Publications
Shorts
Fiction/Creative Nonfiction
“Cara Saves the World: Digressions on Failure” in American Book Review
“The Joys of the Path Most Traveled” in Sierra Magazine
“How To Use This Book” in Orion Magazine
“Entries or (Emotional Accounting in Late Capitalism)” at Identity Theory
“Turning Toward the Sun” for Best American Poetry
“Animal Tracking” for Best American Poetry
“Hunting Season” for Best American Poetry
“Roads And Seeds, A Trace” for Best American Poetry
“Whose Woods” for Best American Poetry
“Enter Geese” for Best American Poetry
“Hello From A Distance” for Best American Poetry
“SEARCH” at Hobart
Excerpt from “What Would Emma Goldman Do?” at The Brooklyn Rail
“Civilians” at Former Cactus
“Situations in Which Groping Is an Appropriate Response” at Jellyfish Review
“Modern Bodies” at The Brooklyn Rail
“How Was Your Day?” at Vol. 1 Brooklyn
“Too Hot” at Hobart
“Poetry & Politics & Prison” for Poetry Society of America
Reviews/Interviews/&tc.
Interview w/ Elspeth Hay for Terrain
Interview w/ Leah Penniman for Terrain
Interview w/ Kerri ní Dochartaigh for Full Stop
Interview w/ Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gavin Van Horn, John Hausdoerffer
for Full Stop Part 1; Part 2Interview with Omar Robert Hamilton for Full Stop
Review of La Femme de Gilles for 3:AM
Interview with Samanta Schweblin for Full Stop
Interview with Mary Rakow for Bookslut
Review of This Should be Written in the Present Tense at Electric Literature
Poems
“Economy” for The New York Times
“Banking” for Boston Review
“Speaking Is” for Academy of American Poets
Three Poems in Fence
“Real Estate” and “cafe society” in Cutbank
“the only thing I can see is the sky” for University of Rochester Decarceration Research Initiative
Books
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An Armsfull of Birds: A Personal Field Guide to Love, Loss, and Commitment
A story of recovery, love, and loss—a memoir of healing ourselves and the natural world.
“I opened it up to read the first few pages and then spent five hours reading the rest. Beautifully done. Poignant, human, authentic.”
—Jenny Lawson, The Bloggess and #1 New York Times bestselling author of How To Be Okay When Nothing Is Okay"This is a book about many profound things, but one of them is healing, and in particular the healing possibilities of the physical world around us. Of course, as Benson recognizes, healing needs to—and can—go both ways. A valuable book!"
—Bill McKibben, author of Here Comes the Sun -
(made)
“…extraordinarily lush and dexterous aggregation of language…Very highly recommend.” – Huffington Post
“velvety, Gertrude Stein-worthy snapshots”– Brooklyn Rail
“The beauty of (made) is that…[i]f it asks anything, it is to leave questioning aside…” – Constant Critic
“to read (made) is to inhabit a radical openness” – Tarpaulin Sky
“What captures my attention and then holds my interest is Cutbank’s predilection for strong, inviting first lines [like] Cara Benson’s prose poems (though I am not sure they couldn’t also be labeled sudden fiction)….” – New Pages on excerpts from (made)
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Belladonna Elders Series #7
Limited Edition. Anthology and conversation. Cara Benson hosts Jayne Cortez and Anne Waldman.
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Chapbooks
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Let Me Be Clear
Poems from Bernie Sanders’ filibuster speech on December 10, 2010 as (re)written at Mt. McGregor Correctional Facility in Wilton, New York by D. Anderson, Jerry Andrew, RC Brown, Jareau Carter, Daniel Felder, Dempsey Hawkins, JJ Davies, Ismael Melendez, Danny Nelson, & Eric Perez. Edited and with an introduction by Cara Benson.
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The Secret of Milk
“Benson’s writing … deals very much with the consequences of the things we make, as writers or as humans, whether in our literary production, or here, specifically, the dairy industry, asking the difficult questions that are usually, deliberately, overlooked. And in certain sections, is she talking about writing or milk production? Possibly, and beautifully, applying a single morphing strain of argument to both.” – rob mclennan
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Quantum Chaos and Poems: A Manifest(o)ation
What does it mean to make manifest in matter that which is poem, née words? Benson’s Quantum explores this conundrums. Part proem, part p)article. It’s a paper. It’s “glissading text around the order/disorder binary….” – roughly speaking, Christopher Rizzo. “In a good way.” Lots of juicy quotes. Winner of the bpNichol Chapbook Award.