In Exhibitionist by Shari Caplan (Poetry, June 2014), the reader is invited to explore poems as installation; in this museum, the personal and the persona poem variously expose and mask aspects of the speaker as she probes her bisexuality, her evolution into motherhood, and how our relationships to art and desire are linked. Drawing from painting, performance art, theater, and literature, these poems, and the collages which serve as landing spots, deal thematically with the body treated as object versus whole human, how our gaze shapes our lives through desire, and how much an artist is expected to expose and expunge of themselves for the audience’s catharsis.

“Enthralled by the luscious-articulate, along with the minds of these poems we plunge. Shari Caplan’s Exhibitionist uplifts my own personal belief that mind and body together conduct themselves as sensuous parallels. These are poems that defy boundaries, delight in upending all those numbing norms, and show us that the paths to pleasure, intellectual and corporeal, meet at the juncture of poetic sublime. I thank Caplan for taking me there and for bringing me back.”– Cate Marvin, author of Event Horizon and Oracle

Shari Caplan (she/her) is a poet, actor, and event producer with a passion for enlivening our collective imaginative potential. She’s the author of “Exhibitionist” (Lily Poetry Review Books, Paul Nemser Prize Winner 2024), “The Red Shoes; a Phantasmagoric Ballet on Paper,” (Lambhouse Books, 2023), and “Advice from a Siren” (Dancing Girl Press, 2016). A wearer of many tophats, she has produced and performed in “The Poetry Circus,” “The Fairy Tale Poetry Walking Tour,” and other cross-pollinations, including the Boston chapter of The Poetry Brothel, an international immersive cabaret series (founded by The Poetry Society of New York). Shari’s work has appeared in Gulf Coast, Painted Bride Quarterly, Sinister Wisdom, Grimoire, Angime, Drunk Monkeys, and others and has earned her a scholarship to The Home School in Hudson, a fellowship to The Vermont Studio Center, as well as nominations for a Bettering American Poetry Award, a Pushcart Prize, and a Rhylsing Award. She graduated with an MFA from Lesley University in 2014. Find her work, workshops, monthly love letter to creativity, and upcoming events at ShariCaplan.com.