Reviews for Bianca
Washington Independent Review of Books
"Between [her first book] and now, Leigh, like me, also birthed a child. With that experience came a full-fledged emotional and poetic fruiting only hinted at in her first book. Leigh as lived in the intervening years, and it pulsates off every page of her new collection, Bianca, which is both a primal scream and an exquisite catharsis."
— Angela María Spring
"Leigh's brilliant line break ... continues a dance she started on the first page with her sharp designs. The segue into the phrase 'I've known' ... is one of the extraordinary moves she offers throughout the book. It is a push-and-pull process, expressed with lucidity and with the rawness of wounds."
— Lúcia Leão
If you'd like a review copy of Bianca, please contact
Four Way Books at publicity@fourwaybooks.com.
Select Reviews for Blood, Sparrows and Sparrows
"Eugenia Leigh is a brave, young poet who has many worlds to split open ahead of her."
— Shaindel Beers
"In Leigh's world, survival doesn't mean absolution or release but the ability to create something new. Imagination is a tool for liberation, allowing the speaker and characters throughout the collection to endure; prepared to make something more powerful than the retelling of tragedy, as in the collection's last line ("The Happy Couple"): "For now, we sing."
— Kendra DeColo
"...throughout Blood, Sparrows and Sparrows, the reader must reckon with the impossibility of unceasing grace in the face of violence, a grace which Leigh captures with a sharp-edged, heart-splitting beauty. She asks us what it means to endure on earth, instead of in the stars, after living trauma that's determined enough to end us."
— Rachel Mennies
"Leigh's poems nakedly envision a world of complicated hope, and in doing so, create a foundation for that bridge over which we pass to remain intact, at least for a little longer. Leigh asks that we all participate in its remaking if we are willing to do the breaking."
— Tarfia Faizullah
American Microreviews
"By the end of the collection, I can't help feeling the same echoes of devastation and resolve. These are brave poems and a remarkable debut. I look forward to reading more from Leigh. Her words feel important, and they should be read with the care and love that good poems deserve."
— Sabastian H. Paramo
The Rumpus
"It's certain all of us will find both pain and beauty throughout our lives. But when we want to contemplate the configuration of their entwinement, and connect with our common humanity—that's when we can turn to poetry collections like Eugenia Leigh's Blood, Sparrows and Sparrows."
— Kenji C. Liu
Interviews
2023
Check back for forthcoming interviews with Poetry Northwest, Write or Die Magazine, Postpartum Production Podcast, Poets in Conversation, Mochi Magazine, and more soon.
Select Past Interviews (2014 - 2022)
Brooklyn Poets Poet of the Week Interview: Eugenia Leigh (2022)
The Poetry Magazine Podcast: Su Cho and Eugenia Leigh in Conversation (2021)
The Lit Fantastic Podcast: Eugenia Leigh (Worldbuilding & Fantasy) with Neil Aitken (2017)
National Book Critics Circle Small Press Spotlight: Eugenia Leigh by Rigoberto Gonzalez (2014)
Best American Poetry Blog APIA Series: Eugenia Leigh Poem & Interview by Sally Wen Mao (2014)