The Journal of Modern Poetry Book Award — 2013
During a moving, & memorable trip to Poland with my wife and sons in 2010, I started to quickly scribble down poems about the sights & sounds we were experiencing in a little notebook, as well as on various scraps of paper. When we returned home to Chicago, I continued to write poems about other facets of the trip, using memories, scrap-books and photos. Suddenly, I had forty-one poems in a little poetry collection, so I asked my Polish relatives (on my wife, Renata’s, side) to read the poems and, to my surprise, they like them very much! Emboldened by this praise, I polished up the poems some more, gave the collection a title (“Postcards From Poland”) and entered the collection in the Journal of Modern Poetry Book Award Contest in Chicago (which was hosted by Chicago Poetry Press). To my complete shock (since this was the first place I had mailed in the collection)—”Postcards From Poland” was selected as the third Journal of Modern Poetry Book Award Winner in 2013 and published (as part of the award) by Chicago Poetry Press in 2014! What a thrill it was to win this award and create this published poetry work with Chicago Poetry Press editor CJ Laity!
“About this book of impressive poems: There is something poignantly beautiful in the lovely lines that come off the page to reach into the heart and mind. Always there on the edge of aware. Joe Carey’s ‘Postcards from Poland’ also has something of that loving slant of insight always there in a mind at peace with the time and place. His award winning book of 41 postcard poems reveal what Joe Carey cares about: the language and rhythm of truth.”
Ken Nordine, Legendary “Word-Jazz” Originator
Chicago Poetry Press is pleased to announce the release of Postcards from Poland, written by Joseph Kuhn Carey of Glencoe, IL, a Journal of Modern Poetry Book Award Selection. The poems in Mr. Carey’s manuscript were composed over three years after the author took an inspiring journey with his family to the Polish cities of Krakow & Zakopane. The “artistic travel-log” nature of the poems present the sights, sounds and colorful events occurring in and around these two mysterious, gorgeous and overlooked cities, which are home to ancient castles, fantastic museums, breath-taking churches, soaring cable-car rides, astonishing mountains, and amazing nightclubs set deep in medieval cellars, as well as nearby horrific and powerfully enlightening WWII death camp locations. The author Joe Carey says: “There is something essential and important in these two cities for the older and younger Polish generations. For the older generation, Krakow and Zakopane represent things that survived WWII intact and largely untouched—while to the younger generation, the two cities represent the vibrant, energetic and robust side of Polish life.”
“Here is a buoyant and bountiful love letter to Krakow, with a receptive spirit for everything from Szarlotka and clopping horses, to salt mines, to McDonalds-in-the-catacombs. Joe Carey has made poetry without cynicism or bad temper (though with a touch of irony here and there), always curious and open to the ‘outdoor swagger’ of the land and to ‘what’s going on inside’. A pleasure to read.”
