National Network for Equitable Library Service

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 Méret 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.