Collin Kelley Bio

Collin Kelley is a poet, playwright and journalist from Atlanta, Georgia. His new chapbook of political poems, After the Poison, is forthcoming in Summer 2008 from Finishing Line Press and available for pre-order now at this link. His debut collection of poetry, Better To Travel, was nominated for the 2003 Georgia Author of the Year Award, Kate Tufts Discovery Award and Lambda Literary Award. His first spoken word CD, HalfLife Crisis, released in 2004, is now available at iTunes and CD Baby. MetroMania Press published a limited-edition chapbook, Slow To Burn, in 2006. He is a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee and a recipient of the 2007 Taran Memorial Award from the Georgia Writers Association at Kennesaw State University for poetic excellence and his work as co-editor of the Java Monkey Speaks Anthology Vol. 2. Kelley is currently co-editing the third Java Monkey Speaks Anthology.

Kelley's poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Atlanta Review, Ecotone, MiPOesias, LOCUSPOINT, Limp Wrist, Contemporary American Voices, Motel 58, In Posse Review, The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, Blue Fifth Review, poeticdiversity, Terminus, New Delta Review, Chiron Review, Split Shot, In Motion, Poetz, The Pedestal, Lily, Blaze, d'Arts, Welter, Poetry Super Highway, Velvet Mafia, The Harrow, Alternative Arts and Literature, SubtleTea, Offerings, Sophomore Jinx and HomeGround.

Kelley's work has been anthologized in CRUX: A Conversation in Words and Images (Fulton County Arts Council/Caversham Press), A Slice of Cherry Pie (Half Empty/Half Full Press; The Private Press), di-verse-city 2005 and 2006 (Austin International Poetry Festival Anthology), Walking Higher, Shout Them From the Mountain Tops: Georgia Poems, Java Monkey Speaks Anthology Vols. 1 & 2 (Poetry Atlanta Press, Kelley is co-editor), Red Light: Superheroes, Saints & Sluts (Arsenal Pulp Press), Nine Tenths of the Law (Word Diversity Collective Press),  The Thrill and The Hurting: Poems and Art Inspired by Kate Bush (Morning Fog Press, Kelley is co-editor) and We Don't Stop Here (The Private Press). An essay on French actress Jeanne Moreau will appear in the anthology Diva Complex (2009, University of Wisconsin Press).

He also created two spoken word performances -- Two Voices (1994) and Poems for Conquering Venus (1995) -- which premiered on Georgia Tech's WREK radio station program, Advise and Dissent. His freelance features and reviews have appeared in many regional and national publications, including Georgia Magazine, The Guide, Georgia Journal and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. His interview with acclaimed German director Wim Wenders was published in MovieMaker magazine in December, 2003. He frequently reviews poetry and films for The Pedestal and SubtleTea.

His play, The Dark Horse, was the recipient of the 1994 Deep South Festival of Writer's Award for Best Play from the University of Louisiana. The play also won the Georgia Theatre Conference Award in 1997 for Best Play. He has completed his first novel, Conquering Venus, and is at work on a second novel.

Kelley has been invited to read at venues both nationally and internationally, including featured readings in Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, London, Austin International Poetry Festival, National Black Arts Festival and Poetry At Tech. He is the recipient of numerous reading/workshop grants from Poets & Writers. Kelley leads workshops on submitting, publishing and marketing poetry. He is a "master poet" for the Poetry Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts annual Poetry Out Loud recitation project, visiting Atlanta schools and judging semi-finalists for the national competition each Spring in Washington D.C. He hosted the 2006 Georgia finalist competition for Poetry Out Loud, which was televised on PBS.

He sits on the board of Poetry Atlanta and is vice-president of the Georgia Writers Association (now affiliated with Kennesaw State University). By day, Kelley is the managing editor for Atlanta Intown newspaper. He has been a journalist for more than 20 years. In 2004, Kelley began hosting the Internet radio show The Business of Words on Leisure Talk Radio Network. The show is currently on hiatus, but past episodes can be downloaded from the LTRN archive at this link. Contact him at collinkelley@hotmail.com or visit the main website at www.collinkelley.com and his MySpace page at www.myspace.com/collinkelleypoetry.

Photographs by Brent Sturgis, 2008.

Past Appearances

2003

Poetry At Tech Fest, Georgia Tech.

Introduction of Jules et Jim at German-French Film Festival, Goethe Institute.

Alternative Arts Festival, Atlanta.

Better To Travel: An Evening of Poetry and Jazz with Collin Kelley featuring The Jennifer Perry Combo, Atlanta Literary Festival Opening Night Event.

Night of 100 Authors, Atlanta Literary Festival.

Java Monkey Speaks, Decatur, GA, Performance with Jennifer Perry Combo.

Barnes & Noble, Fayetteville, Reading & Signing, (with Cecilia Woloch).

Georgia Poetry Society, North Georgia College, Featured Poet.

Barnes & Noble, Columbus, Featured Poet.

