RECENT MEDIA

RECENT MENTIONS and reviews

• RHINO POETRY, Review: Good Monster by Diannely Antigua

  The fierce intelligence of Good Monster shines in the distance between Antigua and her speaker. An exhilarating and painful read, Good Monster will strike a chord with anyone who struggles with the self-love necessary for deep relationships.

• North of Oxford, Review: Good Monster by Diannely Antigua

  Antigua blends Eros and Thanatos until they’re practically indistinguishable. . . In the end, she seems to be making peace with her inner demon, giving life to an old metaphor, offering roses in the final poem.

• Poetry Foundation, Harriet Books Review of Good Monster by Diannely Antigua

  Antigua’s collection, Good Monster, whose focus is the body, both wounded and whole, and the experiences that have led the speaker to see herself as a monster…

• The POetry Question, REVIEW: GOOD MONSTER BY DIANNELY ANTIGUA (COPPER CANYON PRESS)

  Good Monster is one of the most successful and engaging treatments of confessional poetry in recent memory, a brilliant follow-up to Antigua’s award-winning debut. This is a book you will want to read over and over.

• Electric Literature, 15 New and Forthcoming POetry Collections YOu should be reading

  Antigua’s sophomore collection is a raw, innovative exploration of the body after trauma. Through lyrical free verse, “Sad Girl Sonnets,” and her invented collage form of the “Diary Entry Poem,” Antigua investigates religious trauma, chronic pain, and mental illness. The result is a poetry collection of considerable courage and vulnerability.

• POets & Writers Magazine, Page One: Where New and Noteworthy Books Begin

  “This isn’t an apology but rather a confession: / I loved your body before I was born.” Good Monster (Copper Canyon Press, May 2024) by Diannely Antigua. Second book, poetry collection. Agent: None. Editors: Michael Wiegers and Ash Wynter. Publicist: Ryo Yamaguchi. Listen to Diannely Antigua read from her book here.

• The Academy of American Poets Awards $1.1 Million to 23 Poets Laureate Across the United States

  Diannely Antigua, Poet Laureate Fellow, Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Diannely Antigua will develop The Bread & Poetry Project, which will honor The Hoot Poetry Reading series and the Esther Buffler Poet-in-Residence program, two legacy projects created by former Portsmouth poets laureate. She will also continue her Bread & Poetrypodcast and partner with local organizations NH PANTHER and HAVEN to lead writing workshops, putting into practice poetry’s power to enact social change. 

Recent PRESS

• Two new poetry collections and a literary journal exploring ‘the pastoral and the passed-over’ in Maine: The Boston Globe, May 17, 2024

  “Why do love / and dying feel the same?” asks poet Diannely Antigua in her pulsing new collection “Good Monster” (Copper Canyon)…There is sadness in these poems, but they are not sad poems; a laughter moves through the collection, dark in moments, and pleasure, too, the strange pleasure, and strange necessity, of being a body with another body, and of being a body with your own body, with a winking flicker of joy-pain throughout her lines…”

• Black Lives Matter NH Announces 2024 BLM New Hampshire Excellence Awards Ceremony: In Depth NH, April 17, 2024

  At the 2024 BLM New Hampshire Excellence Awards, we will honor seven remarkable individuals…Diannely Antigua is our Excellence in Artistry Award winner!

• Diannely Antigua, Portsmouth poet laureate, awarded $50K by Academy of American Poets: Seacoastonline, July 25, 2023

  Antigua, a Dominican American poet and educator, according to the organization, will use the funding to develop “The Bread & Poetry Project.” The program will pay homage to two former Portsmouth poet laureate’s legacy projects, The Hoot Poetry Reading series and the Esther Buffler Poet-in-Residence program.

• Poetry academy announces more than $1 million in grants for U.S. laureates: AP News, July 25, 2023

  On Tuesday, the academy announced its 2023 Fellowships, contributions of $50,000 each to 23 state and local poets laureate around the country…Fellows include Utah laureate Lisa Bickmore and Lauren Camp of New Mexico, along with such local laureates as Diannely Antigua of Portsmouth, New Hampshire…