Janet Burroway, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-Nominated Novelist, Poet, Playwright and Children’s Book Author
Postcards From Poland; forty-one beautiful poems about Krakow, Zakopane, and more! Buy at Amazon.com
The ASCAP/Deems Taylor Award—1983
I was completely surprised to win a prestigious American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers/Deems Taylor Award for music-related writing in 1983. I had been writing articles and reviews about jazz for an indie (mostly rock) music publication in Boston called Sweet Potato while working on a graduate degree at Boston University and somehow three Sweet Potato pieces I wrote after interviews with jazz musician/composers Carla Bley, Charlie Haden and Anthony Braxton caught the eye of the ASCAP/Deems Taylor committee (after I raced to the post office at closing time on the last submission day of that year’s contest to mail my articles in!). It was a unforgettable (and somewhat unreal) thrill to be chosen for this award and I happily flew out to New York City for the award ceremonies at the ASCAP headquarters. I had no idea what would happen at the event, but it turned out to be an amazing experience. I met the composer of the world-famous song “All Of Me,” Gerald Marks, at the ceremony (who told me he was one of the judges who selected my articles for the award! What a nice guy he was, talking to me for awhile about songwriting, his career and music in general), as well as famed blues historian Samuel Charters and composer Hal David (well-known for his many hit songs written with Burt Bacharach). In the second picture shown here, I’m receiving one of the ASCAP/Deems Taylor awards from ASCAP president Hal David (far left). My Sweet Potato editor, Rich Cromonic (who kindly gave me a chance to write about jazz each month for his publication), is to the right of Hal David, and I’m directly to the right of Rich. (To my right is an ASCAP staff member who was also helping to hand out the awards.) The first picture below shows the elegant, shiny ASCAP/Deems Taylor award plaque, while the third picture showcases the other Deems Taylor award winners for that year, along with information about writer/composer Deems Taylor, for whom the award is named. The ceremony was a beautiful, memorable, sensational blur and I remember taking in several Broadway musicals—from the cheap high seats in the upper-most balconies—for a few days after the awards ceremony while staying with friends. All in all, it was an amazing trip; sometimes still wonder if it really happened! I still think of all the fun I had, too, writing for Sweet Potato and getting to interview all of those jazz stars as they passed through Boston: Carla Bley, Charlie Haden, Anthony Braxton, Nat Adderley, Gary Burton, McCoy Tyner, Joe Zawinul, Al Cohn, Big Joe Turner, Ken Nordine and many, many more.
Notre Dame Football Stadium’s 125th Anniversary Year;
A Medallion-Winning Story—2012
A Medallion for My Dad
In order to honor my father, Bill Carey, a 1951 University of Notre Dame graduate (who was also the 1949 National Debate Champion while at the University of Notre Dame and an absolutely top-notch Notre Dame football fan & season ticket holder), I sent in a story (at my Mom and Dad’s request) about going to Notre Dame football games with my Dad since I was a little kid to a 125th Notre Dame Football Stadium Anniversary Year season ticket holders contest, and, to my delight and surprise, the story was selected as one of thirty top stories in the contest. As part of the award, the University of Notre Dame mailed my Dad a beautiful (and heavy!) four-inch wide cast bronze medallion (a replica of the coin that would be tossed at the Notre Dame-Michigan game on September 22, 2012 at Notre Dame Stadium) and he was very touched & moved by the gesture. After my Dad passed away at age 90 in October 2020, my Mom kindly gave the medallion back to me as a keepsake. Here is the story that was selected in the contest, along with a picture of the medallion. Thanks again, Dad, for taking me to so many great Notre Dame football games and spending those special weekend times with your son!
My Dad and Notre Dame Football
My Dad, Bill Carey’s, love of Notre Dame football began with a magical $1.30 ticket back in the 1930s. His father took him down to see the 1938 Notre Dame-Kansas game (which Notre Dame won 52-0!) and he was deeply, dreamily hooked. From then on he went to Notre Dame games whenever and wherever he could with his family (even taking in the famous 1946 N.D.-Army 0-0 tie in New York City while sitting, by chance, in front of some four-star Army generals!), before matriculating to Notre Dame as a student from 1947-51 during the Frank Leahy years (just in time to enjoy three national championships in a row!).
Once his children were old enough, he, too, began to take them down to Notre Dame games with his wife, Helen, a Saint Mary’s graduate (including a fantastically cold 1964 game in the snow against Iowa in South Bend that even caused the family car battery to die in the grass-field parking lot & require an emergency jump!). All through the Parseghian, Devine, Faust, Holtz and Davie coaching tenures, he drove the family down to South Bend for games on crisp, sunshine-filled (but also occasionally inclement) days that inevitably led to victory and celebratory dinners at the Sunny Italy Cafe in South Bend (known to insiders as “Rosie’s”) with the three Manning brothers, who were, together with my Dad, the funniest bunch of football fans who ever lived. The one-liners criss-crossed the table like a thousand simultaneously-thrown footballs and the loud shouts of laughter left everyone in attendance holding onto their sides in smiling, delightful pain, with tears of hilarity-caused joy streaking from every eye. Losses also led to the Sunny Italy Café, but were more of a solemn affair with sad faces all around, although there was always a wagon-load of laughs to be shared, too, and the game next week to look forward to.