Barnes & Noble, Norcross, Reading & Signing, (with Cecilia Woloch).

Callanwolde Fine Arts Center, Atlanta, Featured Poet.

Happy Bookseller, Columbia, SC, Reading & Signing, (with John Amen and Cecilia Woloch).



2004

Redondo Poets, Los Angeles, CA. Guest Poet.

The Ugly Mug, Orange, CA. Featured Poet (with Cecilia Woloch).

Malaprops Book Shop, Asheville, NC. Reading and signing, (with John Amen and Cecilia Woloch).
National Poetry Month, Columbus, GA. Featured Poet (with Tania Rochelle).

Austin International Poetry Festival 2004, Austin, TX. Headliner.

Muse Art Cafe, Atlanta, Featured Poet (with Alice Lovelace)

Georgia Center for the Book, Decatur, GA, Featured Poet.

Java Monkey All-Stars, Decatur Arts Festival, Featured Poet.

Outwrite Book Shop & Coffee House, Atlanta, GA. Reading & Signing.

Introduction of Faraway, So Close at Goethe-Institut, Atlanta, GA.

Cornelia Street Cafe, New York, NY, Featured Poet.

Bowery Poetry Club, New York, NY, Traveling Poet.

Georgia Literary Festival, Columbus, GA, Featured Author.

Voices Carry, Atlanta Book Festival, Carter Center, Atlanta, GA, Featured Poet (with John Stone, Alice Lovelace, Tania Rochelle, Ayodele, Ralph Tejeda Wilson, Cherryl Floyd-Miller & Kodac Harrison)

Terminus Magazine Party, Decatur, GA. Featured Poet (with Thomas Lux, Nathan Deen, Beth Gylys and Leon Stokesbury)

The Sentient Bean, Savannah, GA. Featured Poet.

HalfLife Crisis Release Reading, Java Monkey Speaks, Decatur, GA. Featured Poet.



2005

SoCal Tour 2005: Barnes & Noble Hazard Center San Diego; Redondo Poets at Coffee Cartel; Two Idiots Peddling Poetry at Ugly Mug in Orange. Featured poet at all venues.

Tsunami Benefit, Outwrite Books, Atlanta, GA. Featured poet.

Reading of The Dark Horse, Theatre Gael, Atlanta, GA. Featured playwright and poet, with Beth Gylys.

Dahlonega Literary Festival, Dahlonega, GA. Featured poet.

Blended Heritage Celebration, Fayetteville, GA. Featured poet.

Village Writers Group, Decatur, GA. Featured poet.

Cliterati, Atlanta, GA. Special Guest Poet.

Georgia Writers Association, Dunwoody, GA. Workshop leader.

National Poetry Month Event, Barnes & Noble, Norcross, GA. Featured poet.

Austin International Poetry Festival 2005, Austin, TX. Featured poet.

National Poetry Month Reading 2005, Outwrite Books, Atlanta, GA. Featured poet.

Arts In the Park at Oakland Cemetery, Atlanta, GA. Organizer and Host.

Georgia Writers Association Spring Festival, Smyrna, GA. Workshop leader.

House of Poets, Red Light Cafe, Atlanta, GA. Featured poet.

Pride + Poetry, Ponce de Leon Library, Atlanta. Featured poet.

Java Monkey Anthology Release, Java Monkey Speaks, Decatur, GA. Featured poet.

Kennesaw Mountain Summer Writing Institute, Kennesaw State University. Featured poet.

Pride Reading for Pink Pony West, Cornelia Street Cafe, New York. Featured poet.

Word Diversity Collective - Art Amok, 7 Stages, Atlanta. Open mic host.

Cold Soup Dinner Theatre, Decatur, GA. Featured poet.

Voices Carry 2: An Afternoon of Poetry & Spoken Word, Carter Center, Atlanta. Organizer & featured poet.

Word Diversity Collective - Art Amok, 7 Stages, Atlanta. Slam host.

A Soldier's Song: Poetry of the Great War, Theatre Gael, Atlanta. Performer.

Poetry at Portfolio Center, Atlanta. Host.

Hurricane Katrina Relief Benefit, Outwrite Bookstore, Atlanta. Featured poet.

Red Light: Superheroes, Saints & Sluts Launch, Modern Times Bookstore, San Francisco. Featured poet.

Beyond Baroque, Venice Beach, CA. Featured poet (with John Amen & Cecilia Woloch)

Body Maps Exhibition Closing Night, Sycamore Place Gallery, Decatur, GA. Featured poet.

A Gift of Words, Ponce de Leon Library, Atlanta, GA. Featured poet.

Word Diversity Collective: Naked, Pagan & Uncensored, Atlanta, GA. Producer/Featured poet.



2006

Blended Heritage Celebration, Fayetteville, GA. Featured poet.

