Somatic, by Ann Keniston
Praise for Somatic
Sorrowing, searching, and uncompromising as she lifts the fabric of language to come closer to what language resists, Ann Keniston in Somatic unravels meaning, examining issues of dominance and shame and what it means to be “torn and then / remade.” Keniston builds upon and inhabits historical materials regarding the condition formerly known as hysteria, working with a heightened sense of the precarious, peculiar language of the body. Here the experience of absence creates the vivid sensation of presence, and the ode transforms into the elegy and the elegy into the ode. These are startling, beautiful poems, palpable with intelligence and the long reach of their author’s compassion. —Lee Upton
Sorrowing, searching, and uncompromising as she lifts the fabric of language to come closer to what language resists, Ann Keniston in Somatic unravels meaning, examining issues of dominance and shame and what it means to be “torn and then / remade.” Keniston builds upon and inhabits historical materials regarding the condition formerly known as hysteria, working with a heightened sense of the precarious, peculiar language of the body. Here the experience of absence creates the vivid sensation of presence, and the ode transforms into the elegy and the elegy into the ode. These are startling, beautiful poems, palpable with intelligence and the long reach of their author’s compassion. —Lee Upton
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Ann Keniston is the author of two earlier poetry collections, The Caution of Human Gestures (David Robert Books, 2005), and a chapbook, November Wasps: Elegies (Finishing Line, 2013). She is also the coeditor of The New American Poetry of Engagement: A 21st Century Anthology (McFarland, 2012). A recipient of fellowships and grants in poetry from the Nevada Arts Council, Sierra Arts (Reno), and the Somerville (MA) Arts Council, she has held residencies at the CAMAC Arts Center (France), the Ucross Foundation, the Ragdale Foundation, the Blue Mountain Center, and elsewhere. Her poems have appeared in numerous journals, including the Yale Review, Gettysburg Review, Water-Stone, and Literary Imagination. A frequent teacher of poetry in K-12 classes, she has also taught poetry and publishing workshops in the community. She is a professor of English at the University of Nevada, Reno, where she teaches poetry workshops and literature.
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