Kai Carlson-Wee is an American poet and filmmaker. He is the author of the poetry collection RAIL, published by BOA Editions in 2018. He is a Jones Lecturer in creative writing at Stanford University.

Biography

Carlson-Wee was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the son of Lutheran pastors. He has two younger brothers, poet Anders Carlson-Wee and Olaf Carlson-Wee, entrepreneur and the founder of

Polychain Capital Polychain Capital (Polychain) is an American investment firm based in San Francisco, California. The firm focuses on investments related to cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. Background Polychain Capital was founded in 2016 by Olaf Ca ...

. After graduating from High School in Moorhead, Minnesota, Carlson-Wee moved to San Diego to pursue a career as a professional rollerblader. He attended Grossmont Community College in El Cajon, before attending the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

in Minneapolis, and St. Catherine's College at

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, where he studied Romantic Poetry. During his time in college, he struggled with mental health issues and was prescribed mood stabilizers and anti-psychotic medication, stating that after seven months of treatment, "my thoughts returned to normal and I was able to read again." Following college, Carlson-Wee traveled extensively throughout the United States, train hopping, hitchhiking, road tripping, and hiking in the North Cascades. He also traveled throughout Europe and lived at the Shakespeare and Company bookstore in Paris. In interviews, he has stated that traveling became the subject matter of much of his writing and filmmaking.

Career and notable works

Carlson-Wee received an MFA in Poetry from the

University of Wisconsin-Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

in 2011. He was awarded a Wallace Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University in 2011, and a

Jones Lectureship The Jones Lectureship at Stanford University is a two-year teaching fellowship available to previous Stegner Fellowship, Stegner Fellows. The Lectureship is available in fiction and poetry and is intended to provide writers with the time and support ...

in Poetry in 2013. In 2014 he won the Editor's Prize from The Missouri Review, and in 2023 he received a

Pushcart Prize The Pushcart Prize is an American literary prize published by Pushcart Press that honors the best "poetry, short fiction, essays or literary whatnot" published in the small presses over the previous year. Magazine and small book press editors are ...

. Carlson-Wee's writing has been published in ''The Kenyon Review, Tin House,

Ploughshares ''Ploughshares'' is an American literary journal established in 1971 by DeWitt Henry and Peter O'Malley in The Plough and Stars, an Irish pub in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Since 1989, ''Ploughshares'' has been based at Emerson College in Boston. ...

, The Academy of American Poets, Literary Hub, and The Southern Review''. His photography has been featured in '' Narrative Magazine''. With his brother Anders, he has co-authored the chapbooks Mercy Songs and Two-Headed Boy. His debut collection of poems, RAIL, was published by BOA Editions in 2018, and was praised for its "authentic voice" and "gritty" depictions of life on the road. In the foreword to the book, Nick Flynn describes it as "biblical" and compares it to works by

Larry Levis Larry Patrick Levis (September 30, 1946 – May 8, 1996) was an American poet who published five award-winning books of poetry during his lifetime. Since his death, three more volumes of poetry, along with a book of essays, have been published to ...

and Sam Shephard. Publishers Weekly praised the book for its "un-performative americana" and moments of "brutal lyric beauty". Campell McGrath named Carlson-Wee a "worthy inheritor" of "the great American bardic tradition", comparing him to

Walt Whitman Walter Whitman (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among t ...

and

Jack Kerouac Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac (; March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Of French-Canadian a ...

. His documentary film, Riding the Highline, received the Special Jury Prize at the Napa Valley Film Festival, the Audience Choice Award at the Arizona International Film Festival, and the Shoestring Award at the Rochester International Film Festival. The film follows Carlson-Wee and his brother hopping freight trains on the Burlington Highline route from Minneapolis, Minnesota to Wenatchee, Washington.

Writing approach and style

Carlson-Wee's writing explores themes of travel, mental health, and the myth of the American West. He writes in a narrative lyric mode and employs long lines and anapestic meter to approximate the rhythm of a train. Carlson-Wee has said he often writes while traveling, and his poems are composed of "loose fragments" scribbled in his journals. Carlson-Wee stated he's been influenced by the

imagist Imagism was a movement in early-20th-century Anglo-American poetry that favored precision of imagery and clear, sharp language. It is considered to be the first organized literary modernism, modernist literary movement in the English language. ...

poets, particularly the poet

Robert Bly Robert Elwood Bly (December 23, 1926 – November 21, 2021) was an American poet, essayist, activist and leader of the mythopoetic men's movement. His best-known prose book is '' Iron John: A Book About Men'' (1990), which spent 62 weeks on ' ...

, who described his debut collection as "strong and inspired". He has also been influenced by the dirty realism writers of the 1980s, and by photographers such as Alec Soth and

Michael Brodie Michael Brodie (born 10 May 1974 in Manchester, England) is a former professional boxer who fought in the Super Bantamweight and Featherweight divisions. Boxing career Brodie boxed as an amateur before turning professional in October 1994 ...

. He has been compared to Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen in his tales of "nomadic vagabonds" and "unmoored drifters searching for a home"., and his work has been praised as an authentic depiction of rural lives and stories

Awards and honors

References

External links

*
Train-Hopping Gave Me Back My Life
, ''Literary Hub'' *
A Sense of Wholeness: An Interview with Kai Carlson-Wee
, ''Great River Review'' *
Where Poetry and Film Converge: An Interview with Kai Carlson-Wee
, No.1 Brooklyn *
"Riding the Highline"
Kai Carlson-Wee, ''Atticus Review''. November 17, 2017. {{DEFAULTSORT:Carlson-Wee, Kai 1982 births Living people 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American poets American documentary film directors Film directors from Minnesota American male non-fiction writers American male poets University of Minnesota alumni Alumni of the University of Oxford University of Wisconsin alumni