About Collin

Photo by Colin Potts

Short Bio

Collin Kelley is the author of the novels Conquering Venus and Remain In Light, a 2012 finalist for the Townsend Prize for Fiction, and the short story collection, Kiss Shot. His poetry collections include Better To Travel, the spoken word album HalfLife Crisis, Slow To Burn, After the Poison and Render. A recipient of the Georgia Author the Year Award, Deep South Festival of Writers Award and Goodreads Poetry Award, Kelley's poetry, essays, interviews and reviews have appeared in magazines and journals around the world. 

Long Bio

Collin Kelley is a novelist, poet and playwright from Atlanta, Georgia. His second novel, Remain In Light (Vanilla Heart Publishing), was a finalist for the 2012 Townsend Prize for Fiction. His critically acclaimed debut novel, Conquering Venus (Vanilla Heart Publishing), appeared in 2009 and was an Amazon bestseller. Kelley self-published a short story collection, Kiss Shot, exclusively for the Amazon Kindle in 2012.

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. MetroMania Press published a limited-edition chapbook, Slow To Burn, in 2006. Seven Kitchens Press re-issued Slow To Burn as part of its ReBound Series in August 2011. A chapbook of political poetry, After the Poison, was a finalist for Finishing Line Press' annual contest and was published in 2008. Kelley's second full-length poetry collection, Render, was published by Sibling Rivalry Press in April 2013. A spoken word album, HalfLife Crisis, was released in 2004 and is available at iTunes. 

Kelley is a multiple Pushcart Prize nominee and a recipient of the 2007 Georgia Author of the Year/Taran Memorial Award from the Georgia Writers Association at Kennesaw State University. His poem, "My Mother Demonstrates How To Escape From A Plane Crash," won the Goodreads Poetry Contest in 2012. He is the recipient of numerous reading/workshop grants from Poets & Writers. 

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 for Best Play in 1997 and was re-staged in 2005 by Theatre Gael in Atlanta. A second play, Porcelain, premiered at Script Theatre Company in Atlanta in 1991. 

Kelley has been invited to read at venues both nationally and internationally, including featured readings at venues in Los Angeles, New York, Washington DC, San Francisco, San Diego, New Orleans, Asheville, San Antonio, London and Cardiff as well as university and festival appearances at San Jose State University, Florida State University, Savannah College of Art & Design, Oglethorpe University, Kennesaw State University, University of Georgia, Georgia State University, Georgia Perimeter College, Austin International Poetry Festival, Georgia Literary Festival, National Black Arts Festival in Atlanta, Decatur Book Festival, Rainbow Book Festival in New York, Saints & Sinners Literary Festival in New Orleans, Southern Festival of Books in Nashville and Poetry At Tech in Atlanta. 

He leads workshops on submitting, publishing and marketing poetry, including using social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. He has guest lectured on social media at the Saints & Sinners Literary Festival in New Orleans, Decatur Book Festival and at Worcester College at Oxford University in the United Kingdom. Since 2006, he has been a student mentor and guest judge for the Poetry Out Loud National Recitation Contest created by the Poetry Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts.

Kelley is co-director of the Atlanta Queer Literary Festival, sits on the board of Poetry Atlanta and on the advisory council for Georgia Center for the Book. By day, Kelley is the managing editor for Atlanta Intown newspaper. He has been a journalist for more than 25 years. 

Publications - Magazines & Journals

• Atlanta Review
• Verse Daily
• Eye Socket Journal
• Scythe
• Creative Loafing
• Ecotone
• Ouroboros Review
• Hobble Creek Review
• Tears In The Fence
• MiPOesias
• Locuspoint
• 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
• Press 1
• Assaracus
• International Gallerie
• New Trespass
• HomeGround
• Whale Sound
• Necessary Fiction
• Floating Bridge Review
• VerseWrights
• Chelsea Station
• Jonathan

Anthologies

• this assignment is so gay: LGBTIQ Poets on  the Art of Teaching (forthcoming from Sibling Rivalry Press)
• Where Thy Dark Eye Glances: Queering Edgar Allan Poe (forthcoming from Lethe Press)
• Rabbit Ears: TV Poems (forthcoming from Poets Wear Prada)
• The Southern Poetry Anthology Vol. V: Georgia (Texas A&M University Press)
• Flicker and Spark: A Contemporary Queer Anthology of Spoken Word & Poetry (Lowbrow Press)
• A Face to Meet the Faces: An Anthology of Contemporary Persona Poetry (University of Akron Press)
• Divining Divas: 100 Gay Men on Their Muses (Lethe Press) 
• Don't Blame the Ugly Mug (Tebot Bach)
• My Diva: 65 Gay Men On The Women Who Inspire Them (University of Wisconsin Press) 
• CRUX: A Conversation in Words and Images (Fulton County Arts Council)
• A Slice of Cherry Pie (Half Empty/Half Full Press; The Private Press)
• di-verse-city 2005 and 2006 (Austin International Poetry Festival Anthology)
• Shout Them From the Mountain Tops: Georgia Poems (GCTE)
• Java Monkey Speaks Anthology Vols. 1-4 (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)
• We Don't Stop Here (The Private Press)
• OCHO (guest editor of Twitter edition)
• Trouble & Hope: A DVD Anthology (Poetry Atlanta Press) 

Other Selected Writing/Projects

• The Guardian
• Huffington Post
• Gadling
• AOL Travel
• Georgia Magazine
• Lambda Literary
• MovieMaker (interview with Wim Wenders)
• Project Q Atlanta (interview with Pam Grier)
• Ouroboros Review (interview with Vanessa Daou)
• Atlanta Intown (interview with Margaret Atwood)
• Soldout
• Like the Dew
• SubtleTea 
• Spoken word performances: Two Voices (1994) and Poems for Conquering Venus (1995) - WREK FM's Advise and Dissent program.
• Hosted web-based poetry show The Business of Words 
• Inaugural Writer-In-Residence for Poets & Writers blog in spring 2011, discussing grants and workshops.

E-MAIL COLLIN:  collinkelley@gmail.com 
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