Poetry Out Loud Project, National Endowment for the Arts/Georgia Council for the Arts. Poet/Teacher/Judge

Word Diversity Collective: Karaoke Poetry, Atlanta, GA. Featured poet.

Georgia Writers Association, Dunwoody, GA. Featured poet (with Jenny Sadre-Orafai)

National Poetry Month Reading, Outwrite Books, Atlanta, GA. Featured poet.

Poetry Out Loud Finals, Taped for airing on PBS, Atlanta, GA. Host.

Release party and reading for Slow To Burn, Ruta Maya Coffee House, San Antonio, TX. Featured poet.

Austin International Poetry Festival, Austin, TX. Various readings and locations. Guest poet.

Georgia Writers Association Spring Festival of Writers, Atlanta, GA. Featured poet (co-sponsored by Poets & Writers).

Launch party and reading for Slow To Burn, galerieMC, Atlanta, GA. Featured poet (co-sponsored by Poets & Writers).

Reading at Cafe Ambrosia, Savannah, GA. Featured poet (with Heather Macadam and Mary Chi-Whi Kim).

Release party and reading for Slow To Burn, Fayette County Public Library, Fayetteville, GA. Featured poet.

Reading at Java Monkey Speaks, Decatur, GA. Featured poet.

Bloomsday Reading, Composition Gallery, Atlanta, GA. Featured poet.

Release party and reading for Java Monkey Speaks Anthology Vol. 2. Decatur, GA. Featured poet.

Columbus Public Library, Columbus, GA. Featured poet.

Reading of the Body Maps poems, National Black Arts Festival, Atlanta, GA. Featured poet.

Subliminal Messages & Subversive Influences, GLBTQ Reading at Atlanta Library. Featured poet.

Atlanta Reads Project, Atlanta Library, Forum moderator/presenter.

Decatur Book Festival, Decatur, GA. Signing/Reading

Voices Carry 3, The Carter Center, Atlanta, GA. Organizer/Featured poet (with Stephen Bluestone, Theresa Davis, Karen Head, Delisa Mulkey, Rupert Fike, Kodac Harrison, Robin Kemp, Chelsea Rathburn and Cecilia Woloch).

Outside the Green Zone Chapbook reading, Outwrite Books, Atlanta, GA. Featured poet (with Franklin Abbott, Cleo Creech, Lisa Allender, Melanie Hammett and Theresa Davis).

An Evening of Poetry at Composition Gallery (sponsored by Poets & Writers Inc.), Atlanta, GA. Featured poet (with Rupert Fike).

Pink Pony West Series, Cornelia Street Cafe, New York, NY. Featured poet.

Poetry at Callanwolde, Atlanta, GA. Featured poet (with Karen Head)

Poetry Cafe, London, UK. Guest poet.

Launch of The Thrill and The Hurting anthology, London, UK. Co-editor.



2007

Poetry Out Loud Project 2007, National Endowment for the Arts/Poetry Foundation. Mentor and state finalist judge.

AWP Conference 2007, OUTspoken Reading and Poets & Writers panel. Featured poet, panelist.

Late Night at The Academy Theatre, Preview of work from Wake, Avondale Estates, GA. Featured poet.

Art Amok, 7 Stages Theatre, Atlanta, GA. Host.

San Jose State University, San Jose, CA. Guest poet.

Redondo Poets, Coffee Cartel, Redondo Beach, CA. Featured poet.

Poetry at the Loft, Redlands, CA. Featured poet (with Sheema Kalbasi).

Poetry 101 Workshop, Fayette County Public Library, Fayetteville, GA. Workshop leader/featured poet.

Georgia Writers Association of Kennesaw State University, Festival of Workshops, Smyrna, GA. Workshop leader.

Oglethorpe University, Atlanta, GA. Guest poet and teacher.

Wordsmiths Books Grand Opening, Decatur, GA. Featured poet.

Bloomsday Reading, Composition Gallery, Atlanta, GA. Featured poet.

MondoHomo Festival, Atlanta, GA. Featured poet.

Decatur Book Festival, Decatur, GA. Featured poet/host

Beth Gylys' Matchbook Reading, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA. Featured poet.

Voices Carry 4, Composition Gallery, Atlanta, GA. Organizer/featured poet (with Mike Dockins, Kodac Harrison, Khadijah Queen, Megan Volpert & Cecilia Woloch).

My Body Is A Candle Touched By Fire - Benefit for IGLHRC, Actor's Express, Atlanta, GA. Featured poet.

CRUX Anthology Release Reading, Southwest Arts Center, Atlanta, GA. Featured poet.

GLBTQ Literary Festival, Atlanta-Fulton County Public Library, Atlanta, GA. Featured poet.

Lewes Poetry Cafe, Lewes Library, Sussex, UK. Featured poet.

Poetry Cafe, London, UK. Guest poet.

Angel Poetry Reading, Borders Books, London, UK. Featured poet.

2008

CRUX Anthology Reading, Indie Coffee & Books, Decatur, GA. Featured poet.

