Reviews

Some things some people have said about my writing.

• “A surreal vignette in which the narrator “swelled up like a helium balloon” and floated into the sky to reminisce. It makes an arresting image, but no actual sense.” – Review of “Minnow” from Shimmer 14, Lois Tilton, Locus
• “ “Sleep”, by Carlea Holl-Jensen. Takes “not dead, only sleeping” literally. Good.” — Review of LCRW 26, Kevin Riggle, free dissociation
• “winter by carlea holl-jensen is striking”  — “what’s your favorite short story?” by bailey elizabeth, Wide Awake Fast Asleep
• “Carlea Holl-Jensen, who read a few pieces including a highly intelligent story written from the perspective of Charlotte Bronte’s unborn child” — Review of Nelly Reifler’s Barbes reading series, Diana, What I Read and Watched
• “ “Sleep” by Carlea Holl-Johnson is a nicely-written short piece with its narrator promising to give someone a very nice sleep, but there’s a bit more to it then that.” – Review of LCRW 26, Sam Tomaino, SF Revu
• “Veronica Schanoes’s “Alice:  A Fantasia” and Carlea Holl-Jensen’s “Sleep” are essentially meditations, the first on the theme of the girl on whom Lewis Carroll based “Alice in Wonderland,” the second on death.” – Review of LCRW 26, Terry Weyna, Fantasy Literature
• “ “Sleep” by Carlea Holl-Jensen is a short piece where a woman tells her friend Michelle that she will sing her into ritual sleep. I forget the word for it; it’s not a story, not a eulogy. It’s written to the friend in the first person, and speaks of long, healing sleep. A pretty piece that I can’t quite name.” — Review of LCRW 26, Alexandre Donald, The Portal
• “Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet 26 also contains work by Carlea Holl-Jensen.” — Review of LCRW 26, Keith Lawrence, Future Fire
• “Carlea’s stories are all fantastic. . . .”Winter” is brief and chilling and feels like a draft coming into the room through a closed window or door. It’s a distant story, made to feel closer by the use of the first-person. At first, I wasn’t so keen on the use of this, but the more I read it, the more I like that about it. The play between distance and contiguity is actually quite effective. Not to sound too workshoppy, but the first and last paragraphs are the strongest, and carry the story through some gruesome imagery without making it feel gory. My favorite poems (I think I’m repeating myself) are short and carry the world, and Carlea’s stories all fit this, so I really do love them all, and “Winter” is no exception.” — journal entry, Kristin Maffei (my good friend and Call & Response co-editor), latterly of Not Intent on Arriving