Book Review: The Book of Scented Things: 100 Contemporary Poems about Perfume Edited by Jehanne Dubrow and Lindsay Lusby

The Book of Scented Things: 100 Contemporary Poems about Perfume
Jehanne Dubrow and Lindsay Lusby, Editors
Literary House Press, October 2014
ISBN-13: 978-0937692219
$20.00; 178pp.
Reviewed by Renée K. Nicholson

Anthologies often provide a context for writing projects that might not be as successful if taken on by single writer. In this way, The Book of Scented Things: 100 Contemporary Poems About Perfume demonstrates a successful project on a single subject. The anthology’s conceit is simple: the editors sent a vial of perfume to each of a variety of new and established poets as the catalyst for a poem for the volume. The anthology is prefaced by essayist Alyssa Harad, who writes of scents, “We feel them before we know them, a pure gut tug of emotion that jerks us down into the undertow—the flood of past into the present—and leaves us gasping not just for air but for language.”

That “gasped language” finds voice in this diverse collection in various ways. Some poems directly address the project, such as James Arthur’s “On Receiving a Vial of Perfume in the Mail.” Using the prompt as a part of the poem, Arthur writes, “Like a priest/ tipsy on communion wine, I carried the little cushion mailer/ from room to room, before I set it down—” Juliana Gray is less literal, but still uses the occasion of receiving the perfume in “Vanille Abricot Comptoir Sud Pacific” as she begins:

I’ve never been sweet, but two dabs
behind the ear, and I’m a sugar cookie,
a walking confection, light as vanilla meringue

Other poets find inspiration from the fragrance, but address it in more oblique ways, conjuring places, people, and objects from the scent. Matthew Thorburn evokes place in “This is What Manhattan Smells Like?” in a list poem. His lines evoke the senses, such as “it’s briny pickles plucked from a barrel/ and the gingery waft of a Midtown sushi den.” Others, like Ilyse Kusnetz’s “Blue Amber” address the idea of perfume directly: “Perfume is heat. Perfume/below the ice of sleep…”

As a collection, the anthology takes the reader through a journey of scent, told in a myriad of voices. As Harad describes the experience of poetry and perfume in her preface, “They reach down into alchemy and magic.”

Renée K. Nicholson is the author of Roundabout Directions to Lincoln Center, and her work has appeared in Poets & Writers, The Superstition Review, Moon City Review, The Gettysburg Review, and many other publications. She is an assistant professor in the Multidisciplinary Studies Program at West Virginia University, with discipline specialties in creative writing and dance. Renee was the 2011 Emerging Writer-in-Residence at Penn State-Altoona and is Assistant to the Director of the West Virginia Writers Workshop.