Bio

Carley Moore is an essayist, novelist, and poet. 16 Pills is her first collection of essays (Tinderbox Editions, 2018). Her debut novel, The Not Wives, is forthcoming from the Feminist Press in the fall of 2019. In 2017, she published her first poetry chapbook, Portal Poem (Dancing Girl Press) and in 2012, she published a young adult novel, The Stalker Chronicles (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux). Her work has appeared in The American Poetry Review, Brainchild, The Brooklyn Rail, The Establishment, GUTS, The Journal of Popular Culture, The Nervous Breakdown, Public Books, and VIDA: Women in Literary Arts. She is a Clinical Professor of Writing and Contemporary Culture and Creative Production in the Global Liberal Studies Program at New York University and a Senior Associate at Bard College’s Institute for Writing and Thinking. She lives in New York City.

Essays

My debut collection of essays, 16 Pills, (May 2018) is now available from Tinderbox Editions. Here’s my first review, “The Healing Properties of 16 Pills” at Pank by Jessica Mannion.

Essays:

21 +21 = 42 in The Nervous Breakdown

The Bloody Show in GUTS: A Canadian Feminist Magazine

Online Dating in 7 Vignettes in The Establishment

On Nitpicking and Co-Parenting in Brainchild

On Spectacle and Silence in Public Books

The Sick Book in Linebreak

Small Animal, Big Animal in Aster(ix)

Why I Can't Have Coffee with You: Saying No to the Patriarchy in VIDA: Women in Literary Arts

Reviews:

The Protesters and the Poets in Writing in Public

Review of Chrissy Kolaya’s Any Anxious Body in Pank

Review of Dawn Lundy Martin’s Discipline in Painted Bride Quarterly

Review of Jennifer H. Fortin’s We Lack in Equipment and Control in Pank

Review of Kristina Marie Darling’s Fortress in Pank

Rewriting the Lives of Girls in Writing in Public

Fiction

I’m thrilled to announce that my debut novel, The Not Wives, will be published by Feminist Press, under Michelle Tea’s imprint, Amethyst Editions, in the fall of 2019.

The Not Wives is about three women in New York City during Occupy Wall Street and is part feminist manifesto, part resistance novel, and part dirty love song to a gentrifying New York.

About The Stalker Chronicles:

Sophomore Cammie Bliss has long been labeled a stalker by her peers, but when a cute new boy named Toby arrives at her small town high school, Cammie has a chance to be “normal.” Trouble is, she can’t really help herself and she’s up to her old tricks of “intense observation and following” pretty quick. Making things worse, her younger brother is dating one of the most popular girls in the school, her parents have separated, and her dad has begun to watch their house most nights. Cammie has simply got to figure out why she behaves the way she does, and end it once and for all.

“Deserved or not, Cammie Bliss’s reputation as a stalker has been cemented for years, but when new guy Toby moves to her small town, Cammie has a chance for a fresh start. This proves hard, as her sophomore year is already filled with challenges: her parents are splitting up, her younger brother is dating a popular cheerleader who snubs Cammie, and Toby himself is elusive, with a secret past of his own. Mixed into the present-day action are flashbacks to Cammie’s past stories of slipping notes into lockers, calling a boy daily under the pretense of needing homework help, and taking a few too many photographs of a student athlete while working for the yearbook. For the most part, it’s pretty tame behavior, just unsettling enough to raise red flags among Cammie’s classmates and lead to her ostracism. Debut author Moore paints a picture of an awkward girl who, more than anything, just doesn’t know how to engage with other people. Her characters are complex and sympathetic, particularly Cammie’s family, as it tries to hold itself together.” – Publishers Weekly

“Imagine Harriet the Spy older, girlier, more into boys, and even more insatiable for information. That’s Cammie, a high-school sophomore, whose history has involved such intense interest in guys (to the point of obtaining a yearbook photographer post just to take endless pictures of her crush and nobody else) that she’s now known around school as a stalker. When cute new guy Toby turns up in her small town, Cammie’s determined that she’ll change her ways, relate to him normally, and finally get the relationship she’s been longing for. The book steers clear of the light-hearted rom-com approach that forgives pathology in the name of true love; without becoming heavy-handed, Moore instead explores what’s driven Cammie to this behavior and how it’s seriously damaged her relationship with her classmates. Cammie’s an appealing and sympathetic narrator, and her pressing need to know is palpable, even as both she and the reader grasp that she’s going way too far (she even ends up pawing through Toby’s garbage in her search for knowledge). The dissolution of Cammie’s parents’ marriage plausibly brings her dysfunctional patterns into sharp relief, as her father practices similar behavior to Cammie’s (parked in a car on the street at night, he silently watches the house) and as both her stress and her awareness grow. Like other strong recent titles about girls who can’t control their invasive impulses (Hoffman’s It’s Not You, It’s Me, BCCB 9/09, and Graham’s Stalker Girl, BCCB 9/10), this is firm about the inappropriateness of its heroine’s action but reassuring about her ability to pull herself together, so those who share Cammie’s urges can read with hope and others can grasp that there but for the grace of God and impulse control go they.” - The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

“Cammie Bliss has been branded by her classmates as a stalker, a reputation that’s hard to shake in a town so small the only movie theater closed a generation ago. But when Toby shows up in his dark-framed glasses, Cammie knows he’s just her type. Don’t be fooled by the shiny pink cover, Carley Moore’s debut novel is filled with quirks, compulsions, and hilariously inappropriate behavior.” - Barnes and Noble Review

“High school sophomore Cammie Bliss has been slapped with the label of “stalker” for years because of her borderline obsessions with the boys she has liked, but the label actually is not as off the mark as one might believe at the opening of the book. Many teenage girls (and boys) can become infatuated with the object of their affection, which seems like the case with Cammie throughout most of the book. She recounts stories from her young life about her various crushes and how she “stalked” them, but these stories sound like the actions of your average preteen. The title does ring true at one point in the story, however, when she actually goes through the trash of her current obsession. A title that seemed overly trite finally hits the disturbing mark at this point. The cover and title of the book are a little off-putting and make the book seem like another fluffy and cliched young adult book, but there is surprising depth as the novel progresses and Cammie comes to grips with her obsessive behavior and watches her parents drift apart. There are also fresh moments of true humor, like when Cammie describes the lunchroom’s taco bar: “After Taco Bar, there was no further way to break down beef.” Overall, this is a promising debut from Moore and almost makes the label of “stalker” seem not so bad.” – Kate Neff for Voya

“If you’ve ever wanted something too much, crushed on someone too hard, or taken an obsession one step too far, you’ll see yourself in Cammie Bliss, the endearing heroine of Carley Moore’s wry, revealing first novel.” - Madeleine George, author of Looks and The Difference Between You and Me

“Admit it. You’ve always wanted to find out more about the guy you are crushing on. Cammy goes to places you’ve only dreamed about. The Stalker Chronicles is real, fun, and really funny.” - P.G. Kain, author of the tween series Commercial Breaks

Check out these blogs to read more about The Stalker Chronicles:

“Great Beginnings” by Elizabeth Bluemle in Publishers Weekly

Amaterasureads

Joe Beernink (Men and boys like The Stalker Chronicles too!)

The Princess of Storyland

Rather Be Reading

The Book Muncher

Here are a couple of Stalker related interviews and blog posts:

The New York Writers Coalition Interview

Heroes and Heartbreakers

On High Schools and Hometowns

The Household Words Interview with Lena, Age 11