Shift

by Alyse Bensel

Alyse Bensel's first poetry chapbook, Shift, depicts working class individuals—truck drivers, factory workers—living on the edge.

36 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2012

About the author

Alyse Bensel is the author of Spoil, forthcoming from SFASU in September 2024, and Rare Wondrous Things, a poetic biography of Maria Sibylla Merian (Green Writers Press, 2020) as well as three poetry chapbooks, most recently Lies to Tell the Body (Seven Kitchens Press, 2018). Her poems have appeared in Alaska Quarterly Review, Pleiades, Puerto del Sol, West Branch, and Poetry International. She serves as Poetry Editor for Cherry Tree and is an assistant professor of English at Brevard College, where she directs the Looking Glass Rock Writers' Conference.

Reviews

[Sara Habein · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bensel has a talent for creating very specific images that imply multiple meanings. It is easy to see the places in which these poems exist. There is also a definite connection to nature, with birds and water making frequent appearances, and the temperature is often chilly.

Not every poem was amazing for me, and a few like “Get Nailed” and “Instructions on How to Write a Screenplay” seemed out of place amidst the gritty diner-types and army vets “gettin’ raw.” It’s not that they are bad poems, of course, but they felt like inserted afterthoughts because they were available.

Still, Bensel has written a very promising chapbook that suggests great writing to come. I do hope we one day see a more expansive collection with her very capable command of theme.

(My full review appears at Word Riot.)