CRUX Anthology Reading, Java Monkey Speaks, Decatur, GA. Featured poet.

Limp Wrist Magazine launch party, Outwrite Books, Atlanta, GA. Featured poet (with Laure-Anne Bosselaar).

Blended Heritage Festival, Fayette County Public Library, Fayetteville, GA. Featured poet.

24 Hour Poetry Feature, The Horizon School, Decatur, GA. Featured poet.

CRUX Anthology Reading, Silk Cafe, Decatur, GA. Featured poet.

National Poetry Month Reading, Outwrite Books, Atlanta, GA. Featured poet (with Franklin Abbott, Robin Kemp and Reginald Jackson).

CRUX Anthology Reading, Wordsmiths Books, Decatur, GA. Featured poet.

Saints & Sinners Literary Festival, New Orleans, LA. Featured poet.

50 Artists, 50 Shots: We Are All Sean Bell, Eyedrum, Atlanta, GA. Featured poet.

Mondo Homo 2008, Atlanta, GA. Featured poet.

Quill: A Literary Pride Event, Tallahassee Pridefest, Tallahassee, FL. Featured poet (with Cynie Cory and Brandy T. Wilson).

Wordsmiths Books Anniversary, Decatur, GA. Featured poet and host.

Press & Reviews

• First Book Interview with Kate Greenstreet, August 2007
  Poet Kate Greenstreet interviewed 102 poets about the publication of their first poetry collections at her Every Other Day Blog. Read Kate's interview with Collin about the publication of Better To Travel at this link.
  
  


• A Slice of Cherry Pie Review, Galatea Resurrects, May 2007
  Seductive, with eccentric bread crumb trails that lead into the deep green of Twin Peaks, readers will be twisted, wondering, brow-wrinkled and pondering, yet again, what makes the peculiar characters and their stories so compelling. With its sharp imagery, clever and unbounded nature, this collection reads almost philosophical, directing its unconventional arrows to the unexplainable and the maybes of life. Collin Kelley’s, “Sometimes Her Arms Bend Back,” captures this.
  
  Maybe we are both dead, maybe
  twenty-five years is really just a blink,
  fades like the taste of my favorite gum.
  
  Read the entire review at this link. For more reviews of A Slice of Cherry Pie, visit The Private Press.
  
  


• Creative Loafing, December 2006 - Year in Culture Cover Story
  Thomas Bell's Top 5 Books by Local Authors
  
  1) Between, Georgia, Joshilyn Jackson
  
  2) There Is No Me Without You: One Woman's Odyssey to Rescue African's Children, Melissa Fay Greene
  
  3) Native Guard: Poems, Natasha Trethewey
  
  4) Rampart Street, David Fulmer
  
  5) Java Monkey Speaks, Volume 2, Kodac Harrison (editor) and Collin Kelley (editor)
  
  Link
  
  


• Outside the Green Zone Review, The Pedestal, December 2006
  On the other hand, this chapbook’s most successful poem is also the one that best manages to torque its language out of cliché and conventional sentiment by bracing its political imagination firmly against a ground of recognizable, lived detail. Rather than venturing into a hard-to-conceive Iraq, the persona of Collin Kelley’s “Fatwa" picks up his partner for a one-night liaison—a Muslim man who may or may not be a terrorist—at a subway station somewhere in America. The political and the personal seem to merge in the merging of the two men, or, even better, the personal may hold out the promise of being a cure for the political.
  
  I’ll be that other pussy, love that has no name,
  won’t ask a million questions, no Dick Cheney here,
  just my dick against your dick, don’t whisper
  in my ear as you cum, don’t tell me what you
  have in your car, what you have under your coat,
  strapped to your waist, hidden in your garage,
  or show me your pilot’s license. I don’t care....
  
  ...before you load up your guns, your bombs,
  knock on the cockpit door, make me the whore.
  Let me show you the other America, the fed up
  America....
  
  Kelley’s poem, deploying itself down the page in rhythmic phrasing and internal rhyme that seem to rock across the lines in an imitation of sex, suggests that the most daring, and ultimately most effective, political act may be the literal or figurative meeting with another human being skin to skin, stripped of politics and of numbing loyalties to monstrous artificialities such as nations or proprieties of gender. Luckily for his readers, that is also an excellent strategy for making a poem. (Read the full review by James Owens here.)
  
  


• Creative Loafing, September 2006
  Critics' Picks Best Unspoken Spoken Word: Java Monkey Speaks, Vol. 2
  We cramped our brains a little trying to figure out whether it still counts as spoken word if you print it in a book, but whatever it is, we enjoyed Java Monkey Speaks, Vol. 2, an anthology of poems by poets who have performed at the weekly open mic at Decatur's Java Monkey. Edited by Kodac Harrison and Collin Kelley, this second edition has some serious poetry power.$12. Poetry Atlanta Press. 90 page.
  
