A Several World was the 2014 recipient of the
James Laughlin Award and was a longlist finalist for the
National Book Award. The book takes its title from a 17th-century poem by
Robert Herrick, and deals with questions about subjectivity and individuality versus the collective.
Proxies is a collection of 24 single-subject essays that concludes with a 21-page rolling endnote, "Correction." In a starred review,
Publishers Weekly noted that "in each entry Blanchfield picks a subject—foot washing, authorship, owls—and examines it from several angles until the connection between metaphysical principle and lived experience suddenly crystallizes, often producing an analogy as surprising as it is lovely." Blanchfield's poems and essays have been published by
The Nation, ''
Harper's Magazine, BOMB, The Paris Review, Brick
, Conjunctions, Guernica'', and other publications. ==Professional activities==