Karen Kelsay Autobiography

         Karen Kelsay

I am a native Californian, who grew up along and on the Pacific

that should explain my love

for

writing poetry about the sea. A

lso

, I have written narrative, romantic, and fairy-theme

poems that were created with other backgrounds and foreign lands in mind. I attended college in

Anchorage, Alaska, where I studied art and history, and then devoted much time to traveling,

for leisure, and the sake of gathering impressions for writing poetry. I

have many favorite poets,

although

my poetry

has not

been influenced by anyone in

particula

r, I

lean toward traditional forms.

have been

nominated

hree times

for

the

Pushcart Prize and

have written

five

chapbooks:

A Fi

st of Roots (Pudding House Press 2009)

Somewhere Near Evesham

(

The New Formal

ist Press

2009)

Song of the Bluebell

Fairy

(

Pudding

ouse Press

2010)

In Spite of Her

(

Flutter Press

2010)

Buttercup Garden

(

Victorian

Violet Press 2010). My book: Dove on a Church Bench, is due

to be published next year by Punkin House Press.

Photography by Brenda Levy Tate