In ANATOMIZE, Natasha Dennerstein is the poet as sensual anatomist, delineating the corporeal realm with a kind of spiritual fervor. What we are, we are, she splendidly affirms, from our heads down to our toes. Reciting the saga of her own encounters with mortality, with beginnings and endings, with all that flesh entails, she declares with a Whitmanesque lyricism the song of herself – her individual take on our common humanity. DAVID EGGLETON editor, Landfall Journal
Natasha Dennerstein was born in Melbourne, Australia, to a family originating in Belarus. She worked as a psychiatric nurse for many years, which gave her an interesting perspective on the human condition. She has an MFA from San Francisco State University. Natasha has had poetry published in many journals including Landfall, Snorkel, Shenandoah, Bloom, Transfer, Red Light Lit, Spoon River Poetry Review and Foglifter. Her collections Anatomize (2015) Triptych Caliform (2016)and About a Girl (2017) were published by Norfolk Press in San Francisco. Her recent chapbook Seahorse (2017) was published by Nomadic Press in Oakland.
Australian-born poet extraordinaire Natasha Dennerstein provides a tour (de force) of the human body, its components, processes, and abilities. As a former nurse, she has insight into the workings of the corpus and displays her talents at painting abstract and real-world visions of the human potential. While not specifically an anatomy course, this three-part collection can instruct the reader on how to construct modern poetry that satisfies the ears, eyes, mind, and heart.
Wonderful. Ms Dennerstein's poetry is both entirely accessible and provokingly profound, a joy to read and deeply satisfying. Her tour of the human anatomy is also a tour of the human soul. From decadence through love to spiritual longing, all that we are here lies naked and bold. Highly recommended to experienced lovers of poetry and also to the curious newcomer, wary of pretence. Natasha is the real deal.