poetry

4/24/19

Wow, it has been a long time, huh? Excuse me for the absence but I was very busy all last year, working on my second full-length:

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So, things have been a little busy around here.

Here’s what I missed updating everyone on:

In May I finished up my stint as a Glass Poetry guest editor. Here are the rest of the poems I selected for Poets Resist (you can see the others on the previous post):

I had a quiet second half of the year; I wasn’t writing much at all as I was traveling, then concentrating on my pregnancy and my family. I had a piece in Memoir Mixtapes about Live, the band from the 90s that is exceptionally wonderful and baffling (and I saw them in July with Brian, which was a riot!), and I had two poems in Rabid Oak: “Watching Secretary, I Think of the Palm of Your Hand” and “During Marwencol I Play with Your Hair”. That was pretty much it.

In May I went on a writing retreat with some friends and finished the manuscript for my second chapbook, A Live Thing, Clinging with Many Teeth. After a few months of submission, it was picked up by an editor/press in the fall, but concerns about how the press was being run forced my hand, and at Christmas I pulled it from the publisher. Luckily, I sent it out again and Spooky Girlfriend Press picked it up! It is available for pre-order here, or on Amazon here.

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If you do choose to purchase it, might I ask you review it on Goodreads? Here is the link to both the new book and my other chapbook, Your Hand has Fixed the Firmament.

Zoetic Press is open right now for both an H.G. Wells edition and a Homer’s Odyssey edition. You can find the submission guidelines here. Our newest issue, Clive Barker’s Books of Blood, is available here for $1.99 (guest edited by the aforementioned Brian!). Drunk Monkeys has a new pop culture issue out, and it’s awesome; also, we’re open for subs in all categories including our newest feature, One Perfect Episode. Submission guidelines here.

It’s been a crazy year and I am glad to be getting back into it. For once I have multiple projects I am working on, and it feels good, even though it’s a learning curve to juggle that plus the baby. I hope to be updating here more often.

3/2/18

Hello friends.

As usual I have been slacking on an update but really, who cares? I get to it eventually.

I have a piece in the latest Memoir Mixtapes issue (Whole Lotta Love), which is not quite a poem and not quite an essay. It’s vaguely NSFW and does contain some suicidal/self-injury imagery, so there’s that, but I feel it’s probably one of the most important pieces I have ever written. It’s called “Reflecting the Surface of You: A Relationship Set to ‘Finally, Peace'”, and it’s framed around the Swans song. Read the whole issue, it’s really fantastic.

I recently blurbed two books that I really enjoyed, Bad Anatomy by Hannah Cohen (Glass Poetry Press) and 17 seventeen XVII by E. Kristin Anderson (Grey Book Press). I would never blurb something I didn’t love, so I suggest supporting these amazing poets.

As for Drunk Monkeys/ Zoetic Press stuff:

*Drunk Monkeys has an open call for submissions for our April Pop Culture issue. LOOK AT THIS AMAZING GRAPHIC FRITZ CAME UP WITH. Anyway we’re open til 3/15 so go for it.

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*Zoetic Press is pleased to announce the release of NonBinary Review #16: The Little Prince. Could this cover art be any more gorgeous? (Check out Mandem for the print and other amazing art). This is an incredible issue that I suggest you buy.

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We also have two rotating podcasts: The Literary Whip and I Liked the Book Better. Give them a listen!

I will not be at AWP; my days of AWPing may actually be over. All I ever do is drink and walk around the book fair, and I can drink and read all of Ashley and Seth’s books instead, which is essentially the same damned thing! Have fun if you’re going; I feel AWP is a bit overrated in general, but who am I to tell you what to do?

I’ll have more info coming soon; as for now, happy Smarch!

11/17/2017

Oh, hi guys. Remember me? It’s been a while. A bit has happened, but maybe most importantly: I got married!

Photo by Rachael Warecki

We were surrounded by 28 of our friends and family, and it was a really lovely day. So that was something, anyway.

