Madame Deluxe

by Tenaya Darlington

Tenaya Darlington, Madame Deluxe, is a truthsayer with attitude and an agenda to boot. She’s a charmer, an alarmer, a kick in the pants, a hoot…it’s heartening to know what poetry can still do.—Lawson Fusao Inada

Madame Deluxe is all things loud and leopard print. Inspired by years of watching drag shows, Darlington evokes a persona who wanders the periphery of femininity. Striking out against artifice, staging her own myth, Madame Deluxe is a she-male Vesuvius.

Tenaya Darlington is the managing editor for Beloit Fiction Journal. Her work has appeared in Scribner’s Best of the Fiction Workshops 1998 and In Brief: Short Takes on the Personal. Madame Deluxe was selected by Lawson Fusao Inada for the National Poetry Series. Darlington lives in Madison, Wisconsin.

Genres: Poetry

96 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2000

About the author

Tenaya Darlington is a cheese educator and author based in Philadelphia who began penning a cheese blog in 2007 under the name "Madame Fromage." Since then, she has written about artisan cheese for The Philadelphia Inquirer, Organic Life, Cooking Light, Fermentation, CheeseProfessor.com, Culture Magazine, and other publications.

She teaches food writing on the faculty at Saint Joseph's University and serves as Cheese Director for Tria, a pair of Philadelphia wine bars. In the summers, she co-hosts cheese tours in Europe with a dairy-centric food tour company called Cheese Journeys.

For the launch of her new book, Tenaya is offering virtual workshops as part of her new Traveling Cheese School. Details are posted on her website.

Instagram: @mmefromage
Website: www.madamefromage.net.

Reviews

[Shappi · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are some strong poems in here, certainly, and I really appreciate the strength/bitchiness of the poet's voice--also her humor. i think it's a matter of a book hovering too closely around a theme, maybe--how many poems can i read about a glitzy girl in sequins and pink furry slippers? these poems are best when they show how that world can be superficial, or when it is contrasted with something other, as with the haiku series "The Student Asks the Poet Basho: What is Victoria's Secret?",

The bamboo
has two new shoots:
my lover's spaghetti straps.

[Aust* · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very witty word choices (plus wowing imagery)!

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book of poetry cannot be duplicated. Darlington uses humor to attack recent fads and utter nonsensical husbandrical appliances and overheating wives.

[LuigiDeluxe · Rating 5 out of 5]

A classic in the making.