Bonfires & Other Vigils:
Red Rook Press
April 18, 2024
My second full-length collection is available now!
“Colleen’s poems live close to the morning. They come alive the third moment after dawn and they follow you around all day, tap you on the shoulder, remind you to pay attention: to the seasonal road, to the polka dot bathing suit, to the scurry of squirrels. And like any good mother, Colleen’s poems take care of you. They tuck you in at night, hold you against the faithless hours, tell you they’re glad you’re safe, how grateful they are that you’re still here. I can say that I’m grateful, too, for these beautiful poems.”
- Garrett Stack, author of Yeoman’s Work
Reader, to tell you all:
Found poems in Charlotte Bronte’s, Jane Eyre
dancing girl press
June 13, 2023
This chapbook of poems found inside Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre is part of the chapbook series by dancing girl press.
You can find the chapbook series online here.
The dancing girl press chapbook series was founded in 2004 to publish and promote the work of women writers and artists.
MASTER OF ARTS
SCANTIC BOOKS
September 21, 2022
Master of Arts is a novel about secrets—the ones we keep from the people we love, and the ones they keep from us.
Viola Hartman is happy to help when her older sister Natalie needs help caring for her toddler and new baby. Eager to escape the messes she’s made in her own life, Viola moves in with her sister and her brother-in-law, Cole Hollis, who is a big-deal writer. And while Viola comes prepared to change dirty diapers, she isn’t prepared to learn Natalie has been keeping secrets for years. Slowly, Viola must unravel the truth; little by little, Viola also needs to come clean herself.
“… a well-crafted, relatable yarn about figuring out your life. Alles balances humor and heart while wonderfully capturing those intricate dynamics we must navigate among family, friends, and lovers.”
-Adam Schuitema, author of The Things We Do That Make No Sense.
“… absorbing and intimate … A refreshingly honest reflection on sisterhood and friendship; Alles writes with such humor and heart, I couldn’t put it down.”
-Meagan Lucas, author of Songbirds and Stray Dogs, and editor of Reckon Review.
AFTER THE 8-BALL
CORNERSTONE PRESS
MARCH 16, 2022
I am so honored to have my first full-length collection available through the University of Wisconsin, Steven’s Point’s Portage Poetry Series, which highlights Midwest authors.
THREE STARS
GHOST CITY PRESS
June 28, 2021
This micro-chapbook was featured on June 28, 2021 as part of Ghost City Press’s annual Summer Series. It tells the story of a relationship through Amazon reviews. Cover art courtesy of the amazing Grand Rapids paper artist Scott Kloska.
SO WHAT TO SAY TO A BIRD
CELERY CITY PRESS
March 25, 2021
So What to Say to a Bird was selected as the State of Michigan winner in the Kalamazoo Friends of Poetry’s annual Celery City contest. Thank you so much to the students at Kellogg Community College who designed this cover.
Published March of 2021; limited press run. Please contact me for more information.
SKINNY VANILLA CRISIS
ATMOSPHERE PRESS
July 1, 2020
Middle-aged high school English teacher Holden Averett is gearing up for a well-deserved break. Finally, a relaxing summer spent napping and soaking in the West Michigan sun. Until, that is, his wife of 18 years drops a bomb on the last day of school: move out by the end of the week. Sophia wants a trial separation. She also might be in love with someone else.
Spinning from the shock and desperate to fill his unexpectedly fraught summer, Holden takes a job as a barista at a coffee shop in a strip mall. His hopes to stay anonymous while he convinces Sophia to take him back are dashed when in walks a woman from his past—a woman he barely remembers at first. A charming woman. An enchanting woman. In other words, a woman who changes everything.
PORCH LIGHT TO THE LONGSHOREMAN
FINISHING LINE PRESS
August 29, 2019
Alles mines midlife and MidWestern particulars for emotional resonance. Small lakes, Great Lakes, falling willow branches, and relentless waves—these surround moments of focus on her infant’s hairline. She wades honestly through both gratitude and the desire to have a beer and rest her head on the bar.
–Lindsay Ellis, Writer, Associate Professor of English Grand Valley State University
INDUCTION: POEMS FOR MY NEW DAUGHTER
FINISHING LINE PRESS
March 2, 2018
“The bond between mother and daughter engenders a wealth of feelings—love and joy, of course, but also at times fear, melancholy, and the realization of its tenuous and temporary nature. Tapped from such wealth, Alles provides readers with riches galore, as these intimate and generous poems track a young mother’s journey from pregnancy (“your body in my body”), through the birth itself (“reordering / in the process / my beautiful life”), to the recognition of motherhood’s give-and-take, its familial brevity (“Share her with me for just the longest / of times.”). Anyone who’s had a mother—and who of us hasn’t!—will find something valuable, something to treasure, in this collection.”
–Phillip Sterling, Author of And Then Snow