Bimboland

by Erin Taylor

An astonishing debut poetry collection wrestling with desire, vulnerability, sex work and money from writer and poet Erin Taylor.

Erin Taylor’s Bimbloland is an astute and confident debut, balancing, in her blistering and tender style, her life as a sex worker and socialist politics. The poems are full of desire and vulnerability, insight and calls to action, both personal and societal. You can get lost in the insatiable pace of her words and the way in which you feel, as she feels, “powerful yet somehow / nothing.”

Genres: Poetry, Sex Work

108 pages, Paperback

First published March 29, 2022

About the author

ERIN TAYLOR is an American writer. Her writing often deals with her own experiences and trauma. It is usually poetry, with some exceptions. She has a chapbook of poetry OOOO out through Bottlecap Press. She is writing a book on loneliness.

Reviews

[Maddie · Rating 4 out of 5]

“how many n*des can you send one person before it's a common law marriage?”

BIMBOLAND is the perfect marriage of funny/witty observations and serious topics. I laughed out loud multiple times, but also found myself pausing after each poem to reflect. This collection is erotic, poignant, and thought-stimulating.

Thank you to the publisher for my gifted copy in exchange for an honest review!

[Eliza · Rating 5 out of 5]

First book of poetry I have ever adored :,) powerful themes of lust in the digital age / covid, the lingering tendrils of family estrangement in attachment, desire to be happy “like everyone else”, and loving sex / sex work but also the deep blues that the industry can bring

[Mariana Jimenez · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Maddie Dilday · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've never really read poetry before but this was amazing. Insightful but funny and always unexpected. I would recommend this to all my friends.

[Jess Checkland · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am utterly obsessed with this collection. Powerful, erotic, raw and brutal - I can’t fault it. With lines like “I have known how to siren men to disaster all my life” this is truly beautiful poetry. My favourite pieces were “without remorse”, “revenge comes to those who fester” and “fondue for two”.

[Mathieu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recueil génial et fun, un peu répétitif sur la fin, il y a des trouvailles qui sont vraiment visions je ne peux que recommander

[Blake Wallin · Rating 5 out of 5]

e’s debut full-length poetry collection is a powerhouse of overcome trauma and resilient wit. I have followed their poetry since 2016, and it is honestly thrilling to see them stripping back the vague love-talk and nostalgia that attended their previous poetry, in favor of a poetry (and poetics) that confronts what their poetry has always really been about: a search for the self and all its complexity and inherent beauty. This book is a Trojan Horse gift to our sorry late capitalist state. Brilliant.

[mb bischoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

a pandemic mood. a sex work memoir. a trauma exorcism. Bimboland is a quick read, but not a breezy one. a deep, psychosexual, emotional journey into e’s life as a professional who’s been suppressed by, but not submitted to, the capitalist system of new york city, grappling with their relationship to family, gender, and, sexuality. if you don’t cry while reading it, read it again.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

this collection is instructive in how bold it is- Erin Taylor is really uninterested in being ambiguous for the sake of it, instead spelling things out directly and letting the emotion ring (also love the punctuation! lots of exclamations! feels modern and a throwback to romanticism/transcendentalism at once). still stays poetic and not expository, partly through judicious line breaks, great control of voice and creative use of space on the page.

saw another interview with someone (I forget who now) who said a lot of what makes this collection so great is that it's full of techniques that would get you scoffed at in an MFA-driven workshop... so true and so helpful to realize. lots of rules broken here: being very open vs. feeling closed/abstruse, saying things plainly vs. needing to find some mysterious image, letting orphaned words exist in a poem on their own line (sometimes 8-9 in a row!), using lots of exclamations, using poem titles that clearly point the reader in a direction, etc. really appreciated Erin's generosity to the reader and simultaneous fuck you to elitism and power structures of all kinds.

this collection is overflowing! much of the form is relatively simple but the emotional ground is so complex... definitely encourages you to return to it to get more from it. for as hard-bitten and in-your-face as it can be at times (as Erin's online persona also sometimes feels), beneath that is enormous sensitivity and tenderness. in a word it is so lovable, which is in some ways a perfect counterpoint to the darkness of the subject matter.

[sawah · Rating 4 out of 5]

i am so bimbocore

[Nolan Arie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Erin Taylor’s poetry is absolutely beautiful. Both painful, and gorgeous.
They share their experiences in a very candid light, it is a must read and one of the best poetry books I’ve read.
It is simply stunning and so raw. So much power is packed into every page.

