The Washington Post

"Eugenia Leigh's new collection, 'Bianca,' is hard to read — but harder to look away from. In these fierce, intimate poems, Leigh writes about motherhood complicated by mental illness and post-traumatic stress. 'I expected to die much younger than I am now,' she writes in a piece called 'Cruelty.' Every one of these poems is a victory, artistic and personal."

— Ron Charles

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Publishers Weekly

"In her piercing and fearlessly vulnerable second collection, Leigh examines how to navigate a life of motherhood and illness in the aftermath of childhood abuse, providing a testament of unparalleled honesty. ... The result is a sensitive, insightful, and commanding portrait of motherhood and survival."

— Publishers Weekly

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Poetry Foundation

"The book moves from a fear of genetic determinism to a recognition of loved ones who refuse to abandon her, even when 'cursed at and punched.' .... A husband, a son, friends, sisters, and strangers (including a taxi driver profoundly forgiving of being vomited on) show care for 'Bianca,' and eventually lead the text’s 'Eugenia' to love her various selves..."

— Cindy Juyoung Ok

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The Rumpus

"While Leigh's collection invokes the DSM-V, it's less interested in the diagnostic process than in the human capacity for surprise. By engaging with prose structures—the essay, the zuihitsu—Leigh grounds the disclosure of trauma in the past tense, not to lessen these actions but to create a speaker capable of constructing a new kind of self-gaze. ...Leigh's collection sustains an imperfect and idealized self—plural and human and no less miraculous."

— Asa Drake

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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 has 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

 

MS. Magazine

"Noisy, unrelenting, healing."

— Karla J. Strand

 

Book Riot

"Liked Dyscalculia: A Love Story of Epic Miscalculation (by Camonghne Felix)? Read Bianca by Eugenia Leigh. ...Pink sticky flags mark Leigh's lines, stanzas, and pages. In the third and final part, 'Bipolar II Disorder: Second Evaluation (Zuihitsu for Bianca)' begins: 'We all called her Bianca. My fever, my havoc, my tilt. Bianca trashed the kitchen.' How much I needed this book in my life, and — like I listened to Dyscalculia back to back — I trust I'll reread it soon."

— Connie Pan

 

The Dawn Review

"Even so, life manages to crawl out from this cycle of ruin. It takes the form of unanswered prayers to an inattentive god, leading the speaker to turn inward and name herself as the ultimate divinity. Bianca is incredibly intimate, ending as the speaker sheds the weight of the past and returns to a rediscovered home."

— Evan Wang and Ziyi Yan

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RHINO Reviews

"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

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If you'd like a review copy of Bianca, please contact

Four Way Books at publicity@fourwaybooks.com.

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