Description
Set against a landscape of rail yards and skate parks, Kai Carlson-Wee's debut collection captures a spiritual journey of wanderlust, depression, brotherhood, and survival. These poems-a "verse novella" in documentary form-build momentum as they travel across the stark landscapes of the American West: hopping trains through dusty prairie towns, swapping stories with mystics and outlaws, skirting the edges of mountains and ridges, heading ever westward to find meaning in the remnants of a ruined Romantic ideal. Part cowboy poet, part prophet, Carlson-Wee finds beauty in the grit and kinship among strangers along the road.
Galleys available: national mailing to key review/media outlets 4-5 months prior to publication. National advertising: Poets & Writers, American Poets, the Academy of American Poets newsletter, Rain Taxi, and Redactions. National print campaign: 100+ finished books will be mailed to key review outlets, specifically targeting Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, The New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker, The LA Times, Poets & Writers Magazine, The Rumpus, Huffington Post Poetry, BookForum, LA Review of Books, PBS NewsHour, NPR, etc. Outreach to blogs and online outlets for category features, including BuzzFeed, Bustle, Book Riot, etc. for such themes as rail travel, depression, Pacific Northwest writing, Rocky Mountain writing, etc. Buy-ins to relevant academic conferences, trade shows, and publications: American Library Association Annual Meeting, CBSD Sales and Academic catalogs, etc. Spring announcements will be submitted to Publishers Weekly. Online/social media campaign: Extensive promotion through BOA's website and blog; Facebook (6,500+ contacts), Twitter (6,100 followers), Instagram (1,500+ followers), and Pinterest (550+ followers) accounts; print and e-postcards; print and e-materials; and print and e-catalogs. Electronic book announcement postcards will be sent to Kai's list of academic contacts, reviewer contacts, bookstore contacts, and literary bloggers. Electronic newsletter feature will be emailed to BOA's database of 6,500+ contacts. Ebook will be available at the same time as print publication to maximize sales. Ebook ISBN will be included on all press materials, author and publisher websites, and whenever print ISBN is listed. Publisher and author will be promoting both electronic and print editions via social media. Kai will attend the AWP Conference 2018 in Tampa, FL, where he will have an author signing. Kai is producing a series of poetry short films a la Beyonce's Lemonade to promote and supplement the book. He will film and edit the videos over the summer of 2017 and release the videos in spring 2018. In addition to the short films, Kai is creating a series of photo essays to supplement the book. Plans for a multi-city book tour across the Highline, the Pacific Northwest, the Great Plains, and elsewhere. Possible joint readings and events with Kaveh Akbar (Alice James Books), William Brewer (Milkweed), Javier Zamora (Copper Canyon Press), Danez Smith (Graywolf),Sophie Klahr (YesYes Books), Hieu Minh Nguyen (Coffee House Press), Virginia Konchan (Carnegie Melon University Press), and sam sax (Penguin). Promotion through the author's social media platforms and website.
About the Author
Kai Carlson-Wee is the author of Rail (BOA, 2018). He has received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, the Sewanee Writers' Conference, and his work has appeared in Ploughshares, Best New Poets, TriQuarterly, Gulf Coast, and The Missouri Review, which awarded him the 2013 Editor's Prize. His photography has been featured in Narrative Magazine and his poetry film, Riding the Highline, received jury awards at the 2015 Napa Valley Film Festival and the 2016 Arizona International Film Festival. With his brother Anders, he has co-authored two chapbooks, Mercy Songs (Diode Editions) and Two-Headed Boy (Organic Weapon Arts), winner of the 2015 Blair Prize. A former Wallace Stegner Fellow, he lives in San Francisco and is a lecturer at Stanford University.
