A Poet Librarian

me in woods

My name is Melissa Eleftherion Carr. I work as a Branch Librarian with Mendocino County Library. Like a lot of librarians, I wear many hats in relationship with our community – reference, reader’s advisory, collection development, outreach, publicity, marketing, project management, circulation, food service… whatever it takes. It’s the best job in the world.

I’m also a poet, currently serving as the Poet Laureate of Ukiah, CA 2021-2023. My work has been collected in various forms and fragments including journals, anthologies, a full-length collection, and ten chapbooks including: huminsect (dancing girl press, 2013), prism maps (dusie kollektiv), Pigtail Duty (dancing girl press, 2015), the leaves the leaves (poems-for-all, 2018), green glass asterisms (poems-for-all, 2018), little ditch (above/ground press, 2018) trauma suture (above/ground press, 2020), & abalone (poems-for-all, 2021). My poems have been published in over 100 journals and anthologies, including Entropy, Flag+VoidLunch Ticket, Pith, Queen Mob’s Teahouse, & Vector Press.

My first full-length collection, field guide to autobiography, was recently published by The Operating System. The book explores the inter-relatedness of various species through accreted fragments toward autobiography. How does a person begin to enumerate the many fragments & fractals that comprise a life? field guide to autobiography is an attempt at memoir through the lens of various animals & minerals including katydids, wrens, abalone shells, and apple trees.

The Poetry Center Chapbook Exchange is a community-curated archive I created and developed for poets to convene, correspond, and collaborate via the currency of the poetry community: chapbooks. This cooperative model has facilitated the compilation of a diverse and innovative collection of poetry chapbooks for public access. We began by inviting a select group of core contributors, and grew our collection in just a few months to comprise 30+ chapbooks freely available on the web. A paper chronicling the project was published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Electronic Resources Librarianship (JERL). You can also read more about the chapbook exchange here and here

2 thoughts on “A Poet Librarian”

  1. Hi Melissa

    I got your info from Albany library. I am looking for a storyteller as entertainment for a 7 year olds bdays from 3-4pm tomorrow here at Raksha Care Homes, an assisted living community located in Albany. The librarian said you would be a great person to contact for this. We realize this is last minute but if you can make it would be greatly appreciated!

    Bhumi Bhutani

    Like

    1. Hi Bhumi,

      Thank you so much for your note. Unfortunately, I will be working tomorrow and am unable to perform story-time at the assisted living facility you mentioned. I wish I could! I hope you are able to locate someone to help.

      Thanks and all the best,
      Melissa

      Like

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