Carolyn Hembree, Kore Press Author
Carolyn Hembree’s poems have appeared in Colorado Review, DIAGRAM, Gulf Coast, Indiana Review, jubilat, and Witness, among other journals and anthologies. Her poetry has received three Pushcart Prize nominations, a PEN Writers Grant, a Southern Arts Federation Grant, and a Louisiana Division of the Arts Fellowship Award in Literature. Before completing her MFA, she found employment as a cashier, house cleaner, cosmetics consultant, tele-communicator, actor, receptionist, paralegal, coder, and freelance writer. Carolyn grew up in Tennessee and Alabama. She teaches at the University of New Orleans.
In Kenyon Review’s holiday newsletter, Jake Adam York lists Skinny as one of the three books he’ll be rereading. He said, “The second is Skinny by Carolyn Hembree (Kore Press 2012), a manic ‘autobiography’ of the language (and the world) around her. The book has rhythm and force. Imagine H.D. or Anne Bradstreet reincarnated as a punk-rock goddess and remixing John Berryman’s The Dream Songs through a finely distorted amplifier while spinning cuts of Leontyne Price on a DJ kit- but, you know, recorded as a poem. This one will keep you up.”
At Horse Less Press, poet Megan Burns wrote an open letter to Carolyn Hembree about Skinny.