Caroline Rayner

Caroline Rayner (Col ’13) published her first book, The Moan Wilds, in May 2023. Published by Shabby Doll House, The Moan Wilds consists of one long poem, and Caroline describes what it’s about like this: “Lighting fireworks in the yard during a party, then escaping into the house to cut your hair in the bathtub, or down the road to where everyone promised you could perfectly see the moon. Sharing a bottle of wine while riding through the Blue Ridge Mountains in the back of a station wagon with no air conditioning and nothing but weather and sports on the radio. Writing each other’s names on the windows with melting lipstick. Putting glitter on your eyes. Crossing your legs over her legs to make a move on a giant rock in the river. Getting blood on your dress. Sweating in pink sheets until noon with someone you got to sing ‘Someday I Will Treat You Good’ then ‘Trains Across the Sea’ then ‘Farewell Transmission’ with at karaoke. Yelling on the phone from the porch about a psychedelic kind of light coming in like water but also like velvet through the magnolia that everyone needs to see to believe and we can make a whole goddamn night out of it if someone goes to get more wine.”

Selah Saterstrom says, “THE MOAN WILDS is a queer feast…Caroline Rayner can write lines that stop your heart, or rather, relocate it.” Dara Barrois/Dixon says, “Here we have a book of the excruciating intoxication of passionate, ardent, not altogether unrequited love…Rayner’s not holding anything back and the music of her words and the beauty of her soul makes it all bearable.” Ocean Vuong says, “Steeped in the hybrid and maximalist tradition of C.D. Wright, Bernadette Mayer, and Alice Notley, The Moan Wilds nevertheless forges a path so inimitable it becomes the very thumbprint of its author, which to me is the crowning achievement of any book worth its salt. Here Rayner has produced an indelible and unforgettable voice, full of heart, intelligence, hunger and a wildness that shakes us into new, hallucinatory order.”

Excerpts from The Moan Wilds can be found online in Annulet, Black Warrior Review, b l u s h, KEITH LLC, and Peach Mag. An interview with Caroline about THE MOAN WILDS can be found in The Millions.