  


• Slow To Burn Review - The Pedestal, June 2006
  In just twenty-five pages he progresses from uncertain youth to uncertain, if wiser, adult, laying bare the torturous path that led him there in sparse but powerful detail.In examining his life through the flash-bulb points of memory—coming out, experiencing heartbreak, wrestling with the angel of death—Kelley creates a truly universal work that discusses the most painful of human experiences bravely and with unflinching honesty. Read the full review here.
  
  


• Slow To Burn Review - SubtleTea, May 2006
  Though the book contains somber or reflective moments, there’s active energy coursing from poem to poem... Collin masterfully patterns his lines and juxtaposes pieces, varying his burn from spark to combustion to soft smolder. Read the full review here.
  
  


• Slow To Burn Interview - Velvet Mafia, May 2006
  Velvet Mafia has published a conversation between Collin and gay novelist and poet, Trebor Healey. Two poems from Slow To Burn also appear in this issue, appropriately titled "Burn This." Please note, this interview and site contains adult content and language. Read the interview here.
  
  


• Shelf Space: Speak Up by Thomas Bell - Creative Loafing, September 2005
  Despite the politically charged date - Sept. 11 - on which Poetry Atlanta has scheduled Voices Carry 2, organizer Collin Kelley assures us that the event will not be a protracted series of clever variations on the fortuitous rhyme of "Osama" with "yo' mama." Though the event is in memory of the victims of 9/11, many of the poets will be reading work with no overt connection to the tragedy.
  
  That being said, all the poets have in some way tasted the ash of 9/11 on their tongues. "I think that Sept. 11 was a reawakening for a lot of poets and writers to ask more questions, to look at what's going on in the world," says Kelley.
  
  When Kelley's poetry collection, Better to Travel, came out in 2003, "It was all poems I had written in the '90s. It was all relationship, confessional, boo-hoo. It's different now. The poetry I'm writing is less about me now and more about other people and the world," Kelley says. "The magnitude of [9/11] ... if you're a writer, you wrote something about it. You just could not not write something about it."
  
  The diverse group of poets brought together for the event includes Eric Nelson, Georgia author of the year (for poetry); GSU professor Beth Gylys; award-winning slam poet Jon Goode; Atlanta Review Editor Dan Veach; Spelman College creative writing instructor Sharan Strange; world-traveling poet Cecilia Woloch; and Kelley. Kodac Harrison hosts.
  
  Poetry Atlanta presents Voices Carry 2: An Afternoon of Poetry and Spoken Word, Sun., Sept. 11, 2 p.m., at the Carter Center, 453 Freedom Parkway. Free. 404-230-1995. http://www.poetryatlanta.com/.
  
  


• HalfLife Crisis Review - Poetix, June 2005
  By G. Murray Thomas
  Collin Kelley writes knowingly about loss. He describes various forms of loss — the loss of old loves, of death, the inevitable losses that result from the passage of time. All are movingly evoked on this CD. Kelley focuses on details which make us feel his losses. The message erased from an answering machine, the silences in an early morning diner, and a sign in a store window reading “Will be back shortly” all evoke relationships gone sour.
  
  The sight of a deserted power plant outside London represents the potential of the relationship which is ending as they ride a train past it. These details are what make these poems powerful. The specific images and actions draw us into the poems, let us see and feel the emotions Kelley is experiencing. If there is a weakness on this CD, it is this emphasis on what is missing, not what is present. The relationships have all ended; there is little about the joys of new love, or the drama of the breakups.
  
  The two strongest pieces, “Sex in My Parents’ House” and “Why I Want to Be Pam Grier,” attempt to get away from this notion of loss, but it still pervades them. “Sex in My Parents’ House” manages to explore his parents dawning awareness of his homosexuality through (and I’m not kidding here) the image of shag carpeting. Specifically, sex on the shag carpet. Yet it still ends up looking back wistfully at his youthful relationships, now ended.
  
  “…Pam Grier” celebrates the film star with humor and devotion. But it too is as much about what Kelley lacks in his life as it is about what she represents. But maybe that’s just my interpretation, colored by the poems which have come before it. As a stand-alone piece, it is a glorious hoot of fandom.
  
  These are minor complaints. Halflife Crisis is a moving and powerful selection of spoken word.
  
  


• HalfLife Crisis Review - SubtleTea, January 2005
  By David Herrle
  
  The artist chose the cool ones. How rare and pleasing. The artist chose the cool ones! Too many compilations, collections, and "best of"s tend to include more junk than gem, losing better representation of a writer, band, or whatever. For instance, the Bruce Springsteen Greatest Hits lacks "I'm On Fire" - one of his greatest hits! Or Peter Gabriel's compilation, Shaking The Tree: no "In Your Eyes"! See what I mean? Half-Life Crisis is comprised of some of Collin's best pieces, six from his debut poetry book, Better To Travel. Of course, this is a matter of opinion and taste. But since it's my review, we'll grant that my opinion and taste are keen and reliable. Thankfully, Collin had the good sense to include cool selections from his poetical repertoire.
  
