Carol Guess is small and compact. Her shoulder-length, blond hair frames the delicate features of her round face. She might be mistaken for a graduate student, but Guess, 40, is actually an associate English professor at Western and the author of a new book.

Guess’s book "Tinderbox Lawn," which will be released Oct. 1, is a collection of prose poems—a kind of poetry printed as prose. Prose poems are compact and use striking images and figures of speech.

 "The new book represents a hybrid of the novel and poetic forms," Guess said. "Each poem functions separately, but as a whole they act as a fragmented sort of novel."

Guess’s new book stems from three years of writing. Part of putting "Tinderbox Lawn" together was sorting through hundreds of pages of work and trying to decide what it would all become, she said. Guess said she began to see small blocks of text that fit together and began trimming down the material.

Kathleen Rooney is co-publisher of Rose Metal Press, the publishing company for "Tinderbox Lawn." Rose Metal wants to discover and promote work that may not be marketable with the big publishing houses, she said.

Rooney said she was struck by the poetric voice in "Tinderbox Lawn" This is Rose Metal Press’s first book with Guess.

"I love the music in Carol’s writing, the sound and rhythms and the rhyme in it," Rooney said.

Guess said she writes fiction, essays, poems and novels. She said she likes writing novels, but teaching takes time, and so she has switched to shorter genres. Guess started writing poetry when she began teaching at Western 10 years ago.

Initially, Guess was responsible for five creative writing classes and one queer studies class at Western. Then, two years ago, she went from teaching full-time to half-time so she could spend more time on her writing. Guess now teaches two creative writing classes and one queer studies class.

Guess excels at giving individual attention and personal time to students, Western alumni Amelia Bowler said.

Bowler took two writing classes taught by Guess. In the 400-level fiction writing class she took, Bowler said two out of the three days were devoted to working independently.

Guess encourages her students with her willingness to pay attention to their needs, Bowler said. Guess also focuses on students’ personal development is something she really appreciates, she added.

"The classes I took from her were the best classes I took at Western," Bowler said.

When Western hired Guess, she said she made it clear that teaching queer studies was something she wanted to do. Guess never took a queer studies class when she was in school and had to translate her own experiences into academic courses. She said she feels teaching queer studies is a calling.

"The political situation for queer people has improved enormously in the decade that I have taught," she said. "But there is still a long way to go. Teaching these classes is a form of activism."

Being a lesbian has given Guess an outsider’s perspective as a writer, she said. She said it gives her an opportunity to see things in new ways.

"Academically, my sexuality can be an obstacle," she said. "Queer studies aren’t always seen as an accepted area of inquiry."

Guess said she has been pegged as both a "woman writer" and a "lesbian writer." She said if these labels provoke someone to pick up her work, then it is a good thing, but if not, it is a shame.

With her new book, she said she feels these categories do not apply. She said she wrote the book to express the feeling of falling in and out of love, something everyone has experienced.

Guess said she believes gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender literature is at a turning point. Queer writers and queer culture are being assimilated and the category of queer literature is very permeable, she said.

Queer writers do not see themselves pegged as such and heterosexual writers can pick up queer themes, she said.

Guess says unfortunately the readership for queer writing has not been broadened.

"The categories of woman and lesbian still apply commercially," she said. "As a writer, I have to think about that."

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