In her collection of feminist poems entitled The Octopus Museum, author Brenda Shaugnessy discusses complex and relevant themes through the lens of a dystopian future in which octopuses reign supreme. Humans, on the other hand, are no longer the leaders of the world, having been punished for their complicity in the environmental degradation of the world. In these stories, Shaughnessy asks readers to question and ponder issues like feminism, global warming and environmental destruction, racism, sexism, and politics in general.
When it was released, The Octopus Museum received astonishingly positive reviews, writing that "Shaughnessy’s conceptual work is clever as always, but even more extraordinary is her talent for crafting musical, expressive lines that triumph in their complexity and grace." The New York Times thought similarly, opining that the brilliance of her works lies in her "bleak" but "funny" prose and her extremely important messages.
