Carole Mertz

Poet

Parma, OH
Ohio US

Author's Bio

Carole Mertz, poet, reviewer, interviewer, essayist, and editor 

Author, Toward a Peeping Sunrise, poetry chapbook, Prolific Press (2019) Link to order: 

https://prolificpress.com/bookstore/chap...

Author, Color and Line (Kelsay Books, 2021): Link to order:

Amazon.com: Color and Line (9781952326806): Mertz, Carole: Books

Publication in literary journals, U.S., Canada, Great Britain, Africa, and India. 

Poetry Editor, The Ocotillo Review, 2023

Reviewer,  Ars Medica, 2023

Editorial Assistant, Kallisto Gaia Press, 2021 to 2023 (Judging for Julia Darling Memorial Prize)

Editorial Assistant, Kallisto Gaia Press, 2022 to 2023 (Reading for Saguaro Poetry Prize)

Judge for Poets and Patrons in Illinois International Poetry Contest in formal verse, 2020, in ekphrasis, 2022.

Book Review Editor, Dreamers Creative Writing, 2019 to present. 

Reader of prose and poetry for Mom Egg Review, 2016 - 2018.

Member Prize Selection Team, The Ekphrastic Review, 2019 - 2021. 

Advance reader WNBA 2018 Poetry Contest.  

Blog Tour Participation / Carole Writes Blogposts at www.carolemertz.com

Neill McKee's Memoir, Guns and Gods in my Genes, Posted 3-15-21

Jasmine Leyva's documentary, The Invisible Vegan, Posted 4-19-21

Reviews in Arc Poetry Magazine, Ascent Aspirations, Beakful Litblog/Becquee Litblog, Bookish Beck (UK), Christian Communicator, Compulsive Reader, Concho River Review, Conium Review, Copperfield Review, CutBank, Dreamers Creative Writing, Drizzle Review, Eclectica, Full Stop, Into the Void Magazine, Kallisto Gaia Press, League of Canadian Poets, Main Street Rag, mdpaust.blogspot.com, Michigan Quarterly Review, Midwest Book Review, Mom Egg Review, Outlook by the Bay, Page & Spine, Poetic Diversity, Portage Magazine, Quill & Parchment, River Teeth, Scarlet Leaf Review, South 85 Journal, Taj Mahal Review, The Bangalore Review, The Bookends Review, The Ekphrastic Review, The New Book Review, The Ocotillo Review, Whale Road Review, Wilderness House Literary Review, World Literature Today.

 

Interviews in  Adanna Literary Journal (2022, Annual), Dreamers Creative Writing, Lisa Haselton.com, Carole Mertz.com, The Bookends Review, The Ekphrastic Review, Wilderness House Literary Review, WOW! Women on Writing, Zingara Poetry Review

 

Stories in Cappers Magazine, Lutheran Digest, Mature Years, Rockford Review, The Verb, Tiny Lights, Toasted Cheese Journal, With Painted Word, 100 Word Fiction.

 

Fifteen Christian devotions, Portals of Prayer, September, 2008 (CPH); five devotions in Bethesda’s Time with God : 365 Daily Conversations (2013), Devotional Studies with Standard Publications, 2014

 

Essays in 1888.Center, Ekphrastic Review, Page & Spine, Working Writer, WOW! Women on Writing, Writing in a Woman’s Voice.

 

Poems in Abandoned Mine, Adanna Literary Journal (2022 Annual), Al-Khemia, Blue Collar Review, Cantos: A Literary and Arts Journal, Eclectica, Every Day Poems, Front Porch Review, Indiana Voice Journal, Kind of a Hurricane Press, Living Springs Leviathan, Lutheran Beacon, Mom Egg Review, Muddy River Poetry Review, Page & Spine, Poetry Quarterly (Issue 42, Issue 43, Issue 44, Issue 46), Prairie Light Review, Praxis Magazine, Pyrokinection, Quill & Parchment, Rockford Review, Society of Classical Poets, The Ekphrastic Review, Voices de la Luna, Voices on the Wind, WestWard Quarterly, Write Place at the Write Time, Writing in a Woman's Voice.

 

Pushcart Prize Nominee for "Relieved" at Quill & Parchment, December 2021

Honorable Mention, Quill & Parchment, December 2022

 

Winner four Poetry Challenges, Wilda Morris Poetry Blog, 2014 to 2018; Intergenerational Storytelling Contest, Honorable Mention, (Intergeneration Foundation, 2014); Mystery, Toasted Cheese Journal, Bronze Winner, 2014; Story, Honorable Mention, The Verb (2011).

 

Contributor to Anthologies: BAM 42 Words Anthology (2023), Starry, Starry Night (Luzajic E-Anthology, 2022), Journal VII (Soc. of Classical Poets, 2019); Writing after Retirement, Ed. Smallwood & Redman-Waldeyer (Rowman & Littlefield, 2014; Island Wonders, (Poetry Institute of Canada, 2013); Whortleberry Press Halloween Anthology, 2012.

 

Education: Mus.B Oberlin College, Mozarteum (Certificate), Hunter College, (Certificate), Long Ridge Writers Group Graduate

Publications & Prizes

Chapbook:
Toward a Peeping Sunrise (Prolific Press, 2019)
Journals:
Eclectica
,
Prizes won: 

 

Finalist, Ars Poetica Contest, Riddled with Arrows, August, 2022

Mystery Contest, Toasted Cheese Literary Journal, Bronze Medal

Wilda Morris Poetry Challenges, winner several 1st Pl. and 2nd Pl., 

Pushcart Nominee for poem "Relieved" (Quill & Parchment)

Personal Favorites

Favorite authors: 
Dickens, Austen, King, Tyler, Theroux, Calvino, McCann, McCall Smith, L. Penny, Dickinson, Auden, Bishop, Glueck, W. Stevens, C. Smallwood, C.S.Lewis, many others.
What I'm reading now: 
Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry by Jane Hirshfield, A Line in the World by Dorthe Nors, Yeats: The Man and the Mask by Ellmann, The Poems of Octavio Paz by Ed. Weinberger, An Exaltation of Forms by Annie Finch & Kathrine Varnes, The Wandering Mind by Jamie Kreiner

More Information

Gives readings: 
Yes
Identifies as: 
American
Fluent in: 
English, German
Born in: 
Quakertown, PA
Pennsylvania
Raised in: 
Quakertown, PA
Pennsylvania
Please note: All information in the Directory is provided by the listed writers or their representatives.
Last update: Mar 30, 2024