Chanel Brenner

Chanel Brenner won the 2021 Press 53 Award for Poetry for Smile, or Else. She is also the author of Vanilla Milk: A Memoir Told in Poems, (Silver Birch Press, 2014), which was a finalist for the 2016 Independent Book Awards and honorable mention in the 2014 Eric Hoffer awards. Her poems have appeared in Rattle, Raleigh Review, New Ohio Review, Duende, Muzzle Magazine, Spry Literary Journal, Barrow Street, Salamander, Spoon River Poetry Review, Literary Mama, and others. Her poem “Apology” won first place in the Smartish Pace Beullah Rose Poetry Prize (2018) and her poem “July 28th, 2012” won first prize in The Write Place At the Write Time’s contest, judged by Ellen Bass. Her essays have appeared in Modern Loss, The Good Men Project, and HerStry. She lives in Southern California with her husband and son.

About Smile, or Else

Winner of the 2021 Press 53 Award for Poetry, Smile, or Else by Chanel Brenner is a moving collection of elegiac poems dealing with the death of Brenner’s six-year-old son, and her and her family's ongoing trek toward healing.

Sample Poem

Raising Grief

Mourning was born,
colicky, wet-eyed.
Trying to console her,
sleep-deprived,
I pushed her
in a stroller,
tried every octave.

Those first years
bled nights—
falling asleep
with her in my arms,
breathing in unison,
protecting the fontanel
on her fragile head. 

Now, I know
to feed her sweet-bread,
and help her self-soothe
when she seethes.

Before she runs off
to climb a tree,
she nuzzles me
on a park bench,
swinging her legs
like a four-year-old.

Praise for Smile, or Else

Clear and cutting as glass, Chanel Brenner’s poems will challenge everything you think you know about grief. Smile, or Else is her journey through the unimaginable labyrinth that is the death of a child. And yet, I would not categorize this book as “sad,” rather as what the Spanish call duende, those moments in art where spirit speaks through the poet, rising up from the depths of sorrow. “We Never Heal, Just Remember Less,” the poet titles one of her gorgeous, devastating poems. How Brenner negotiates the rough spots and savors the sweet makes for a haunting, brilliant book that I could not put down. 

—Alexis Rhone Fancher, author of State of Grace: The Joshua Elegies, poetry editor, Cultural Weekly

Brenner’s poetry is an odyssey. Traversing largely uncharted lands of primal grief and pain, it brings the reader to an improbable destination: the small turning point where grief and loss become joy and transcendence.

—Susan Whitmore, Founder & CEO of griefHaven

Chanel Brenner's poetry stirs, provokes, elevates with its precision and insight. These poems are expertly crafted and beat with a true poet's heart. 

—Emily Black Rapp, New York Times best-selling author of The Still Point of a Turning World and Sanctuary