“Brenda Shaughnessy’s poems bristle with imperatives: ‘confuse me, spoon-feed me, stop the madness, decide.’ There are more direct orders in her first f

"A heady, infectious celebration."—The New Yorker "Shaughnessy's voice is smart, sexy, self-aware, hip . . . consistently wry, and ever savvy."—Harvard Revi

In this incendiary debut collection, activist and poet Cicely Belle Blain intimately revisits familiar spaces in geography, in the arts, and in personal history

"Shaughnessy's particular genius . . . is utterly poetic, but essayistic in scope."—The New Yorker "Brenda Shaughnessy's work is a good place to start for any

"Brenda Shaughnessy's poems bristle with imperatives: 'confuse me, spoon-feed me, stop the madness, decide.' There are more direct orders in her first few pages