Rob Carney is originally from Washington state. He received a BA from Pacific Lutheran University (1990), an MFA from Eastern Washington University (1992), and a PhD from the University of Louisiana-Lafayette (1997) with major emphases in 20th-century American Literature and Creative Writing. In addition to poems, he has published flash fiction and one-act plays in journals such as Mid-American Review, Northwest Review, Poetry Northwest (R. I. P.), Quarterly West, River Styx, Willow Springs, ZYZZYVA, and many others. Currently, he teaches at Utah Valley State College (Orem, Utah) and lives in Salt Lake City.

About New Fables, Old Songs:

"Rob Carney's New Fables, Old Songs is a great chapbook. Fables are the stories of our bones; their marrow-wisdom of metaphor and symbol allows us to make sense of the world. Song is the sensual music of the same, the syncopation in our skeletons. These poems have both—the marrow of myth coupled with a contemporary playfulness that beats the bones together and sings. I highly recommend this book."
—Tod Marshall

"Mixing his own signal styles of myth and music, with New Fables, Old Songs Rob Carney treats the reader to a poetry unique and entirely captivating, rapturous even in the midst of unhappiness. His rhyme is internal, his rhythm is native, his representations are raw. Just the right sense of the strange, an attention to sound, and homage to both oral and written traditions distinguish this fine collection. To borrow the title line from one of the most wonderful poems in the book: the man has a heart like a kite. But no matter how many crashes and rips, ties and retries, still he fights to launch beautiful letters, even if only to the wind. Grab the string and hang on tight for a lively new view of old lands."
—C. J. Sage

Rob Carney’s New Fables, Old Songs are poems comprising a personal cosmology that readers will nevertheless recognize as universal in nature. A perfect blend of hypnotic lyricism and rich storytelling, this is a book to pick up again and again. Dream Horse Press is proud to award this collection its 2002 National Chapbook Prize for Poetry.