But then Dad snared some season tickets and the seats, instead of moving around the stadium from game to game, were in one place with a great view of the field. The seats were magical, down low and near the 47 yard line, where the sights and sounds of the action on the field could be seen and heard close-up and first-hand. And, as the family expanded to include grandchildren, my Dad and Mom began to invite each of their children’s entire families down to individual games so they could all enjoy the magnificent seats together through wins and losses and sunshine and rain until the Fall became an even more golden time of cherished family gatherings, year by year by year, like bricks being used to build a house of irresistible, indelible memories that will never be forgotten. And all this resulted from a father’s gift to his son in the 1930s of two tickets and a drive together down to South Bend to sit on hard wooden bench seats and watch football on the soft striped grass while the band played on.”
Black Forest Dreams Awards
“Black Forest Dreams” Poetry Collection Awards under the name “Black Forest Dreams, A Journey Through Germany” (after publication in February, 2021, by Kelsay Books):
—1st Place, Poetry Category, 2021 Royal Dragonfly Awards
—3rd Place, Poetry Category, Colorado Independent Publishers
Association, 2021
—Finalist, 2021 Royal Palm Literary Awards, Florida Writers
Association
—Finalist in two Poetry Categories, 2021 Annual “Best Book”
Awards, sponsored by the American Book Festival
—Honorable Mention, Poetry Category, 2021, Hollywood Book
Festival
“Black Forest Dreams” Poetry Collection Awards (under the previous manuscript name, “Back To The Black Forest”):
2017 Paris Book Festival, Winner, “Travel” Category (May, 2017)
2016 Amsterdam Book Festival, Winner, “Travel” Category (May, 2016)
2016 Northern California Book Festival, Winner, “Travel Category (October, 2016)
2017 Los Angeles Book Festival, Honorable Mention, “Poetry Category” (March, 2017)
2017 Great Southeast Book Festival, Honorable Mention, “Poetry” Category (March, 2017)
2016 London Book Festival, Honorable Mention, “Poetry” Category (December, 2016)
2016 New York Book Festival, Honorable Mention, “Poetry” Category (June, 2016)
Postcards from Poland Awards
2013 Journal of Modern Poetry Book Award Selection (Award Prize—Publication by Chicago Poetry Press, February, 2014)
2016 Pacific Book Awards, First Place, “Poetry Category”
2015 New Apple Book Awards For Excellence in Independent Publishing—Winner, “Travel” category (February, 2016)
Florida Writers Association Royal Palm Literary Award, Medalist (Winner), “Travel” category (October, 2015)
2016 Colorado Independent Publishers Association Awards, Finalist/Merit Award Winner, “Travel” Category (August, 2016)
2016 Beverly Hills Book Awards, Finalist, “Travel” Category (June, 2016)
2016 Reader’s Favorite Book Awards, Finalist, “Inspirational Poetry” Category (September, 2016)
2016 Shelf Unbound Best Indie Book Awards, Runner Up (November, 2016)
25th Annual Midwest Book Awards, Finalist, “Travel” category (April, 2015) (Three travel books were picked as finalists)
London Book Festival, Honorable Mention, “Poetry” category (January, 2016)
Royal Dragonfly Book Awards, 2nd Place, “Travel” category, and Honorable Mention, “Poetry” Category (November, 2015)
Amsterdam Book Festival, Runner Up, “Travel” category (2014)
Southern California Book Festival, Runner Up, “Wild Card” category (2014)
Paris Book Festival, Honorable Mention, “Poetry” category (2014)
San Francisco Book Festival, Honorable Mention, “Poetry” category (2014)
Great Midwest Book Festival, Honorable Mention, “Poetry” category (2014)