[Jay Slayton-Joslin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pretty fantastic, lots of beautiful language. A clear show of trauma and (perhaps beginning) to move on from it. Like watching a heart heal in real time and all the complications that ensue.

Not for the faint of heart, but good poetry shouldn't be. Really enjoyed this and think it'll be one to go back to. Accessible poetry that hits hard for the 21st century.

[Winter · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very honest collection of poetry, approachable but also distinct and complex, doesn't try to be something it's not. I got a real sense of personality and voice from the author that seem to represent the modern state of being as a woman in way that sorta feels like ur imessaging with your friends off your macbook. But it does not lack accountability and it is not whiny, which I feel is becoming kinda precious.

(may be slightly misquoting since [SEE BELOW] and I don't have my copy on me)

"I am self aware enough to feel ironic when I let everything go to ruin" Wowza!

To keep it a buck, upon finishing I immediately loaned this book to my ex in hopes that he might better understand me. I don't think this book is remotely for straight guys tho so prayers are appreciated.

It doesn't matter what I feel about how chronically open we are about sex these days, I am just glad I feel a little less weird cos someone decided to say it out loud (on the page) Great book, thanks Erin Taylor :)

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

The poet who wrote "if no one else will hold the darkness accountable, I will," has made good on that commitment with their book Bimboland. Erin Taylor has convened a set of poems that sometimes hold back the darkness with biting wit and sometimes rebuke it with a candle flame of passionate love. "I refuse to dismay despite everything pointed / downward," they write in a poem titled "you grab the shovel, I've got the dirt" — an apt invitation that could apply to the whole book. The reader is invited into a participatory stance by each poem, whether with dry, trolling humor that's meant to unsettle, or with alarming outbursts that remind you the stakes are never trivial. Erin Taylor's poems share an elusive quality of being for a very specific moment and situation (there are poems in Bimboland that capture the sensations of the early days of the pandemic with eerie precision) and yet providing an anchor point for a future self as yet unknown. While holding the darkness accountable may sound like a mission weighed down with gravitas, the poems effervesce. They are frequently sexy and/or funny. Sometimes the eroticism is tempered with rage and then the rage is itself tempered with humor. They never laugh off a wound — when it's time to grieve, Taylor grieves — but the transformation of their pain into something pithy and keen is part of fully engaging with the raw material of their life. To witness Erin Taylor push back against indifference, passivity and despair is a deep encouragement in a world where "the only thing worth doing is kissing / and even that is complicated!"

[Romy Rhoads Ewing · Rating 5 out of 5]

so stunning and interior in a way that i feel like i just haven't read in a while. grew on me more and more as i mostly read it in small chunks over a long period of time because of how much it affected me, ultimately needed to finish the last 20 or so poems in one go and could not stop. 2020-era poems still feel incredibly fresh which is so hard to do and i think it's because the connections between loneliness then and loneliness now and loneliness preceding are so so strong. also some of the most exciting writing on class i've come across. erin is crazy talented and archway rules. i absolutely loved

[Sydney E · Rating 4 out of 5]

accessible language, dealing with a lot of relevant topics, including the pandemic. i loved many of these poems, specifically the ones about love and about the body and about life - isn’t that sweet

“i am terrifyingly determined
to love”

[Grace]

each poem extremely raw poet's persona often off-putting but overarching theme of grief very relatable and honestly all my attempts at poetry read like this too these days so can i really have an opinion besides something along the lines of: lol mood

[Alex Milner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Retroactive reviews are difficult to write, but I do want to use this space to acknowledge that I began reading this book on a bench outside of Coffee Time while waiting for Rachel to meet me for what would be our first of many dates.

[Arcadia]

Was thinking loads of Tilly Lawless and Heather Lewis while reading this. Lots of emotion in these pages.

[Ken French · Rating 4 out of 5]

I tend to read poetry too quickly, so it says a lot about these poems that I spent time on each one. I was constantly amazed at their language and structure.

[Elle Nash · Rating 5 out of 5]

essential reading

[Selena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listen I like Erin Taylor but if these poems weren't about such explicit pain and sex more people would flag them as lacking.

[Rosemary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been so stuck
forgot that if I am unwanted
I can go elsewhere!

[Bethany Ramsay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect.

[Valentin · Rating 3 out of 5]

free book from tower grove pride :)

[Olivia Benedict · Rating 5 out of 5]

Came for the title, stayed for the raw truthfulness.

[tru_romank · Rating 4 out of 5]

i will never pick out oranges in a supermarket the same. v much enjoyed this collection