A dedicated, engaged, and engaging student of the cultural experience surrounding gender and identity, Sophia Anfinn Tonnessen channels her personal journey through transition in poetic works that challenge traditional notions of self-discovery and syntax, alike. She is a truly original poet with the ability to translate misunderstood or unacknowledged areas of life and society that many find difficult to grasp. She makes complex subjects accessible in unexpected ways, using humor to balance the brutality that can come with defining oneself against expected norms.
Ecologia, her debut poetry collection (Unbound Edition Press, 2021), put the poetry world on notice – earning a coveted Kirkus Reviews star and a spot on their list of 100 best independent books. Our very own Peter Campion writes of Ecologia: “With passion and precision, ardor and humor, Whitmanian exuberance and Dickinsonian canniness, Sophia Anfinn Tonnessen’s Ecologia springs up from the ‘wounded place’ that is also ‘holy ground’.” Her poem “Layaway” was the second-place finalist for the Sappho Prize in 2021.
This is Sophia Anfinn Tonnessen, unbound.