Reviews
"Rail is a lovely book, strong and inspired." -Robert Bly
"This is a wholly unique and powerful collection of poems. The sense of purpose puts one in mind of Whitman's 'Song of the Open Road.' Encounters with fellow vagabonds recalls the tramp-poetry of Vachel Lindsay. But the darker need to search for meaning in the American plains and points farther west-a vastness forlorn and almost unknowable-belongs to the particular vision of this poet. His journey through our national ambiguity discovers a flicker in our roots, a spark popping from obscurity that rises into the heavens. The lived experience behind these deft and subtle poems seems necessary, and reiterates the fact that resilience is not only a feature of the American character, it is a recurring tenet of American art." -Maurice Manning
"Brotherly love, a sense of displacement and lost time, and the deep care that reminds us of our humanity, form the heart of this book. These poems are a scavengers guide, a survivalist manifesto, a reminder of the way our daily experiences can fuel and forge our faith. A hauntingly beautiful and unusual debut." -Dorianne Laux
"Equal parts dithyramb and lament, the great American bardic tradition celebrates lonesome wandering even as it hungers for enduring communion. Kai Carlson-Wee is a worthy inheritor of its dusty mantle, worn by Whitman and Kerouac before him, and Rail is a moving testament to the territories of freight trains, Minnesota roads, dumpster diving, and brotherhood. 'The road goes on. With or without us.' Yes, but how much better to have this unforgettable music to guide the way." -Campbell McGrath
Book Information
ISBN 9781942683582
Author Kai Carlson-Wee
Format Paperback
Page Count 104
Imprint BOA Editions, Limited
Publisher BOA Editions, Limited
Galleys available: national mailing to key review/media outlets 4-5 months prior to publication. National advertising: Poets & Writers, American Poets, the Academy of American Poets newsletter, Rain Taxi, and Redactions. National print campaign: 100+ finished books will be mailed to key review outlets, specifically targeting Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, The New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker, The LA Times, Poets & Writers Magazine, The Rumpus, Huffington Post Poetry, BookForum, LA Review of Books, PBS NewsHour, NPR, etc. Outreach to blogs and online outlets for category features, including BuzzFeed, Bustle, Book Riot, etc. for such themes as rail travel, depression, Pacific Northwest writing, Rocky Mountain writing, etc. Buy-ins to relevant academic conferences, trade shows, and publications: American Library Association Annual Meeting, CBSD Sales and Academic catalogs, etc. Spring announcements will be submitted to Publishers Weekly. Online/social media campaign: Extensive promotion through BOA's website and blog; Facebook (6,500+ contacts), Twitter (6,100 followers), Instagram (1,500+ followers), and Pinterest (550+ followers) accounts; print and e-postcards; print and e-materials; and print and e-catalogs. Electronic book announcement postcards will be sent to Kai's list of academic contacts, reviewer contacts, bookstore contacts, and literary bloggers. Electronic newsletter feature will be emailed to BOA's database of 6,500+ contacts. Ebook will be available at the same time as print publication to maximize sales. Ebook ISBN will be included on all press materials, author and publisher websites, and whenever print ISBN is listed. Publisher and author will be promoting both electronic and print editions via social media. Kai will attend the AWP Conference 2018 in Tampa, FL, where he will have an author signing. Kai is producing a series of poetry short films a la Beyonce's Lemonade to promote and supplement the book. He will film and edit the videos over the summer of 2017 and release the videos in spring 2018. In addition to the short films, Kai is creating a series of photo essays to supplement the book. Plans for a multi-city book tour across the Highline, the Pacific Northwest, the Great Plains, and elsewhere. Possible joint readings and events with Kaveh Akbar (Alice James Books), William Brewer (Milkweed), Javier Zamora (Copper Canyon Press), Danez Smith (Graywolf),Sophie Klahr (YesYes Books), Hieu Minh Nguyen (Coffee House Press), Virginia Konchan (Carnegie Melon University Press), and sam sax (Penguin). Promotion through the author's social media platforms and website.
About the Author
Kai Carlson-Wee is the author of Rail (BOA, 2018). He has received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, the Sewanee Writers' Conference, and his work has appeared in Ploughshares, Best New Poets, TriQuarterly, Gulf Coast, and The Missouri Review, which awarded him the 2013 Editor's Prize. His photography has been featured in Narrative Magazine and his poetry film, Riding the Highline, received jury awards at the 2015 Napa Valley Film Festival and the 2016 Arizona International Film Festival. With his brother Anders, he has co-authored two chapbooks, Mercy Songs (Diode Editions) and Two-Headed Boy (Organic Weapon Arts), winner of the 2015 Blair Prize. A former Wallace Stegner Fellow, he lives in San Francisco and is a lecturer at Stanford University.
Reviews
"Rail is a lovely book, strong and inspired." -Robert Bly
"This is a wholly unique and powerful collection of poems. The sense of purpose puts one in mind of Whitman's 'Song of the Open Road.' Encounters with fellow vagabonds recalls the tramp-poetry of Vachel Lindsay. But the darker need to search for meaning in the American plains and points farther west-a vastness forlorn and almost unknowable-belongs to the particular vision of this poet. His journey through our national ambiguity discovers a flicker in our roots, a spark popping from obscurity that rises into the heavens. The lived experience behind these deft and subtle poems seems necessary, and reiterates the fact that resilience is not only a feature of the American character, it is a recurring tenet of American art." -Maurice Manning
"Brotherly love, a sense of displacement and lost time, and the deep care that reminds us of our humanity, form the heart of this book. These poems are a scavengers guide, a survivalist manifesto, a reminder of the way our daily experiences can fuel and forge our faith. A hauntingly beautiful and unusual debut." -Dorianne Laux
"Equal parts dithyramb and lament, the great American bardic tradition celebrates lonesome wandering even as it hungers for enduring communion. Kai Carlson-Wee is a worthy inheritor of its dusty mantle, worn by Whitman and Kerouac before him, and Rail is a moving testament to the territories of freight trains, Minnesota roads, dumpster diving, and brotherhood. 'The road goes on. With or without us.' Yes, but how much better to have this unforgettable music to guide the way." -Campbell McGrath
Book Information
ISBN 9781942683582
Author Kai Carlson-Wee
Format Paperback
Page Count 104
Imprint BOA Editions, Limited
Publisher BOA Editions, Limited