  The CD is bookended and interluded by Denton Perry's uniquely weird music. Perry also recorded, mixed, and mastered everything at Corgimanor Studios (save the poem recited at California's Ugly Mug, recorded by Steve Ramirez). Collin is "hosted" by Christeen Snell, a friend to whom Better To Travel, is dedicated . "Hosted?" you ask? Essentially. Half-Life is not "live" in the typical sense. Except for "Why I Want To Be Pam Grier", the recitals were studio recorded. At first I was disappointed that Half-Life wasn't completely live (recording of actual poetry gigs). But after my second listen I thought: Well, it IS live in a sense. It's Collin reciting his work as he would at Barnes & Noble or Java Monkey.
  
  Then I realized that the studio "live" aspect was more unique for its intimacy. Listeners can eavesdrop on Collin and Chris in a quiet room rather than listen from a public audience. The two speak naturally, unscripted, so each reading seems casually agreed on. Chris even recites two pieces. Her voice is lovely. And Collin's voice is made for spoken poetry (and radio): smoothly textured with a light, Georgian sweetener. I warmed to the studio format, considering Half-Life Crisis a "virtual" poetry gig - cough free. Hell, too many folks do "live" recordings anyway. But I would have liked more integration with the music, maybe accompanied by a poem.
  
  "Battersea", my fave (and a gem from Better To Travel), is a poem capable of many replays that won't degrade the effect. It provides me with an alternative, complementary image and impression to add to my warmly visceral appreciation for James Whistler's Blue and Gold Old Battersea Bridge painting (c. 1872-77). The poem is also sincere in its impression, not hesitant to notice ugliness or drear in a popularly exotic location.
  
  "Half-Life Crisis", the title poem and my second fave, touches on a very familiar, nostalgic ache of mine: gravitation to lost toys. Collin reveals his eBay quest for regaining the toys from his youth, identifying the quest as a defiance of slipping time and age: "I've spent a fortune restocking my hollowed-out chest." (What chest? A toy chest or his own chest?) He's aware of the "ticking clock"; he tries to fill "a hole that deepens each year". The poem ends with a look into an indifferent, truthful mirror and the narrator "no longer mistook myself for a boy". Once an adult dares to peek back, to reunite with his/her Rosebuds, a floodgate bursts open. The tiny particulars become sacred, all-important relics. And seemingly silly things like action figures or stuffed animal dolls embody beloved times and youth.
  
  Collin claims that "Why I Want To Be Pam Grier" usually reaps applause. I can hear why now. The poem begins thus: "I want to pull a gun out of my hair and blow your head off." And the poem shoots from the sexy hips from there on, focusing mainly on Grier's renaissance in Tarantino's underrated film, Jackie Brown. Humorous, energetic, and...hell...it features the legendary Pam Grier! Booyah! Collin wisely clipped this from a public performance at Cali's Ugly Mug. It's a crowd pleaser, so the pleased crowd is appropriately heard.
  
  "Sex In My Parents House" is, well, sure to turn cheeks crimson. Hearing it spoken is much more effective than reading. I dig the honesty and self-criticism and the blue carpet imagery. You have to read/hear it to understand. "Los Angeles" is an impressionistic interpretation of the city of angels and devils, a sharply sincere portrait, and a frenzy of solitude. Collin bluntly describes the Interstate 405 as "a shit-stained diamond". Ruined intimacy's powerful wake is grimly spoken in the very touching "Answering Machine" (another gem from Better To Travel): "...consider me exiled, expatriate, excommunicated. It is just your voice on the machine I could not face. Start. Stop. Pause. Erase."
  
  Half-Life Crisis is a cool complement to Better To Travel because it serves as a bridge from his debut work to his more variable, different-toned - and more erotic - work (similar to U2's Rattle and Hum between The Joshua Tree and the innovative Achtung Baby.) Rather than dredge up a catchy conclusion, I'll leave you with the closing of Collin's "Diners At 2 A.M." (another CD gem, as well as a BTT piece):
  
  ...You light a cigarette,
  I stir the cream.
  At 2 a.m. we sit next
  to our ghosts, still locked
  in combat.
  And sometimes we do
  not speak, because the past drowns
  us out.
  
  


• From Savannah Morning News - November 2004
  Speaking Bean Slam, featuring Kodac Harrison and Collin Kelley. To some, he's a local folk hero. To others, he's a Southern Tom Waits, a countrified Leonard Cohen. To everyone who knows his music and poetry, Kodac Harrison is a fount of passion and intelligence, a literary vagabond and Georgia heir to the spirit of Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie. Harrison created, in recent months, a monthly poetry session at The Sentient Bean. The caliber of the sessions is rising. Appearing tonight is noted poet Collin Kelley. Editor of Atlanta Intown Magazine, Kelley reads from his new poetry CD, "Halflife Crisis," and from his collection of poetry, "Better to Travel." 8 p.m. Thursday, The Sentient Bean, 13 E. Park Ave., 232-4447.
  
  


• Creative Combustion - From Pride 04, June 2004
  A mover and shaker in Atlanta's spoken word circles, Collin Kelley recently published a debut collection of his poems, Better To Travel. The moving, stark work has the makings of a rising star of Atlanta letters.
  
  


• Better To Travel Review - Lambda Book Report, Winter 2004
  Love's Farewell
  Review by Kathy Vogeltanz
  Out poet Collin Kelley is a literary force in his native Atlanta. Not only is he the managing editor of the arts and culture must-read, Atlanta Intown, he also hosts a popular open mic night. During the Atlanta Literary Festival, the launch of his debut, Better To Travel, drew a bigger audience than best-selling author Nicolas Sparks.
  
  After having his poetry published in respected literary journals, Kelley said he braved the “condemnation of the establishment” to publish Better To Travel through a print-on-demand company so he could have more control over the final product. As Kelley transitions from local literati to the national scene, Better To Travel is also a force to be reckoned with, but not without a few missteps.
  
  Kelley’s work has been called “confessional,” like Anne Sexton or Sylvia Plath, but after being raised a Catholic, I know this description isn’t entirely accurate. There’s no guilt in these poems. There’s no hedging around the truth, no stammering to implicate other influences, no begging for absolution and no fear of retribution from authority. Most of all, there is no apology.
  
  In the poem Water (remembered), he plaintively bids farewell to a lover who is marrying a woman: “Many strangers have touched me in the elapse of time. I have courted others who contain your trace elements, hoping to divine the loss, wishing for them to channel. We speak in tongues and teeth and overheated backseats. Nothing rubs off. They are not from your mold.”
  
  He examines moments shared with those whom he’s been closest: lovers, idols and family members. While European cities seem to be his favorite backdrop, Kelley also weaves dramatic images from more ordinary surroundings, such as in Diners At 2 a.m.: “At 2 a.m. we sit next to our ghosts, still locked in combat. And sometimes we do not speak, because the din of the past drowns us out.”
  
  While the common theme of this work is the souring of a long relationship, there is neither the high whine of soap opera victim nor the booming voice of the self-righteous lecturer.
  The only places where Better To Travel fails to connect are some of the jarring inclusions of more political works, such as 60 Seconds in Zaire (the famines in Africa), New York (a harrowing coda to the terrorist attacks), and Tapestry (a rallying cry for gay men, African-Americans and others disenfranchised). Kelley also identifies himself as a writer in a number of works, and this makes the reader too aware of the written word, breaking the spell of the poem.
  
  The majority of this collection moves smoothly and packs a punch, almost like a novel. The title poem sets the stage for Kelley’s journey into the larger world:
  
  The unused black
  umbrella bit my
  hand today.
  Cheap, angry metal
  and plastic offering
  travel tips:
  Take me someplace
  where it rains.
  
  Kelley’s Better To Travel is a journey worth taking.
  
  


• Better To Travel Review - Creative Loafing, September 2003
  By Tray Butler
  Some travelers rack up frequent flier miles. Collin Kelley accumulates poems. His debut collection of poetry, Better to Travel, calculates the emotional sum of a decade's worth of journeys, from London to Berlin, New York to New Orleans.
  
  Kelley, who grew up in Fayetteville, wrote most of the poems either while traveling or immediately upon return. But his verse most often transcends foreign terrain and maps a more personal landscape of loss, isolation and empowerment. Travel follows a loose narrative arc, from a failed relationship through the journey back to self-actualization. The starkly honest voice has led some readers to call him a confessional poet, like Sharon Olds or Robert Lowell. Kelley embraces the comparison.
  
  "I don't flinch away," he says. "If you're not going to be honest, then why bother? Write fiction instead."
  
  By day, the 33-year-old writer deals in non-fiction: He worked as a reporter for the Neighbor newspapers for 12 years, and now serves as managing editor for Atlanta Intown.
  The poetry collection, available locally at Charis Books, Peachtree Highway and Barnes & Noble, takes its title from a Robert M. Pirsig quote: "Sometimes it's a little better to travel than to arrive."
  
  Kelley seems to be experiencing an arrival of his own right now. He's starting a monthly poetry night Sept. 12 at the new Georgia Tech Barnes & Noble Booksellers, modeled after Kodac Harrison's popular Java Monkey Speaks series in Decatur. He also has several reading engagements lined up for the fall.
  
  "The scene right now is just hot," he says. "This city amazes me for poetry. You would think you'd have to go to New York or L.A. But there's such a scene here in Atlanta."
  Maybe travel is overrated after all.
  
  Collin Kelley appears along with the Jennifer Perry Combo Sept. 5 at 7 p.m. and Sept. 7 at 4 p.m. at the Alternative Arts Festival. Contemporary Art Center, 535 Means St., 404-688-1970. He also appears Sept. 9 at 7 p.m. as part of Intervals. Horizon Theatre, 1083 Austin Ave. 404-584-7450.
  