Today was a pretty banner week for Ole Kolleen. I had THREE poetry acceptances: “Everyone is a Predator” will appear in Moonchild Magazine; “A Correspondence Between Laura and Dale, 1989” will appear in Occulum; and “Convenience Store Cigar, Four Times” will appear in my dream journal, Glass. Obviously all of these acceptances have be over the moon so I did what any reasonable writer would do and cried a bit in the tub and then bought an overly expensive brunch (avocado and burrata toast with heirloom tomatoes).

Zoetic Press is now open for submissions for NonBinary Review #16: The Little Prince. I am very very excited for this one. #15: We Have Always Lived in the Castle, will be available 12/1. We’ve also updated our Patreon recently, including a level to receive our chapbook series, Viable.

Meanwhile, Drunk Monkeys has an all-Trump issue out, which includes this knockout poem by Bonnie Rae Walker. We’re closed for poetry and fiction at the moment, but I am hoping that we can catch up and open those categories again soon.

I suggest everyone purchase “The Art of Misdiagnosis: Surving My Mother’s Suicide” by Gayle Brandeis. I just got my copy today and I am excited to dive into it, even though I am in the midst of reading six other books.

I am back to doing my advice column at Five 2 One Magazine, so if you need advice from a friendly mess of a girl, write to me at sincereadvice521@gmail.com.

Let’s see, what else? I picked up a small side gig tutoring, which is cool. It’s nice to be on a campus but also not saddled with the burden that a lot of my teacher friends seem to be facing. I’m just here, living my little life, waiting to push through the holidays.

I think that’s it for now. Later days, buddies!

9/8/17- What a day.

Wow, today was a real whirlwind of a day, and not just because I took the wrong dose of Wellbutrin.

First, my article regarding the sewer sex scene in IT went live on Birth.Movies.Death. I was very nervous about writing this, because I did not want what I meant to be misconstrued, but I also wanted to be as delicate as possible given the nature of the content. I suppose it went pretty well; there are some errant negative comments but overall it is a positive experience, and even people who disagree with me are being polite. I couldn’t ask for more, really.

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Then, the reprint of my blog post from a few weeks ago went live on VIDA: Women In Literary Arts. As much as I would like to move past this subject, it’s still on my mind, because wow who would think that women would be afraid of men who are scary, regardless of distance or if it’s just on the ole internet? Mind boggling! So I am still sort of talking about it, and am glad VIDA took interest in it.

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Then I got paid for some of my writing, which is good because I always need money, but is bad because what if I get used to it and never go back to being a broke poet again?!

THEN I opened Instagram to realize I won an IT bundle from @wu_stitch and @crooked_hooker!

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Essentially, I am on cloud 9 today, and I don’t care who knows it.

As for work round-ups:

–Drunk Monkeys has two calls for submissions right now. We are looking for one piece of a scary nature- any category- for our 10/31 post. You can submit anything you’d like to drunkmonkeyseditorial@gmail.com. Do not use Submittable for this, just email with the subject line: HALLOWEEN SUBMISSION.

We’re also looking for political submissions for our November issue, which is dedicated to how awful Trump is. WE ARE NOT LOOKING FOR 100% OF OUR SUBMISSIONS TO BE FROM WHITE MEN. Honestly, we need diverse voices, so feel free to send your stuff to drunkmonkeys79@gmail.com. Again, do not use our Submittable for this. You can read all the guidelines here. We will be donating all of our Patreon donations for the month of November to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a group which is dedicated to tracking the spread of hate groups across the country.

We are otherwise open for submissions in every category. Please read guidelines before submitting.

–Zoetic Press is seeking submissions for the next two issues of NonBinary Review: We Have Always Lived In the Castle and The Little Prince. We are a paying market so check out our guidelines and send us your best.

Also, NonBinary Review has a new issue out: The Complete Works of Hans Christian Andersen. It is our biggest issue yet! And it’s only $1.99.

