Poetry. Part autobiography, part revisionist biography of Jane Bowles, UNBECOMING BEHAVIOR is Kate Colby's attempt to "wind [herself] like a stripe to a pole" in order to catch an honest glimpse of herself "in the corner of [her own] eye." The long poem is about personal historicity, persona, performance, femininity, travel, exile, home, storytelling, and the act of writing itself. "To use her own words, Kate Colby's poetry 'cannibalizes' and 'interbreeds' with itself, with the author's life, and with the work and life of Jane Bowles, the great 20th century fiction writer and playwright. This booklength poem creates its own trajectory--a set of rapid explosions which transform into caresses. Colby's harmonics--graceful, melodic, fluid and dissonant by turn--work in counterpoint to the relentless flow of fragments and blurs. UNBECOMING BEHAVIOR is hyper-active to the extreme, and a step onwards"--Lewis Warsh.

Author City: PROVIDENCE, RI USA

Kate Colby is the author of UNBECOMING BEHAVIOR (2008) and THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE (2011), both from Ugly Duckling Presse. Her first title, FRUITLANDS, was selected by Rosmarie Waldrop for a Norma Farber First Book Award in 2007 and published by Litmus Press. Also from Litmus is BEAUPORT (2010). Chapbooks include Rock of Ages (Anadama Press) and A Banner Year (Belladonna), and recent journal publications include NEW AMERICAN WRITING, VANITAS, NO: A JOURNAL OF THE ARTS, EOAGH and Little Red Leaves. She grew up in Massachusetts, interloped in California, and now lives in Providence, RI, where she works as a teacher and copywriter.

Reviews and Other Links
http://www.bookslut.com/features/2008_03_012506.php
http://galatearesurrection11.blogspot.com/2008/12/unbecoming-behavior-by-kate-colby.html