  Shelf Space is a weekly column on books and Atlanta's literary scene.
  
  


• Better To Travel Interview - Atlanta Intown, October 2003
  By Diana Schuh
  Assistant Editor
  
  For most of us, it is an unwritten rule that we only bare our souls to our most trusted friends and family members.
  
  For poet Collin Kelley, however, it is a rule that is meant to be broken. “I like poetry that punches you in the face,” he said.
  
  The managing editor of Atlanta News Group has just self-published his first book, Better To Travel (iUniverse), a collection that follows in the footsteps of the confessional poetry movement, which came of age in the mid 1950s. Poets Anne Sexton, Robert Lowell and Sylvia Plath examined such taboo topics as abortion, alcoholism, suicide attempts and abuse through free verse. “When you read Sexton, you always know what she’s saying,” Kelley said, adding that he is a great admirer of Sexton and poet Sharon Olds. “That’s a liberating way to write.”
  
  For Kelley, the subject is love affairs. “Getting over relationships has been done, but it’s universal. Everyone’s been through it,” he said.
  
  Woven into the often-painful themes are snapshots of Kelley’s travels to Europe . “Most of the poems were written while I was in those places,” he said. The poems became a sort of journal and ultimately a kind of therapy, another hallmark of confessional poetry.
  
  Although two relationships are specifically examined, Kelley said the book reads as if it were about one person. “I learned a lot of lessons,” he said. “I realized I love the same way.”
  
  The title, taken from a Robert Louis Stephenson quote (“It is better to travel hopefully than to arrive”) is also meant to reflect that learning process and the desire to move on.
  
  In addition to the themes of confessional poetry, Kelley is also drawn to its form, which runs counter to other more traditional poetry. “You’re being a little more experimental,” he said of confessional poems. “And you’re not conforming to what a lot of people think poetry should be.” Because of that, he added, confessional poetry has always been divisive because it breaks so many rules. “I love the immediacy of it. To be able to express yourself and bare your soul. There’s a challenge in getting an emotion across in an economy of words. I like that challenge,” he said.
  
  Confessional poetry is also a genre rarely explored by men. Most poets known for their confessional work are female. “Women have always been known to just lay it out there,” he said. “Women express themselves better than men,” adding that most of his favorite poets are women. “I have some empathy and sympathy, I think, because I’m a gay man.”
  
  Most of the poems in Better To Travel were written in the mid to late 1990s and it was at the urging of friends, as well as a small grant from his hometown library in Fayetteville , that he pursued self-publishing, an idea he once resisted.
  
  Once referred to disparagingly as vanity publishing, the advent of such self-publishing houses like iUniverse and 1stBooks have reduced the stigma. Independent bookstores as well as bookstore chains will often carry self-published titles and hold reading and autograph sessions.
  
  “Large [publishing] houses will not touch poetry,” Kelley said. “A lot of poets are taking it into their own hands. It’s a tough market. You’re not making any money there.”
  
  Kelley admits that he liked having complete artistic control of the book including the cover, which features a striking winter scene he found on the Internet and obtained permission to use.
  
  But one of the advantages of having a major publisher is access to a marketing department with a budget to promote your book. Kelley, however, has become a whiz at self-promotion. His years of journalism experience (he previously held positions at The Neighbor newspapers and the Fayette Sun) have netted a broad range of contacts.
  
  “It’s almost like a split personality. You have to separate yourself from writing the book to selling the book,” he said.
  
  Since its publication, Better To Travel has opened more publishing doors for Kelley. This fall some of his work will appear in the anthology, Java Monkey Speaks, and early next year, Shout Them From the Mountain Tops: Georgia Poems, will also feature his poems.
  
  Kelley is also hosting an open mic night at the Barnes & Noble at Georgia Tech the second Friday of each month at 7 p.m., and is a regular at poetry readings all over the city, including his weekly appearances at Java Monkey Speaks in Decatur on Sunday nights. He will join poets Cecilia Woloch and John Amen for a mini-tour of the south to promote their books later this month and in November.
  
  “I’ve met a lot of poets who are so good but they’re shy. You have to get over that,” he said, adding that he was very nervous when he started publicly reading his work. “It’s always like walking a tightrope on what the reception will be.”
  
  That acrobatic feat also brings with it the potential for rejection. “You have to be strong-willed, you have to know the work is good enough,” he said.
  
  And Kelley remains undeterred by society’s disdain for the personal. His next poetry book “will probably alienate some people,” he said, as it touches on terrorism, politics and body fascism. “A lot of critics hated Olds and Sexton,” he said. “When you know you’re on the path and you’ve got the support, you have to keep going.”
  
  


• David Herrle's Interviews with Collin at SubtleTea.com.
  
  


• Review of Better To Travel at The Pedestal.