The Daily Bulletin

Associate Professor of English Kim Chinquee's ninth book, her prose poetry collection Contact with the Wild, is being released this month by MadHat Press and is now available for order online.

Overview: "Kim Chinquee's Contact with the Wild is a collection of prose poems exploring themes of family, nature, memory, and healing. The poems weave together fragmented narratives, incorporating surreal imagery and dream sequences. Personal experiences, such as the protagonist's childhood on a farm and her father's schizophrenia, are interwoven with reflections on larger societal events, such as a devastating blizzard. The collection utilizes a stream-of-consciousness style to create a visceral and emotional reading experience." 

In addition, Chinquee's novella, I Thought of England (published in the Triptych Agency 3: novellas), with Baobab Press will be released on September 9, 2025, and is now available for preorder online. 

Overview: "Three novellas, Teresa Carmody's Today Must Be Sunday, Kim Chinquee’s I Thought of England, and Allison Pitinii Davis’s Business, unique in style and narrative, deal with longing, loneliness, fear, and the relationships their characters make, and break, on their way to something like peace, if not happiness. Entering and abandoning social contracts and expectations across the country in the pursuit of the somewhat ethereal notion of contentment, these stories highlight the struggles of women across American cultural eras, armed only with their ability to think and to act. These three novellas describe the harrowing, soul-rattling actions and choices made by women in the pursuit of defining their lives.

I Thought of England, a novel-in-flashes, follows a woman’s journey in a new location (for her career) after being a single mom for eighteen years. A recent empty-nester, she falls into a community of competitive runners, along with colleagues in academia. Growing up on a family dairy farm, getting married then divorced early while in the military, living around the world, she carries her past with her through her career, her running, the men she runs with, and the complications that come with them."

Recent praise of Chinquee's work:

“There is a simplicity to her prose, much of it is pared back and precise. It takes some skill to write so sparingly and requires a self-confidence born from experience and commitment to the craft of writing. Chinquee is a clever writer who is always in control of her material.” —IndieReader

“Chinquee’s measured prose breaks over the reader like shallow, slow-moving waves.” —Kirkus Reviews

“This is an author who knows how to take nothing for granted!” —Kyle McCord, author of Reunion of the Good Weather Suicide Cult

“To read Kim Chinquee’s work is to be startled, touched and affected.” —Pia Z. Ehrhardt, author of Famous Fathers and Now We are Sixty

“Kim Chinquee has the dead-eye aim and the precision with language that makes her stories hit the mark again and again.” —Jean Thompson, National Book Award finalist author of Who Do You Love

"Kim Chinquee is a master storyteller. She brilliantly balances short-short and longer stories..." —Brandon Hobson, National Book Award finalist author of Where the Dead Sit Talking 

"Kim Chinquee is an American original." —Ben Bradlee, Jr, author of The Kid: the Immortal Life of Ted Williams and The Forgotten: How the Abandoned People of One Pennsylvania County Elected Donald Trump and Changed America

"The girls and women breathing through Chinquee’s pages grapple with the casual cruelty of lovers, parents, and a soul-shattering culture. Hands may be calloused and hearts broken, but pervading every bracing, beautifully crafted sentence is a quiet, insistent strength..." —Dawn Raffel, author of The Secret Life of Objects and Carrying the Body

"There is always a roiling subtext beneath the seemingly placid surfaces and tones of Chinquee's stories, a dichotomy which speaks to deep truths about the human condition. Kim Chinquee is a true artist with a true vision..." —Robert Olen Butler, Pulitzer-Prize winning author of A Good Scent From A Strange Mountain