Brandon Shimoda
Poet Brandon Shimoda was born in California and grew up in Connecticut. He earned a BA at Sarah Lawrence University and an MFA at the University of Montana. His collections of poetry include The Girl Without Arms (2011) and The Alps (2008).
Shimoda’s work weaves together personal and historical journeys, ruined landscapes, and innovative writing techniques. Publishers Weekly described the poems in The Girl Without Arms as “sequences [that] have one eye on the very contemporary conditions of our current wars, the other on the expansive, postsurrealist techniques of the 1970s ... Shimoda can seem to ramble, to lose control. Yet that loss at its best becomes the precondition for a reckless power, a knowingly foolhardy, sometimes comic investigation of what our instincts know.”
Shimoda has served as an editor for the online journals Left Facing Bird and Slope, as well as marketing director for the literary press Wave Books. He co-founded the New Lakes Reading Series and lives in Washington state.
Shimoda’s work weaves together personal and historical journeys, ruined landscapes, and innovative writing techniques. Publishers Weekly described the poems in The Girl Without Arms as “sequences [that] have one eye on the very contemporary conditions of our current wars, the other on the expansive, postsurrealist techniques of the 1970s ... Shimoda can seem to ramble, to lose control. Yet that loss at its best becomes the precondition for a reckless power, a knowingly foolhardy, sometimes comic investigation of what our instincts know.”
Shimoda has served as an editor for the online journals Left Facing Bird and Slope, as well as marketing director for the literary press Wave Books. He co-founded the New Lakes Reading Series and lives in Washington state.
Discover this poet’s context and related poetry, articles, and media.
Poet Categorization
POET’S REGION U.S., Northwestern
If you disagree with this poet's categorization, make a suggestion.
