Christie Collins, a lecturer of creative writing at Mississippi State University, has recently published her first full-length collection of poetry, “The Art of Coming Undone.”
“The Art of Coming Undone” is an autobiographical collection of poetry that chronicles defining moments of love throughout Collins’ life. The poems relate to many instances, both literal and figurative, that occurred over Collins’ life, such as a doll coming to life and a lover being taken apart.
Although the book tells Collins’ personal story, she hopes readers will take its messages into their own lives.
“I think that something that the entire experience taught me, and that COVID did as well, is that you have to take control of your own narrative,” Collins said. “If you’re not happy or you want a new life or you want a new opportunity, go for it, because nothing is written in stone.”
Collins’ literary journey is one that spans multiple schools and countries. Collins took her first steps toward university education as an English major at the Mississippi University for Women. Afterward, Collins moved to Starkville to pursue a master’s in English and creative writing at MSU.
After acquiring her master’s, Collins made her way to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, teaching at Louisiana State University. Eventually, Collins traveled to Wales for her doctorate in creative and critical writing at Cardiff University.
“The Art of Coming Undone” also features artwork by Dutch artist Erna Kuik. Collins initially met Kuik at an art market in Amsterdam while viewing work on display. Collins said she felt an immediate draw to Kuik’s art pieces.
“It was very much like seeing the visual counterpart to this book that I was already writing,” Collins said.
Collins feels it is incredibly important for artists and writers to collaborate with one another – bringing their individual works and talents together into a collection that showcases both mediums.
In “The Art of Coming Undone,” Kuik would create an art piece based on Collins’ poem and vice versa. 
Catherine Pierce is the co-director of creative writing at MSU and the poet laureate of Mississippi. Pierce first met Collins while she was a student in the masters program at MSU, where Pierce directed Collins’ thesis project – a collection of poetry.
Pierce also wrote a preview on the back cover of “The Art of Coming Undone,” where she calls the collection “a clear-eyed portrait of an ending, a fiercely new beginning, and the through-the-fire reckoning both require.”
As a poet herself, Pierce said she has found much to admire about Collins’ work.
“She is a really brave poet. She is brave in terms of subject matter, but she’s also brave intellectually,” Pierce said. “I think that she does things with language and with approach that are really fresh and surprising and sometimes really startling, which I love. I find her work just sort of endlessly interesting.”
Pierce shared one of her favorite poems in the entire collection: “Ovarian Teratoma.”  Pierce remembered Collins writing the first version of that poem while she was a graduate student at MSU.
“I remember reading that poem and thinking, ‘This is amazing. This is so weird and wonderful and smart and it is just unlike anything I’d read before,’” Pierce said.
Claire Williamson, another poet and royal literary fellow at the University of the West of England, met Collins at Cardiff University, where they were both studying for doctorates.
Williamson read some of the poems in advance of publication and wrote a piece in the back of “The Art of Coming Undone” praising the work.
“My favorite poem is ‘Nesting.’ I love the way that it uses the repetition ‘of me’ and how it moves from a sense of fullness of a new relationship to emptiness, which I found physically impactful,” Williamson said.
Collins has been writing poetry ever since she was a young child, as she was constantly surrounded by all things literary growing up. “The Art of Coming Undone” includes poems that are over 15 years old and others from just three years ago.
“I hope that, when readers read it, it feels like it flows because it is all my life. It’s all my voice,” Collins said.
“The Art of Coming Undone” is available at Friendly City Books in Columbus.

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Courtesy Photo | Christie Collins

MSU lecturer Christie Collins.