Today we’d like to introduce you to Kevin Carey.
Kevin, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I was a film buff as a kid, and Literature and Writing were always my favorite subjects in school. I liked the idea of telling stories but it took me a while to get going on that path. I started editing short films at Boston Film and Video with a friend of mine, Tim Young. We made a few local documentaries, one about Revere Beach and then another about Marblehead with the painter and filmmaker, Jack Highberger. Then, just around the time my wife gave birth to our first child, I enrolled in some night classes at Salem State College. Before I knew it, I had two children and was on my way to a Masters Degree in English. This is when I started taking writing more seriously. I enrolled in an MFA program at Fairleigh Dickinson University and two years later I had an MFA in Fiction. This led to an adjuncts position at the now Salem State University. That was sixteen years ago. Today, I am a full-time assistant professor there. I consider myself lucky to be able to teach for a living and to be able to write and make films in my spare time.
I’ve continued filmmaking over the years. The last two projects have been documentaries about poets, “All That Lies Between Us,” about New Jersey poet Maria Mazziotti Gillan and “Unburying Malcolm Miller” about a deceased Salem, MA. poet.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Though I love writing and making films and have managed to get some things done, much of the time has been learning how to deal with rejection. I often show my students my Submittable page which has a lot more rejections than things accepted. But you learn that it’s part of the game. I played a lot of basketball as a young man and coached in a middle school for nineteen years and if sports has taught me anything it’s to hang in when it’s not going well. There’s always a comeback lurking.
I am fortunate to have had a lot of help, too. My friends in Salem, both at Salem State and the Salem Writer’s Group, among them JD Scrimgeour, Colleen Michaels and Jan O’Neil, my other poet and writing pals at home and in New Jersey, especially Maria Mazziotti Gillan, and my wife, Betty and my kids, Kevin and Michaela have all offered me encouragement and wisdom far beyond what I can repay.
Please tell us more about your work, what you are currently focused on and most proud of.
I have three books published to date, two books of poetry –“The One Fifteen to Penn Station” and “Jesus Was a Homeboy” and a chapbook of fiction “The Beach People.” I’ve produced and directed five documentary films (among other shorts) and have written and produced one full-length stage play “The Stand or Sal is Dead” (which was directed by SSU professor Peter Sampieri).
One thing that I will always remember is having two poems from my latest book appear on “The Writer’s Almanac/National Public Radio.” The idea that my work could reach that many people still freaks me out a little.
I’m proud of all this work but I’m most grateful that I have been able to collaborate with wonderful, talented people on some of these projects. I’m still doing that today. Right now, I’m writing a novel with my good friend and writer, Ed Boyle based on a screenplay we wrote together years ago called “Peter’s Song” and my last two documentary films were made in collaboration with former MFA classmates Mark Hillringhouse and R.G. Evans. One of those films, “Unburying Malcolm Miller” features my former professor and friend Rod Kessler.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
I’m happy to have produced some films that folks have liked and to have had a few books published. But as I told someone just the other day, teaching is the best gig I’ve ever had. And I’ve had a few different jobs over the years—bartender, restaurant worker, construction worker, toll taker at the airport, house painter, industrial and commercial video. None of them compare to the job I have now. I would love to have people know my work, what writer or filmmaker wouldn’t? I have an agent with two novels as we speak–a young adult novel called “The Junkman,” and a crime novel called “Murder in the Marsh,” set in my hometown of Revere. I’m hoping they’ll find a home soon. No matter what happens though, I know I will keep telling stories and teaching writing. The combination seems to work well for me. Honestly, there are days when I feel like I’m learning as much from my students as they are from me. I think teaching is always a collaborative experience and it continually inspires the writer, the storyteller in me.
Contact Info:
- Website: kevincareywriter.com
- Email: kcareywriter@gmail.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kevin.carey.9843?ref=bookmarks
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