UNINLOVEABLE by Brenna Cheyney
brenna.colleen@gmail.com // @bcheyn
Editor’s Note–
Brenna Cheyney’s Uninloveable is a mottled, vibrant collection of poetic prose that’s impossible to read passively. Clever, tough, yet unrelentingly vulnerable, the work flat-out refuses to hold anything back as its narrator grapples with disappointment and bad luck – both in love, and in the ambiguous intentions of other people. A combination of inner monologue and comedic narrative brush up against the absurd – or, at the very least, the fantastic.
Truthfully, Uninloveable feels like it should come with a power cord… and surge protector. It will leave you elbows-deep in splotches of neon paint, or suffering from an empathy stomach ache – with hardly any in-betweens. My suggestion? Don’t fight it. Make a mess, dance, check your Twitter, gulp it down. And for the love of god, don’t read this under a tree in a park. Drink a lot of coffee. Read it while you drive. Uninloveable is alive, and it wants you to remember that you fucking are, too. —Dani Oliver
Reviews:
“I like this book, this…this book I like. B.C.’s short vignettes on failed relationships, sex, and misadventures in and around Los Angeles, stay fun and whimsical and keep you laughing to yourself in public shortly after reading them. There’s lust, combat, inner turmoil, anxiety, trial and error, snark, and modest absurdity. A comedic narrative for all Angelenos and the rest.” —maestro
“In a literary world that encourages us to write for people who do not like to read, Brenna Cheyney is a writer who powerfully conveys what it is like to be in a generation taught to scroll now and feel later. The initial wit of a first read through of these stories will be enough to capture the emojis of most, but I insist that Uninloveable should be read three times. Realizations sneak up on you. The depth of each story is often left up to the reader’s ability to make connections while being whisked away by tricksters. The characters in Uninloveable prod at the rawness of our being, the dark nature of our instincts and the absurdity of reality. I will undoubtedly see these people, animals and images in the weeks to come, passing by me in thrift store aisles, grocery store parking lots and in reflections of bathroom mirrors. Cheyney has created an imaginatively powerful world that needs no resolution. A world of the interior. A world I truly enjoy getting lost and finding my self within.” —Rhea Tepp, Co-Founder of LA Zine Fest
“The raw and emotional fluidity in which Brenna Cheyney writes Uninloveable opens old wounds in myself while healing them with the beauty of her language. I am in awe of her ability to write with such honesty, holding that mirror to her inner fears, hopes, and disappointments, all while making me laugh my ass off. Uninloveable is a book that is a snapshot of moments in life that are at once tragic and therefore humorous, and Cheyney conveys them with a gifted elegance.” —A. Crow
“Brenna Cheyney invokes a yearning for longer sentences, deeper contradictions, a reassessment of gender. She writes to laugh. Personally, I think poetry’s dead— did it ever really live?— but Cheyney confirms a great hope, that every genre, every form, is subject to reinvention, hopefully one as angular and hilarious as hers.” —Daniel Warren, Flaunt Magazine
Author Bio:
Brenna Cheyney is a writer, artist, performer, dancer, musician, comedian, music consultant and pet nanny, born and bred in Northeast Los Angeles. After graduating from the University of Oregon with a degree in Sculpture and Photography, she slowly became a member of the ten percent of art school graduates who go on to create art and make a living doing so. She manages Bootie L.A.’s resident dance crew R.A.I.D. (Random Acts of Irreverent Dance), is an active member of the WOMEN group writing collective, produces comedy shorts under the moniker RACCOON SEX PARTY, performs as THE GOTHIC APOSTLE OF RAINBOWS, has collaborated as a live and/or onscreen performer with multiple bands — including Fever The Ghost, Sean Lennon’s GOASTT, JackÜ, Deap Vally, Mark Redito, Wizard Rifle, LA Font, Mean Dream, and Exorcisms — was a Music Consultant for the web series “52 Ways To Break Up,” owns and operates a dog walking and pet sitting business called Photositter, plays drums, is six feet tall, and is still single. This is her first book.
the WOMEN group 