Jenny Boully (born 1976) is an author and recipient of a
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...
s award in 2020 for general nonfiction. She is the author of ''The Book of Beginnings and Endings'' (
Sarabande Books
Sarabande Books is an American not-for-profit literary press founded in 1994. It is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, with an office in New York City. Sarabande publishes contemporary poetry and nonfiction. Sarabande is a literary press whos ...
Tarpaulin Sky Press
Tarpaulin Sky Press is a small press publisher of hybrid texts as well as poetry and prose. Founded by Christian Peet in 2006 and based in Grafton, Vermont, the company produces full-length books, chapbooks, trade paperbacks, hand-bound books, an ...
, 2006). Her work has appeared in literary magazines such as ''
Boston Review
''Boston Review'' is an American quarterly political and literary magazine. It publishes political, social, and historical analysis, literary and cultural criticism, book reviews, fiction, and poetry, both online and in print. Its signature form ...
Puerto del Sol
''Puerto del Sol'' is a non-profit literary magazine run by faculty and graduate students from the MFA program in creative writingTarpaulin Sky'' and has been anthologized in ''The Next American Essay,'' ''
The Best American Poetry
''The Best American Poetry'' series consists of annual poetry anthologies, each containing seventy-five poems.
Background
The series, begun by poet and editor David Lehman in 1988, has a different guest editor every year. Lehman, still the genera ...
,'' and ''Great American Prose Poems: From Poe to the Present.''
San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio ( ; Spanish for "Anthony of Padua, Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the List of Texas metropolitan areas, third-largest metropolitan area in Texa ...
, she has studied at
Hollins University
Hollins University is a private university in Hollins, Virginia, United States. Founded in 1842 as Valley Union Seminary in the historical settlement of Botetourt Springs, Virginia, Botetourt Springs, it is Timeline of women's colleges in the Un ...
and the
University of Notre Dame
The University of Notre Dame du Lac (known simply as Notre Dame; ; ND) is a Private university, private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, United States. Founded in 1842 by members of the Congregation of Holy Cross, a Cathol ...
and is currently working on her PhD from the Graduate Center of the
City University of New York
The City University of New York (CUNY, pronounced , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven ...
. She divides her time between
Texas
Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...
and
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...
.
Career
Boully's first book, ''The Body,'' sold out of its first printing and was re-issued by Essay Press in 2007. A groundbreaking use of form, described by
American poet
The poets listed below were either born in the United States or else published much of their poetry while living in that country.
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I–J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
*George Quasha (born 1942 in poetry, 1942)
R
...
and critic
Arielle Greenberg
Arielle Greenberg (born 1972) is a feminist poet and the poetry editor of ''Black Clock''. She named and described the concept of the Gurlesque in the anthology ''Gurlesque: the new grrly, grotesque, burlesque poetics'', which she co-edited wit ...
as a "text on absence, love, ontology and identity—minus the text," the content of ''The Body'' is delivered only in
footnotes
In publishing, a note is a brief text in which the author comments on the subject and themes of the book and names supporting citations. In the editorial production of books and documents, typographically, a note is usually several lines of t ...
, while the usual "body" of work is missing. Comparing it to Thalia Field's ''Point and Line'', Greenberg praised ''The Body'' as "an invigorating new approach to the idea of a
text
Text may refer to:
Written word
* Text (literary theory)
In literary theory, a text is any object that can be "read", whether this object is a work of literature, a street sign, an arrangement of buildings on a city block, or styles of clothi ...
, of
fiction
Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying character (arts), individuals, events, or setting (narrative), places that are imagination, imaginary or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent ...
, of
essay
An essay ( ) is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a Letter (message), letter, a term paper, paper, an article (publishing), article, a pamphlet, and a s ...
, of
poetry
Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...
collection," signaling a "courageous and thoughtful new voice in
literature
Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...
."