Finally: I wasn’t posting much when this happened, so allow me to post an older interview by Alex Schumacher for his column Breadcrumbs From The Void on Five:2:One. Alex rules.

That’s it; I can’t possibly write any more than that.

8/23/17

Hey!

I suppose if you know me you know there was some DRAMA that happened this weekend in the poetry world, and rest assured I have a lot to say about it, but I’m still working on that. To those who reached out: I am safe, I am ok, I am angry, but it’s being dealt with. No worries, man. No worries. Stay tuned for that jazz.

Otherwise: I have another article about Steel Magnolias up at Birth.Movies.Death.! I drank quite a bit while I was writing this so you should all read it because I put a LOT of effort into those glasses of vodka.

I just found out three seconds ago that Gerald’s Game is coming to Netflix in late September. As you might or might not know, I wrote a series of erasure poems using Gerald’s Game as the source, and wrote a lengthy article for BMD’s King issue about the feminist/female perspective in the novel, so I guess: 1. I am pretty much an expert on Gerald’s Game now, and 2. I should probably do something with those poems. So I will work on that.

Anyway, stay tuned. That’s all.

7/24/17

Wow, what a manic month I have had! Between my son’s visit and real life stuff, writing has taken a backseat and, if I know me, it’s going to be hard to get back into it. I have a hard time focusing and managing my time, and I know the only way I will work on these projects in my head is by sitting down and doing it, but ugh, there is so much tv in the world.

I wrote an article for Birth.Movies.Death. about Gerald’s Game and the female voice. It will be in their print issue, which is available for pre-order here.

Zoetic Press has a new podcast! It is called The Literary Whip and you can listen to it here! If you’re an editor and you would like to be on the podcast, you can email podcast@zoeticpress.com. And of course, we have a Facebook and Twitter page.

Speaking of Zoetic Press, submissions for NonBinary Review #14: The Complete Works of Hans Christian Andersen, are closing 7/31. Then we are focusing on Issue 15: We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson!

On the Drunk Monkeys front: submissions for poetry and fiction are closed right now due to a sizable backlog. Once we clear what we have we’ll open everything back up. Submissions are still open for essays, especially film and music essays, and we’re accepting stuff for our Vice and Virtue issue through 7/31. Next month we’re celebrating all the terrible movies we love for #100WordFilmReviews, so that is fun!

I think that’s it for now. Just work, and trying to find time for my work. I’lll get there.

7/6/17

So much to report so I will get right to it:

My son is visiting from MA and I am so happy! He helped me sort of rebuild this site; I was so overwhelmed by it that I was putting it off for far too long. Thanks, Aidan!

My chapbook, Your Hand Has Fixed the Firmament, is finally out. Thank you so much to Scott and Grey Books Press for taking this little love letter on! You can own it for a mere $6, which as we all know is just .75 more than a Venti Dirty Iced Chai Latte from Starbee’s.

Drunk Monkeys has a call for submissions for our special September issue: Vices and Virtues. So if you want to send me anything about your genitals, now is the only appropriate time to do so!

Additionally, I had an editor’s letter in the June issue that I felt was important; it’s all about how you build your own family. Check it out.

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Zoetic Press has a new Nonbinary Review issue out: Urban Legends/ Snopes. And guess who it’s guest edited by? You’ve got it… ME! For a mere $2 you can read 29 pieces of Snopes inspired work. This was such a blast to be a part of, and I loved every second of it.

Speaking of ZP, we have an open call for Hans Christian Andersen inspired work that closes at the end of July. AND we’re hosting Write Like You’re Alive again!

Really, that’s all I have for now. Everything I’m working on is stalled while Aidan is here. He leaves next week, and while I’ll be heartbroken, at least I’ll be able to get some stuff done.

(PS: How about that new Twin Peaks?!)

8/1/16

August, you fickle b, where did you come from? It seems like only yesterday I was basking in the humid heat of July! (It was only yesterday). I have a few things worth reporting.

