Publications
Recent Magazine Publications
Best Canadian Poetry, 2025 (“Grip”)
Malahat Review, No. 218, Spring 2022 ("Dressing")
Arc, Volume 99, Fall 2022 ("Kiss")
Grain Magazine, Volume 50.1, Fall 2022 ("Ashes"). This poem is also forthcoming in the Best Canadian Poetry Anthology 2024.
CV2, vol. 45.3, Winter 2023 ("Grip" and "At the Cancer Centre doors")
2015
Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow are the stuff of legend – why tell their story again? Chances are you don’t know the nuances – their love story and that of their accomplices Buck Barrow and his wife Blanche; their aspirations, conflicts and prayerful natures; and ultimately the sources of their tragedy. At its core, Careen is a long poem spoken by the characters, though the voices are companioned by newspaper articles often ironically at odds with the inside story. Smart lets the principal actors relate their own tale—a book of voices speaking out of the desperate Dirty Thirties.
$20.00, Brick Books
ISBN-13: 9781771313827
2009
Hooked is a stunning collection of seven poems about seven famous or infamous women: Myra Hindley, Unity Mitford, Zelda Fitzgerald, Dora Carrington, Carson McCullers, Jane Bowles, and Elizabeth Smart. Each of these women was hooked on, and her life contorted by, an addiction or obsession. Here we have seven variations on the insoluble conundrum of sexuality – each in a remarkably distinct, authentic voice.
$19.00, Brick Books
ISBN-13: 9781894078696
2001
“At the End of the Day – a Memoir” (Penumbra, 2001) is Carolyn’s only prose publication. A section from the memoir won 1st Prize in the CBC Literary Contest, Personal Essay Category. The book has been described as “a tale of mystery and attempted resolution. It is the narrative of a daughter's search for her enigmatic father's life story, the father whose mental tricks, quirky humour and moodiness leave her in a turmoil of awe and terror.”
$20.00, on Abe Books
ISBN-13: 9781894131162
1992
Carolyn’s fourth book of poems is a collection that ranges from celebrating the rural landscape north of Kingston, Ontario to re-creating the painful last phase of her friend Bronwen Wallace’s life in a moving sequence titled “The Sound of the Birds.” The volume’s opening sequence, “Cape of Storms,” views the hatred thriving amid the astonishing physical beauty of South Africa while “The woman is bathing” details a journey to Costa Rica that is a journey into the self.
$15.00, Brick Books
ISBN-13: 978-0-91962-656-0
1986
“Stoning the Moon” (Oberon Press, 1986), a third collection of poetry, focused on violence against women, and the shift from an urban life to a rural life centered on family and children. It marks a major change in Carolyn’s work and thematic concerns.
$30.42, on Amazon
ISBN-13 : 978-0887506581
1982
“Power Sources” (Fiddlehead Books, 1982) Carolyn’s second published collection, continued the tradition of lyricism and the confessional poem. Many of the poems concern relationships, and a raised awareness of the support system necessary for survival and creativity.
Price: $20, from me directly.
ISBN-13: 978-0-86492-018-0
1981
“Swimmers In Oblivion” (York Publishing, 1981) was Carolyn’s first published collection of poetry. Her confessional style began here with poems about her mother’s illness and death, female friendships, and urban life. A mixture of lyric, surreal and prose poetry, it revealed the emergence of feminist concerns and a range of linguistic play.
ISBN-13: 978-0-920424-27-9
OUT OF PRINT