Contemporary Writers Series: Brenda Shaughnessy

Brenda Shaughnessy was born in Okinawa and raised in Southern California. She is the author of five poetry collections, most recently The Octopus Museum. She’s the recipient of a 2018 Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a 2013 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship. She is currently writing an opera libretto for the composer Paola Prestini, commissioned by The Atlanta Opera. Shaughnessy is Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing at Rutgers University-Newark.