Bio

Caroljean Gavin writes, edits, mothers and does many other surprising things. Her work has been nominated for the Best of the Net, The Pushcart Prize, and was included in Best Small Fictions 2021.

Her work can be found in places such as Milk Candy Review, New World Writing, Juked, X-R-A-Y, and Fractured.

She currently reads/ edits for Pithead Chapel and Uncharted. She is also the editor of the extremely under-rated book, What I Thought of Ain't Funny, an anthology of short fiction based on the jokes of Mitch Hedberg.

FAQs

Q: What's up with your name?

A: I was named after my mother's sister Caroljean Alma (her first and middle name) because after she passed, the rest of my mother's siblings decided the first girl born to them would take on her name. After that, three boys were born. Then me. I'm not sure how she spelled her name, but on my birth certificate, my name was spelled Caroljean (one long word) Alma Gavin. For most of my life, I went by Carol. Totally cool if you call me that. Just know that seeing Carol Jean in an email to me, especially as a response to an email I signed "Caroljean" will irritate me.

Q: Do you have an MFA?

A: Yes. It's a long story, but I started an MFA in Fiction at The New School in 2002 and finished it up through the low-residency program at Queens University of Charlotte. in 2013. I don't include it in my bio, because I think my work shows more of who I am as a writer than the fact that I have astronomical student loans. It's on my resume.

Q: Any other schooling we should know about?

A: Damn. Ok. After I eeked out my high school diploma, I went to Gavilan College, a community college where I experimented with majoring in music, until I decided just to go ahead and pursue the writing thing. After a couple of years there I earned enough credits to transfer to a four-year.

I majored in English with a concentration in Creative Writing at San Francisco State University. While there, I worked at Hot Cookie, a cookie shop in the Castro. I also went to a lot of shows and concerts and pretended I was a music journalist.

From there I got miraculously accepted into the MFA program at the New School and left for New York, where I'd never been, a year after 9/11 and my friends thought I was crazy. Loved New York. Read a lot, saw a lot of music, drank a lot, got into a lot of debt. Met Tori Amos. Saw Phillip Seymour Hoffman on the street and he smiled at me. Didn't finish my degree.

Sometime in 2012, I emailed the Queens MFA program, asking if they would accept me as a transfer even if my degree credits were from awhile ago, and they wrote back that they're upcoming residency was in a couple of weeks, and one of their students went on an unexpected leave, so there was a space right away if I wanted to send them an application and portfolio ASAP. I did. They accepted me. Then I went off to a pre-planned vacation in Hawaii for a week. Came home, threw all my clothes from the suitcase into the wash and then back into my suitcase and headed to Charlotte.

After a few years, I decided I missed school and earned my MLIS from UNCG in 2018. While not "officially" school, a couple of years later, I began a Yoga Teacher Training program, and am also a certified yoga teacher.

I'm a bit addicted to learning and going to school. I'm probably done, but honestly who knows.

Q: Have you been to any writing workshops or residencies.

A: Yeah. I went to Tin House from 2008-2012, back when it was less diverse and easier to get in to and worked with and met some amazing people. I also went to Hedgebrook's Vortext in 2017 and 2019. In 2022, I spent four weeks in residency at Gullkistan in Iceland.

Q: Tattoos?

A: Hummingbird and flowers on my right shoulder. Owl on my left wrist. Winnie the Pooh holding a blue balloon while swarmed with bees on my shoulder blade.

Q: Why can't I order your chapbook?

A: Unfortunately, Selcouth Station Press, who published my chapbook, folded early 2023, so the chapbook is out of print. The secret however, is that most of the pieces can be found online.

Q: Where do you live?

A: I've lived in North Carolina for about 15 years, but before that, other than the two years I spent in Manhattan, I am Northern California born and raised. Lived in Pacifica till I was 12, then Gilroy, then San Francisco. Other places too, but this is feeling self-indulgent as it is.

Q: What's your favorite color?

A: I am especially drawn to blue, green, teal, and most of their shades. I love color though and am more open to yellow and orange than I used to be.

Q: What other creative interests do you have?

A: Crocheting, sometimes knitting. Music. I have: a keyboard, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass, banjo, seven or eight ukuleles and my son's clarinet. Also into visual art and photography from time to time. Baking. I really want to get into puppetry and shoe making.

Q: Who are you obsessed with at the moment?

A: Natasha Lyonne and Stephanie Hsu.

Q: Do you have a Substack or newsletter?

A: I did, but I got to busy to be consistent with it. Maybe someday I'll give it another shot.

Q: What random things would you like to tell us about yourself?

A: Oh, thanks for asking! I, with my high school choir appeared on Burl Ives's last recorded album. I love the ocean and ocean life, and know so many things about sharks, you have no idea. I'm super into the idea of linguistic anthropology, and how languages shape culture and vice versa. I love puppets. I once road on a Dave Matthews Band crew tour bus and the only rule was "Don't spill anything," and right when I was standing up to get off, the bus lurched and I knocked over someone's glass. I like Disney World, especially EPCOT. I don't drive. I once took a surfing lesson in Hawaii, so afraid sharks would smell I was on my period, and then within like ten minutes I fell off the board, struck my knee on the reef and came up pouring blood. It was hilarious. If I could live in Iceland I would. If I could live in California again I would. I have recurring dreams about Neil Gaiman. I dress like I'm a six-year old at Target allowed to buy her own clothes for the first time. Fluevogs are my favorite shoes. Back in the late 90s early 00s, I was OBSESSED with Tori Amos. Took a ride from a stranger and slept on the street so I could get tickets to her show at The Fillmore. I was there when Neil Gaiman read all of Coraline at a church in Berkeley. I love birds so much. Especially raptors and hummingbirds. For the most part, pigeons, gulls, and geese are exempted from this love.

Q: Do people really ask you these questions?

A: You never know!