I guess before anything else I should let you all know that the special edition of Drunk Monkeys (in response to the Orlando PULSE shooting) is now out. This was such an amazing endeavor and I am so happy to have been a part of it, even from just a social media standpoint. I beg you all to read it. It has some stellar contributors.

My poem “Our Bones Will Be Our Ruins” is featured in Clever Girl issue 4. You can buy it via their website.

I finished Zoetic Press‘s 31/31 Write Like You’re Alive challenge. Well, I mean, I got like 25 pieces in, but that counts. I hosted 4 live chats on Twitter and I am considering keeping them going. I did a series of erasure poems based on Dax Riggs songs and made them into a short chapbook. If you’d want one, order one here!

In July, Pokemon Go debuted. I am going through a hard time emotionally– probably the hardest of my life, a time where old hopes are dying and new hopes are clawing desperately at the dirt covering them, trying to emerge. Pokemon Go lifts that depression and those suicidal thoughts, albeit temporarily, and my Facebook rant about those bashing it was crafted into a more viable essay that Five 2 One Magazine was kind enough to publish. Weeks later, I still love it, regardless of what the whiny babies at r/pokemongo have to say. I even got my first piece of hate mail, from a man in my city who told me to start renting here (?) and go home by 10, and when I replied to him he told me if I replied back it would be considered harassment! People are sort of crazy.

Yesterday my friend Dan and I took my son Aidan on a 5 mile scavenger hunt in Salem MA, and we caught tons of Pokemon, so shut up, ~haters~.

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I think that might be it for now. It’s back to being distracted and submitting poems to different places for now.

7/5/16

Summer is in full swing and things are going well. I am participating in Zoetic Press‘s 31/31 Write Like You’re Alive challenge, and I’ll be damned if I didn’t write two pieces of flash fiction! I never write fiction. CRAZY.

Last month I participated in Feminist of Salem’s first Feminist Art Wednesday at Koto (all this, of course, in Salem, MA). I read a few poems from the aforementioned chapbook and listened to other super- fierce women read and perform. It was excellent. Here is a video from the whole thing– I’m the sleepy looking one around the 1:05 mark or so.

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I was pretty excited to see that The Review Review… uh… reviewed Drunk Monkeys Issue 1, which hosted my poem “There is a Creature in the Desert with the Sharpest Claws”. the write-up can be found here, but I will quote the part that focuses on me because I am vain:

“This thread is continued in some of the poetry selections in this first issue of Drunk Monkeys, especially in Kolleen Carney’s poem “There is a Creature in the Desert with the Sharpest Claws:” “What matters is your skin / that toughened with time, feet on the hard ground / and running, pointed nails like talons.” There is momentum and running rhythm in this poem, in sync with the pumping arms of the creature. “Even the gentlest animals / will gnash and bare,” Carney concludes, “when backed into a corner.” Here again dichotomies are being challenged, as Carney’s language breaks down the barriers between gentle and savage, between surface and depth.”

Thanks! This made my day.

6/8/16

Where does the time go? I feel like it was just May, I was just getting ready for the Poetry Circus, and now here we are well into June.

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Photo: Creative Salem

While I go through a heap of personal challenges and changes, I am trying very hard to keep my focus on work and writing. I have a poem, “Our Bones Will Be Our Ruins”, appearing in Clever Girl Magazine soon. I have taken on the social media pages for The Citron Review and Drunk Monkeys. Of course, these are labors of love, so I am also looking for another paying gig (remotely for now); if anyone has any leads, thank you in advance for sending them my way.

I am shopping around a small chapbook and trying to find the inspiration for newer work. Things are hard nowadays, and not just for me… it seems everyone I know is really struggling lately (I blame, in part, this volatile election cycle and the soul sucking nature of social media), but I am trying to keep my head up and understand that even though I don’t know what my future holds, something good has to be on the horizon.