A new book by Shira Dentz, a senior lecturer in the Department of Communication and Media in the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (HASS) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, was recently published by PANK, a press that “fosters access to emerging and experimental poetry and prose.” Sisyphusina uses prose, poetry, visual art, and other forms of expression to explore female aging.

“As in every language, ours lacks words for some experiences,” Dentz said. “I chose to experiment with language and form in order to expand our vocabulary to express the shifting identity of female aging.” 

Dentz was granted a research fellowship from The Tanner Center for the Humanities to begin the collection’s first draft, and later collaborated with fellow HASS faculty member Kathy High, a professor of video and new media, on a multimedia work associated with Sisyphusina. The new book also includes a QR code that readers can use to access an original musical improvisation from the late Pauline Oliveros, a Deep Listening pioneer and former Rensselaer faculty member. Several images in the book are drawn from Dentz’s collaborations with High and visual artist Kathline Carr.

Sisyphusina is Dentz’s fifth full-length published book, and includes poems published in the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day Series. Dentz’s writing appears widely in venues such as Poetry Magazine and National Public Radio, and she has won an Academy of American Poets’ Prize, the Poetry Society of America’s Lyric Poem and Cecil Hemley Memorial Awards, Painted Bride Quarterly's Poetry Prize, and Electronic Poetry Review's Discovery Award.