Synopses & Reviews
Tanya Olson’s magnificent poems carry the weight of giants, tigers and The People’s Act of Love. And the ribcage hallways of Jonah, “When inside the whale, it is best to be / inside the whale. Do what you are inside / the whale to do.” Every page is a new cleansing fire. Olson’s book Boyishly works the ear and heart hours after reading like a vibrating bell. Waking inside meditation is what the best poems must be, like this book you are about to read, many thanks to Tanya Olson for giving us these strange and beautiful poems.
—CA Conrad, author of The Book of Frank
Tanya Olson's Boyishly is a magic book. It casts a spell upon you. Olson uses language like Gertrude Stein does, building large monuments of sound into humming lattices, where a "whale will do as a whale will do," or where "tree forms shapes for tiger" and "tiger takes shape/ under tree." In this book, Olson writes poems to a future America from beyond the planetary gravestone, where there is only a "boyish summer" and the "boyish waters." The voice says come back to me. I am not done with you. I was waiting for you all along.
—Dorothea Lasky, author of Thunderbird
Synopsis
Poetry. LGBT Studies. "Tanya Olson's BOYISHLY is a magic book. It casts a spell upon you. Olson uses language like Gertrude Stein does, building large monuments of sound into humming lattices, where a 'whale will do as a whale will do,' or where 'tree forms shapes for tiger' and 'tiger takes shape / under tree.' In this book, Olson writes poems to a future America from beyond the planetary gravestone, where there is only a 'boyish summer' and the 'boyish waters.' The voice says come back to me. I am not done with you. I was waiting for you all along."—Dorothea Lasky
About the Author
Tanya Olson holds an M.A. in Anglo-Irish Literature from University College, Dublin and a Ph.D. in 20th Century British Literature from UNC-Greensboro. Her first book, BOYISHLY, was released by YesYes Books in May 2013. Her work has been published in Boston Review, Beloit Poetry Review, Southword, PANK, Cairn, Fanzine, Bad Subjects, Main Street Rag, Pedestal Magazine, Elysian Fields, and Southern Cultures. Olson won first place in the 2005 Independent Poetry contest and was a runner up for the 2009 Rita Dove Award. She is a recipient of an Emerging Artist Grant from the Durham Arts Council and was the 2008 Fortner Award winner. In 2010, she won a Discovery/Boston Review prize and was named a 2011 Lambda Fellow by the Lambda Literary Foundation. She helps co-ordinate Durham's Third Friday, is a member of the Black Socks poetry group, and serves on the board of the Carolina Wren Press. She lives in Durham, North Carolina and teaches at Vance-Granville Community College.