘨𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘭)."
-𝘐𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘯 𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘪𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘮𝘦 𝘳𝘶𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨, Shaughnessy
Themes of the love that comes from mentorship and all the little ways we sacrifice ourselves to art -until we breathe it, become it-are explored in this collection of poems. The first half of the collection is strong in its maternal poise, in its incredible feminist thoughts and appreciate for all women who've come before, but the last half feels half-ass in its self-indulgence and less than 𝘦𝘨𝘨-𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘭-𝘦𝘯𝘵 appeal.
Out of all the poems, 𝘊𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 is the strongest in its atmosphere of the university campus, for its love and pursuits in the creative. The years the pass. The people remembered. All the love. The way Woolf has taught us, shaped us. Morrison too. And I will most definitely be adding 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘉𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘓𝘰𝘷𝘦 to my tbr.
Shaughnessy's mental landscape is inquisitive and exquisite with a strong control of language and the pressure put upon words. If poetry were a piano, she understands the use of the pedals, the lyricism and grace of a lingering vowel and the beautiful end to a brisk consonant.
butch poems for the lesbian ceramicist who wants to understand your body by making it into a nice mug.
"𝘌𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘪𝘴𝘯'𝘵 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘦;
𝘪𝘴𝘯'𝘵 𝘦𝘨𝘨-𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘭-𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦
(𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘷𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘦𝘨𝘨𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘭)."
-𝘐𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘯 𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘪𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘮𝘦 𝘳𝘶𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨, Shaughnessy
Themes of the love that comes from mentorship and all the little ways we sacrifice ourselves to art -until we breathe it, become it-are explored in this collection of poems. The first half of the collection is strong in its maternal poise, in its incredible feminist thoughts and appreciate for all women who've come before, but the last half feels half-ass in its self-indulgence and less than 𝘦𝘨𝘨-𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘭-𝘦𝘯𝘵 appeal.
Out of all the poems, 𝘊𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 is the strongest in its atmosphere of the university campus, for its love and pursuits in the creative. The years the pass. The people remembered. All the love. The way Woolf has taught us, shaped us. Morrison too. And I will most definitely be adding 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘉𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘓𝘰𝘷𝘦 to my tbr.
Shaughnessy's mental landscape is inquisitive and exquisite with a strong control of language and the pressure put upon words. If poetry were a piano, she understands the use of the pedals, the lyricism and grace of a lingering vowel and the beautiful end to a brisk consonant.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews