About

My name is Kai Carlson-Wee and I am a poet. I was born and raised in Minnesota and now live in California. Over the last ten years I’ve written poems and stories about traveling around the country. I’ve hopped freight trains, hitchhiked, road tripped, and spent a few years in the northern Cascades. This is my website. Feel free to check out my work and leave me a note if you want to say hi.

Bio

Kai Carlson-Wee is the author of RAIL, forthcoming from BOA Editions. 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, Blackbird, Crazyhorse, and The Missouri Review, which selected his poems for their 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 teaches poetry at Stanford University.

CV
BOOKS
  • Rail, BOA Editions, 2018
CHAPBOOKS
  • Two-Headed Boy, Organic Weapon Arts 2016, Winner of the Blair Prize
  • Mercy Songs, Diode Editions 2016
  • Northern Corn, Floodgate Poetry 2016
POETRY PUBLICATIONS
  • Once in the Rodin Garden, Ploughshares 2018
  • Crystal Meth, Third Coast 2017, Honorable Mention for the Third Coast Poetry Prize
  • Man in the Glass, Boaat Press 2016
  • Northtown Choir, Boaat Press 2016
  • The Cloudmaker's Bag, Phantom 2016
  • Black Label, Phantom 2016
  • Soo-Line Yard, Vinyl Poetry 2016
  • Anders Dream, Vinyl Poetry 2016
  • Riding the Burlington Grain, Gulf Coast 2016, Honorable Mention for the Gulf Coast Poetry Prize
  • Wolf Heaven, Adroit 2016
  • Hiding in a Well in the Northtown Yard, Blackbird 2016
  • Where the Feeling Deserts Us, Blackbird 2016
  • Mercy Songs, Blackbird 2016
  • Local Mission, Crazyhorse 2015
  • Bellingham Fair, Boxcar Poetry Review, 2015
  • White Pine, Poetry Northwest 2015
  • Westbound Train, Poetry Northwest 2015
  • Mutants, Drunken Boat 2015
  • Dundas, Minnesota, TriQuarterly 2015
  • The Cloudmaker's Key, 32 Poems 2015
  • King, Narrative Magazine, 2015
  • Sleep, Narrative Magazine, 2015
  • Fly Fishing, Narrative Magazine, 2015
  • Seatown, Narrative Magazine, 2015
  • Minnesota Roads, Narrative Magazine, 2015
  • Jesse James Days, The Missouri Review 2015, Winner of the Editor's Prize
  • The Boy's Head, The Missouri Review, 2014
  • Bolinas, The Missouri Review, 2014
  • Sunshine Liquidators, The Missouri Review, 2014
  • Holes in the Mountain, The Missouri Review, 2014
  • Thresher, NP 2013
  • Deer Bones, Linebreak 2011
  • The Sound and the Fog, The Lumberyard 2011
  • Thresher, Best New Poets 2010
  • Seven Day Fast, Forklift, Ohio 2011
  • After Havre, Forklift, Ohio 2011
  • Oaks, Miracle Monocle, Winter 2010
  • Map of a Dream with the Cloudmaker's Sign, Caffetto Coffeehouse, March 2007
  • The Rushing, University of Minnesota, 2006, summa cum laude thesis
  • Driving to Fargo, Ivory Tower 2006
  • Sketching Abbey, Liminal 2006
  • Exploding Self, The Wake 2006
  • Nightlife, Amsterdam, The Wake 2005
  • Yellow Bicycle, The Reader, Trinity College, Oxford University, 2005
  • Painter, The Reader, Trinity College, Oxford University, 2005
  • Swollen [Buzz], The Wake 2005
  • A Warning, 13 Review, 2004
  • Another Strange Day at the Airport, The Acorn Review 2003
  • Learning to Dance, The Acorn Review 2003
ARTICLES & INTERVIEWS
  • 32 Poems Interview, 32 Poems 2016
  • On Rollerblading and Poetry, Seymour Magazine 2016
  • On Riding the Highline, Poetry Northwest, 2015
  • The Beauty of Not Really Knowing Who You Are, SF Weekly, 2013
  • Shock Interview, Shock Magazine, 2010
  • S.O.S. (Save Our Spots), Be-Mag, March, 2003
VIDEO PUBLICATIONS
  • Westbound Train, Poetry Northwest (online), 2015
  • Holes in the Mountain, The Missouri Review (online), 2014
  • Pile of Rails, Shock DVD Magazine, 2011
  • Saven (advertisement), Life + Video Magazine, Vol. 6, 2003
  • Framework of Perspective, Life + Video Magazine, Vol. 6, 2003
  • A Week in the Wilderness, Life + Video Magazine, Vol. 3, 2002
FILMS
  • Riding the Highline; 16:08

  • American Documentary Film Festival 2017
  • Fargo Film Festival 2017
  • San Jose Short Film Festival 2016
  • Woods Hole Film Festival 2016
  • San Francisco Documentary Film Festival 2016
  • Arizona International Film Festival 2016, Winner of Jury Award for Creative Achievement
  • Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival 2016
  • Napa Valley Film Festival 2015, Winner of Jury Award for Innovation
  • Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) 2015, Minneapolis, MN

  • Holes in the Mountain: 4:02

  • Reel 13, PBS New York 2015, Winner of the Weekly Short Contest
  • Poetry Film 2014
  • The Missouri Review 2014
PHOTOGRAPHY PUBLICATIONS
  • Badlands, Narrative Magazine 2015
PROFILES
  • Profile, Daily Bread Magazine, October, 2002
  • Profile, Any Given Day Magazine, Summer Issue, 2002
  • Profile, Living Dead, Be-Mag, December, 2001
READINGS
  • Diode 10th Anniversary Reading, Arts Club of Washington, February 9th 2017
  • Arizona International Film Festival, The Screening Room, April 24th 2016, Tucson AZ
  • At the Inkwell, Alley Cat Books, April 18th 2016, San Francisco, CA
  • Floodgate Poetry Reading, These Days, April 4th 2016, Los Angeles, CA
  • Diode Editions Reading, La Cita Bar, April 4th 2016, Los Angeles, CA
  • Sewanee Writers' Conference, Scholars' Reading, July 27th 2015, Sewanee, TN
  • The Missouri Review, Prize Winners Reading, April 19th 2014, Columbia, MO
  • Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, Waiters' Reading, August 15th 2013, Middlebury, VT
  • Bernal Yoga Center, Reading, April 7th 2013, Bernal Heights, CA
  • How Words Work, Reading/Lecture, California Lutheran University, April 7th 2013, Thousand Oaks, CA
  • Bazaar Poetry Series, CafŽ Bazaar, October 8th 2012, San Francisco, CA
  • Off the Richter Scale, Litquake Festival, October 7th 2012, San Francisco, CA
  • Bangkok Poetry, July 21st 2012, Bangkok, Thailand
  • Stegner Reading Series, October 26th 2011, Stanford University, Stanford, CA
  • Best New Poets, December 9th 2010, Avol's Books, Madison, Wisconsin
  • Blue-Ox Reading, November 18th 2010, Gates of Heaven Synagogue, Madison, Wisconsin
  • MFA Reading, May 11th 2010, Gates of Heaven Synagogue, Madison, Wisconsin
SCHOLARSHIPS, PRIZES, & AWARDS
  • David Blair Memorial Chapbook Prize, Organic Weapon Arts (2016)
  • Jury Award for Creative Achievement, Arizona International Film Festival (2016)
  • Jury Award for Innovation in Documentary Short Film, Napa Valley Film Festival (2015)
  • The MacDowell Colony, Residency (2015)
  • Sewanee Writers' Conference, Tennessee Williams Scholarship (2015)
  • The Missouri Review, 2013 Jeffrey E. Smith Poetry Prize (2014)
  • Breadloaf Writers' Conference, Work/Study Scholarship (2013)
  • Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Prize (2012)
  • Wallace Stegner Fellowship (2011-2013)
  • August Derleth Prize (2010)