Wet holiday weekend bits

I hope all my fellow Americans had a good Fourth of July. Here in Atlanta, it was washout. It's been raining for days, so at least I'm getting a taste of the English weather I'm missing so much. Although, I just saw the UK weather report and it's sunny and hot there. Go figure.

One of the questions I'm always asked – even when a new book has just bee published – is, "What are you working on next?" Once I finish the third book in The Venus Trilogy, I will turn my attention to the next poetry manuscript. I'm not sure whether it will be a chapbook or full-length collection at this point, but all the poems are about London. I'm even thinking about pulling a few poems out of my first collection, Better To Travel, to include in this new book. I'd like to take a crack at revising them. I cannot believe Better To Travel is almost 10 years old. I'll be posting some recollections about it, and perhaps a few poems, soon.

I have been inundated with submissions for the pop culture issue I'm guest editing for Hobble Creek Review. I'm going to start reading them this month and make decisions by the end of August. If you haven't submitted, you have until Aug. 1. Check out the guidelines at this link.

The folks at the Georgia Writers Association passed on the the judge's comments about Remain In Light, which was selected as the runner-up for the Georgia Author of the Year Award in Fiction last month. Novelist Ray Atkins had these lovely words to say about my book:

Collin Kelley’s Remain in Light is nothing less than an examination of the human will. This novel explores the need in us all to avoid the loneliness and despair of isolation and lost love. Kelley is a poet in novelist’s clothing, and his prose leaps from the pages with easy grace. Remain in Light is a fine novel, indeed.

Thank you, Mr. Atkins. I hope the third book will elicit the same response.