Shanna Compton’s most recent book is Creature Sounds Fade, published by Black Lawrence Press in November 2020. She is also the author of Brink (Bloof, 2013), For Girls Other Poems (Bloof, 2008), Down Spooky (Open Book Award Winner, Winnow, 2005), and several chapbooks. Her poetry and essays are widely published, appearing in Best American Poetry, the Nation, American Poetry Review, McSweeney’s, the Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day series, and elsewhere.
A book artist and small-press advocate, her activities as a publisher and editor include everything from the lit zine she put out in Austin, Texas, to working for an imprint of a major commercial publisher (and a few fashion catalogs) after moving to New York City. She co-curated and co-hosted the Frequency Series at Brooklyn’s Shockwave Bookstore from 2003 to 2005. In 2007, she founded the independent micropress Bloof Books, drawing on her experiences as an editor and book designer at LIT, the magazine of the MFA program at the New School, and Soft Skull Press in Brooklyn. In addition to her work with the poets of Bloof, she works as a book designer for independent authors and other small presses, and creates visual art as a printmaker and collagist. She lives on the Delaware River in Lambertville, New Jersey.
To view some of Shanna’s book design work, visit her portfolio site. Some of her prints and collages are available from Hi Water Press.