My poems and stories have been published in The New York Times, Boston Review, Best American Poetry, The Brooklyn Rail, Fence, Hobart, and many other wonderful venues. My interviews, essays, and reviews at Electric Literature, Bookslut, 3:AM, Full Stop, Entropy, Poetry Society of America, and elsewhere. My first book, (made), is a hyrbrid micro prose/poem collection and was published by the Toronto indy publisher Book*hug. I’m at work on my second book, an autobiographical novel set in the time of late capitalism and climate change. I have received a fellowship in Poetry from New York Foundation for the Arts and a bpNichol Prize.

In addition to my own writing, I’ve been teaching and editing other writers for years. I love the writer’s life, truly. I spend mornings with my own work. After a lunch break, I boil water for tea and dig in to a client’s or student’s work. I’m a Manuscript Consultant and Instructor for Grub Street. I’ve been a Visiting Writer for The New York State Writers Institute, Rhode Island School of Design, Evergreen College, Kelly Writers House at PENN, Stonecoast MFA, and Toronto New School of Writing. I have an MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College, a BA in Communications from Skidmore College, and a bunch of unclaimed credits in Film and Television at NYU. I’ve performed in a few comedy improv groups and on the stage at Upright Citizens Brigade in NYC. I did a visual art exhibit in collaboration with my honey Jon Lathrop using writing from my first book. None of this tops the eight years I ran a poetry class in a NY State Prison. Scenes from that are in the new book.

I say all this to say, I have and do work in multiple genres and mediums and consider it the blood of life.

Email me at caralynnbenson [at] gmail. I’m very friendly. 🙂

Twitter: @cbenson67
Facebook: carabensonwriter