Chelsea Wagenaar

Chelsea Wagenaar is the author of two collections of poetry, most recently The Spinning Place, winner of the 2018 Michael Waters Prize. Her first collection, Mercy Spurs the Bone, was selected by Philip Levine to win the 2013 Philip Levine Prize. She holds degrees from the University of Virginia and the University of North Texas, and currently teaches in Indiana. Recent work appears or is forthcoming in The Cincinnati Review and The Massachusetts Review.

  • David Baker’s “Whale Fall” reviewed by Chelsea Wagenaar

    If in W.S. Merwin’s “For a Coming Extinction” the whales are on their way “to The End,”
    Issue #131 July 2022
  • Adam Vines’ “Lures” reviewed by Chelsea Wagenaar

    If you read all of Adam Vines’s new collection, "Lures", and at the end of the book close your eyes and try to picture in your mind’s eye the book’s signature image
    Issue #128 April 2022
  • Brian Culhane’s “Remembering Lethe” reviewed by Chelsea Wagenaar

    Brian Culhane’s Remembering Lethe is remarkably, refreshingly cohesive.
    Issue #127 March 2022
  • Music for the Dead and Resurrected by Valzhyna Mort reviewed by Chelsea Wagenaar

    Valzhyna Mort’s Music for the Dead and Resurrected is unlike anything else I can remember reading for a long time.
    Issue #117 May 2021
  • The Clearing by Allison Adair reviewed by Chelsea Wagenaar

    THE CLEARING Allison Adair Milkweed Editions, 2020 79 pages. $22, hardcover.     Allison Adair’s The Clearing opens with two…

    Issue #112 December 2020
  • Brett Foster’s “Extravagant Rescues” reviewed by Chelsea Wagenaar

    In the abcedarian list poem “Alternative Titles for the Book You Are Holding in Your Hands,” Brett Foster offers ...
    Issue #110 October 2020
  • Sara Wainscott’s “Insecurity System” reviewed by Chelsea Wagenaar

    Sara Wainscott Insecurity System 2020 Persea Books $15.95, paperback, 78 pages. Reviewed by Chelsea Wagenaar                 Insecurity System,…

    Issue #106 June 2020
  • Miho Nonaka’s “The Museum of Small Bones” reviewed by Chelsea Wagenaar

    Miho Nonaka The Museum of Small Bones. “2020” Ashland Poetry Press. $19.95, paperback. 82 pages. Reviewed by Chelsea Wagenaar  …

    Issue #105 May 2020
  • Chelsea Wagenaar reviews “View from Truth North” by Sara Henning

    In her wonderful little essay “The Bathroom,” Zadie Smith writes,
    Issue #101 January 2020
  • Shoulder

    She flies south to visit me
  • Essay: Domestic

    Brassiere