'' ne love affair,'' Boully's second book, was nominated for five awards and won two (Best Book of New Poetry Published in 2006, and Best Second Book) from ''Coldfront Magazine''. "Through three sections rife with asterisks and superscript roman numerals," using a mixture of
fiction
Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying character (arts), individuals, events, or setting (narrative), places that are imagination, imaginary or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent ...
,
essay
An essay ( ) is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a Letter (message), letter, a term paper, paper, an article (publishing), article, a pamphlet, and a s ...
,
prose poetry
Prose poetry is poetry written in prose form instead of verse form while otherwise deferring to poetic devices to make meaning.
Characteristics
Prose poetry is written as prose, without the line breaks associated with poetry. However, it make ...
, and
memoir
A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based on the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autob ...
,Review in ''Open Letters Magazine'', Fall 2006 /ref> '' ne love affair'' "challenges the ways in which we construct narratives and read texts," as it "wends a story of broken relationships, deploying everything from
mimosa
''Mimosa'' is a genus of about 600 species of herbs and shrubs, in the mimosoid clade of the legume family Fabaceae. Species are native to the Americas, from North Dakota to northern Argentina, and to eastern Africa (Tanzania, Mozambique, and ...
trees and spring to nightclubs and crack-smoke," and explores " the way we learn to love and love again."
Boully's third collection, ''The Book of Beginnings and Endings,'' "consists of beginnings and endings of more than 30 different texts, spliced together seemingly at random. The subject matter ranges wildly:
invertebrate zoology Invertebrate zoology is the subdiscipline of zoology that consists of the study of invertebrates, animals without a backbone (a structure which is found only in fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals).
Invertebrates are a vast and very dive ...
,
probability
Probability is a branch of mathematics and statistics concerning events and numerical descriptions of how likely they are to occur. The probability of an event is a number between 0 and 1; the larger the probability, the more likely an e ...
, the
psychology
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...
of a scream, the
retirement
Retirement is the withdrawal from one's position or occupation or from one's active working life. A person may also semi-retire by reducing work hours or workload.
Many people choose to retire when they are elderly or incapable of doing their j ...
of an
ice cream
Ice cream is a frozen dessert typically made from milk or cream that has been flavoured with a sweetener, either sugar or an alternative, and a spice, such as Chocolate, cocoa or vanilla, or with fruit, such as strawberries or peaches. Food ...
man, a plague of
frogs
A frog is any member of a diverse and largely semiaquatic group of short-bodied, tailless amphibian vertebrates composing the order Anura (coming from the Ancient Greek , literally 'without tail'). Frog species with rough skin texture due to ...
. Slowly, the reader notices thematic connections and the shadow of a
narrative
A narrative, story, or tale is any account of a series of related events or experiences, whether non-fictional (memoir, biography, news report, documentary, travel literature, travelogue, etc.) or fictional (fairy tale, fable, legend, thriller ...
arc."Review in ''Publishers Weekly'', August, 2007 /ref> As with Boully's previous collections, ''The Book of Beginnings and Endings'' accrues meaning and import through "use of association, rather than spelled-out narrative." It "resembles poetry. The texts themselves are essayistic, except that they are all fictional." A reviewer for the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
'' focused on another shared element in all of Boully's books--
love
Love is a feeling of strong attraction and emotional attachment (psychology), attachment to a person, animal, or thing. It is expressed in many forms, encompassing a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most su ...
, the affair of love, its beginning and it ending: "Like
Anaïs Nin
Angela Anaïs Juana Antolina Rosa Edelmira Nin y Culmell ( ; ; February 21, 1903 – January 14, 1977) was a French-born American diarist, essayist, novelist, and writer of short stories and erotica. Born to Cuban parents in France, Nin was the d ...
, Boully believes exclusively in love; it's her religion." On the relationship between this author and her readers, the reviewer added: It's uncommonly good to read the work of a writer who believes so unabashedly in the miracle of writing—that some dimension, unlike any other, exists between the writer and the reader; that
literature
Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...