Books
Preorder links:
Tertulia ・ Get the book for 50% off the list price and free shipping with a free trial membership with Tertulia, or 20% off with the code TRUE at checkout
True Stories – first poetry collection available June 18, 2024 from Unsolicited Press
Inspired by various disasters, from climate change to the pandemic, the poems of True Stories whirl together extreme weather, isolation, and interpersonal dysfunction into a gathering storm of a book. The first poem, “100-Year Storm” foregrounds cyclical themes, asking readers to consider-again and again, over and over-the effects of interconnected catastrophes. When one storm ends, the next one begins. When waters recede in one place, they flood elsewhere. When we think we’re ending, we’re only just beginning.
Split into five parts named for the four stages of hurricane formation and the eye of the storm, the book builds in intensity only to suddenly provide precious moments of calm relief. Poems about unbridgeable distances are side-by-side with poems about deep friendships and romantic relationships. Shattered free verse poems that move across the page are interspersed with orderly sonnets and other forms. Guiding the reader through a maelstrom before leaving them becalmed, the book artfully reproduces the feeling of living in chaotic times. Intimate and all-encompassing, each line is a torrent of emotion and truth.
Publications
Fiction
“One Fall” – Five on the Fifth, Vol. 8, Issue 1, November 5th, 2022
“Swimming Lessons” – Pleiades: Literature in Context, Online Exclusive, September 18th, 2022
“Star Count of Orion” – JMWW Journal, January 22nd, 2020, nominated for Best of the Net 2020, selected for Best Small Fictions 2021, selected for 2013-2022 jmww anthology published by Modern Times
“How To Grow Basil” – Barren Magazine, Issue No. 11; reprint in Heat the Grease, We’re Frying Up Some Poetry from Gnashing Teeth Publishing, December 2019
Poetry
“Manner” – Hawai’i Pacific Review, 30 Jan 2024
“From Ashes” – Midway Journal, Vol. 17, Issue 4
“Attacus atlas” and “Closer” – Twelve Mile Review, Summer 2023 Issue
Four poems: “Yun,” “Still Life,” “Hectic,” and “Wild Flower” – Dream Glow Magazine, Winter 2023 Volume III, Issue 1 – Digital Print
“Cyanistes caeruleus” – Third Wednesday, January 21st, 2023; Spring 2023 print issue
“Geo Logic” – Footprints: an anthology of new ecopoetry, eds. Aaron Kent and Charlie Baylis, Broken Sleep Books, June 30th, 2022
Poems from 2019-2021 can be found here.
Op-Eds
“Letter: Cases are on the rise, we are entering winter and we need a plan from ISU” by Caroliena Cabada, Vivian Cook, Dhruv Raturi, and Kelsey Zimmerman, Iowa State Daily, 22 Nov 2020
“Iowa State falls short on COVID-19 protections and pledges, graduate students say” by Julia Bilek, Caroliena Cabada, Vivian Cook, Kelsey Zimmerman, and Zachary Calhoun, Des Moines Register, 19 Oct 2020
Caroliena Cabada 