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Caitlin Conlon

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Caitlin Conlon

Goodreads Author


Born
in Buffalo, The United States
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Member Since
August 2013

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Caitlin Conlon is the author of THE SURRENDER THEORY (2022) and BURNING THE GHOST LIGHT (forthcoming in 2025). She has a BA in English and a Creative Writing Certificate from the University At Buffalo; while there, she was chosen for the Friends of the University Libraries Undergraduate Poetry Prize, and the Arthur Axlerod Memorial Prize for Poetry. She has previously been published with midsummer magazine, Olney Magazine, and Anti-Heroin Chic, among others. She is the co-founder of Unearth Writing Retreats, which hosts virtual and in-person writing retreats for writers of all levels.

You can find her newsletter, Dancing With The Marginalia, on Substack, where she posts bi-weekly essays about books and writing. Everywhere else, she’s @cgcpo
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Average rating: 4.07 · 912 ratings · 232 reviews · 5 distinct worksSimilar authors
The Surrender Theory

3.98 avg rating — 815 ratings — published 2022 — 2 editions
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Cavity

4.78 avg rating — 63 ratings
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Burning the Ghost Light: Poems

4.75 avg rating — 16 ratings3 editions
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Ashes Over Dust: Poem Colle...

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4.93 avg rating — 14 ratings2 editions
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infinite ways to burn

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it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 4 ratings
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The River Why
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The Kitchen God's...
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Complete poems
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Caitlin’s Recent Updates

Caitlin Conlon wants to read
The Writing Life by Annie Dillard
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Caitlin Conlon entered a giveaway
Tom's Crossing by Mark Z. Danielewski
Tom's Crossing
by Mark Z. Danielewski (Goodreads Author)
5 copies available, ends on October 20, 2025 Enter to win »
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The River Why by David James Duncan
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The Kitchen God's Wife by Amy Tan
The Kitchen God's Wife
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Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
"This quick-read novella feels more like a giant character study than anything to do with a narrative. Steinbeck provides an interesting and exceptional cross-section of denizens living in this rundown section of the California fishing industry. Read " Read more of this review »
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Ophelia After All by Racquel Marie
Ophelia After All
by Racquel Marie (Goodreads Author)
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3.5 stars rounded up. This was such a sweet YA, queer, coming-of-age novel. Ophelia’s character is a delight, and I really enjoyed spending time in her head. This is a book that I think may have been really helpful for me to read when I was in high s ...more
Caitlin Conlon rated a book it was amazing
I'll Fly Away by Wally Lamb
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Absolutely excellent. These pieces ranged between heartbreaking, funny, raw, and introspective, but all of them were well-written and undeniably impactful. I dare anybody to read this collection and continue to believe in the necessity of our current ...more
Caitlin Conlon is currently reading
Complete poems by Stephen Crane
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Bloodmercy by I.S. Jones
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This is a collection that I wanted to reread as soon as I’d finished it, flipping back to the beginning and rereading the first handful of poems immediately. The narrative in ‘Bloodmercy’ is really compelling and well-executed—it shines with Jones’s ...more
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I'll Fly Away by Wally Lamb
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Quotes by Caitlin Conlon  (?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)

“In retrospect I can see that you gave me very little
and I tried to build an entire future with it.

You must understand, I had never been remembered
like that, before.

With purpose. Without begging for it.

I took what I was offered and ran.”
Caitlin Conlon, The Surrender Theory

“The wet dog of desire jumps into my bed and I let it.
I'll sleep next to anything if it means I won't be alone.”
Caitlin Conlon, The Surrender Theory

“There isn’t much that scares me more than my own heart, a monster of tenderness. I have an irrational fear that I’ll wake to find it perched at the foot of my bed, begging to be torn apart, consumed in the name of compassion. And that’s incredibly terrifying for a few different reasons but mainly because I’d do it. I’ve never needed an excuse to sacrifice myself for love. I’m a martyr for everything soft. I confess to you: I’d bleed for anything if it held me the right way. I confess: I have. I have.”
Caitlin Conlon, The Surrender Theory

“A room without books is like a body without a soul.”
Marcus Tullius Cicero

“In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.”
Robert Frost

“If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.”
J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

“You’re arguing that the fragile, rare thing is beautiful simply because it is fragile and rare. But that’s a lie, and you know it.”
John Green

“Thank you for explaining that my eye cancer isn't going to make me deaf. I feel so fortunate that an intellectual giant like yourself would deign to operate on me.”
John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

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