Böcker av Karol Nielsen

In Small Life, Karol Nielsen shares precise little snapshots of New York streetscapes and the people she meets there, always wondering if she truly belongs. The homeless, the street vendors, dog walkers, and more are each presented with compassion and just the right details, in all their unique humanity. Not till quarantine in a leafy Connecticut suburb does the author note that hers is a "small life." Her readers realize that despite any accident of birth, Nielsen is a New Yorker. She relishes life there in the before times, and looks forward to after.-Katherine Flannery Dering, author of the memoir Shot in the Head, A Sister's Memoir, a Brother's Struggle and the poetry chapbook AftermathA veteran observer of international events, the indomitable Karol Nielsen (whose memoir Black Elephants describes being newly engaged in a war zone) turns the current lockdown into an opportunity to deep dive into her present circumstances ("small" when compared with her pre-March 2020 situation), as well as to retrieve images of Manhattan. By chronicling chance encounters-and recognizing how special they are-this teacher and former journalist rediscovers the immediacy of poetry. Taking time to reflect on the hows and whys of what happens to everyone, Nielsen reminds us how precious life is. She does, indeed, seize the day.-Judith Mary Gee, author of the chapbook Edges of Wanting

Karol Nielsen's new book sees the poet masterfully engaging with the question of how to define and communicate one's place in a complex world, speaking volumes about the society she inhabits. Nielsen, who is also an acclaimed author of two memoirs, paints vivid scenes that are as easy to visualize as they are suggestive and multilayered, at once real and metaphorical. Full of soul-searching, heartbreak, and the triumph of insight, this moving collection guides its readers through a personal journey full of historical resonance yet fully present in the here-and-now. -Anton Yakovlev, author of the chapbook Chronos Dines Alone, winner of the James Tate Poetry Prize 2018Karol Nielsen's collection carries the indelible grief of war and its many faces "like a prison tattoo." Her urban poems are populated by her father, neighbors, lovers, famous actors, and people she encounters on the New York City streets. Striking and unforgettable, the war stories seep into her poems. The distant wars of Vietnam and Afghanistan permeate the wars of everyday life. From this hopelessness, tender love poems rise like "small bursts of color/then full, fat blooms." -Claudia Serea, author of Twoxism

Paints a poignant and harrowing picture of love during wartime