Joseph Kuhn Carey’s previous full-length travel poetry collections, Black Forest Dreams: A Journey Through Germany (Kelsay Books, 2021) and Postcards From Poland (Chicago Poetry Press, 2014), have garnered numerous awards. His poetry has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, selected in local and national contests, shown on buses and in store windows & parks, and published in many poetry collections, as well as in his chapbook, Bulk-Rate (The Reflex Press, 1981).
Joe received an American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers/Deems Taylor Award for music-related journalistic writing. He’s written about jazz and blues artists for DownBeat, JazzTimes, and The Boston Globe, and has voted in the Grammy Awards (2007–2020). Additionally, he’s composed, recorded, and released two “Loose Caboose Band” CDs of original children’s songs with his brother, Bill (The Caboose is Loose and Mighty Big Broom, the latter of which was honored with two first-voting-round Grammy nominations). He’s also published a book on jazz, Big Noise From Notre Dame: A History of the Collegiate Jazz Festival (University of Notre Dame Press, 1986).
Joe holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Notre Dame, as well as graduate degrees from Boston University and the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. When not scribbling down poems about daily life, the fascinating world around him, or his world travels, Joe runs a property management business, chases an occasionally-errant golf ball around the local public golf links at sunset (when the light glows best on the clouds in a dazzlingly-pure painted sky and deer start to slowly emerge from the surrounding woods), and continually tries to master Chuck Berry, B.B. King, and Scotty Moore riffs on acoustic and electric guitars.
Website:
josephkuhncareycreativeworks.com
Paperback: 120 pages
Publisher: Kelsay Books (January 9, 2026)
Also available on Kindle