Chas Carey@chascarey

Inveterate public servant, now Town Administrator of @TownofBrookline. Occasional actor, writer, & theatrical producer. Personal account; views solely my own.

 Cambridge, MA
Joined March 2010
12 Photos and videos
Replying to @chascarey
With that said, this is a purely personal and not governmental account. If you need to reach me for any official purpose, please contact me here: brooklinema.gov/296/Town-Adm….
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Chas Carey retweeted
HAD@havehadhavehad
15 Feb 2025
amazing new story today from @chascarey! "The preschool called while I was at the doctor’s to tell me our daughter had learned about lying. In the morning, one of her friends lied to a teacher to get her in trouble. She cried and cried." havehashad.com/hadposts/liar…

Liars by Chas Carey

The preschool called while I was at the doctor’s to tell me our daughter had learned about lying. In the morning, one of her friends lied to a teacher to get her in trouble. She cried and cried. She...

havehashad.com
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Incredibly grateful to @catherineweiss, whose work is wonderful, for taking a flier on my short story and offering me a coveted @havehadhavehad skull. Lost track of how many times I’ve submitted to HAD. An honor to finally make it. You can do it, too!
screenshot of an email reading “Hi! Yes!! I’m thrilled to say I loved ‘Liars’ and am offering it a HAD publication AKA a skull for youuu.”

ALT screenshot of an email reading “Hi! Yes!! I’m thrilled to say I loved ‘Liars’ and am offering it a HAD publication AKA a skull for youuu.”
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I’ve stayed off this platform due to the hateful policies of its ownership but I did want to thank the wonderful folks at @WaxwingMag for publishing this story, a piece that got countless “this is great but too different for us” rejections over the years. waxwingmag.org/items/issue30…
an image of the opening line of a short story called “A Living People” by Chas Carey in Waxwing Magazine Issue 30 from Spring 2024. The line reads: “You first went to the book club the week after your doctor told you that he couldn’t be sure whether the cells in your blood which had (until recently) been trying to kill you were officially in remission before your next check-up, six months away.”

ALT an image of the opening line of a short story called “A Living People” by Chas Carey in Waxwing Magazine Issue 30 from Spring 2024. The line reads: “You first went to the book club the week after your doctor told you that he couldn’t be sure whether the cells in your blood which had (until recently) been trying to kill you were officially in remission before your next check-up, six months away.”

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Thanks to @BrooklineRec for running an incredible Brookline Day, thanks to all our participants at ourctables and on our stages, but most of all, thanks to all the folks who came out! Even the rain couldn’t keep us from having a good time.
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Bumper to bumper traffic down here for Brookline Day! A few scattered showers haven’t dampened our enthusiasm. Running until 3 p.m. right in Coolidge Corner — drop by!
Photo of a crowd stretching into the distance at a street fair.

ALT Photo of a crowd stretching into the distance at a street fair.
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So proud to be in such good company! Some amazing fiction, heart-in-throat nonfiction, and a glorious prose poem in here. (Also me, the ~interloper~.) Thanks so much to @kimmagowan and the whole @PitheadChapel staff for curating this repository of great work every month.
Pithead Chapel@PitheadChapel
1 Sep 2023
Our September issue is live! [Fiction] @DawnSteffler @jadjosey @chascarey Halina Duraj [Nonfiction] @LucasFlatt1 @friesenwrites @r_laverdiere Suzanne Farrell Smith [Prose Poetry] @BexBlackWrites [Cover] Nelson Lowhim pitheadchapel.com/volume-12-…
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Beyond thrilled to have a second story published this week, this time in the incredible pages of @PitheadChapel. They’ve published some of my favorite contemporary authors of flash fiction—humbled to get the chance to say I somehow snuck my way in, too. pitheadchapel.com/its-easier…

It’s easier to imagine the end of the world

Chas Carey   Is there no alternative? We stand at the window and watch the bundle of wires struggle to breathe. Less than an hour on the earth and already his existence is impossible outside o…

pitheadchapel.com
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Incredibly grateful to the wonderful folks at @MaudlinHouse for publishing this weird little short story of mine. I do think it’s fiction, & not prose poetry, since it has a (limited) narrative throughline, but it was inspired by two great poems that I want to shout out (1/3):
Maudlin House@MaudlinHouse
29 Aug 2023
One-Star Google Maps Review of a Rhode Island Lighthouse by Chas Carey maudlinhouse.net/one-star-go…
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1st Matthew Olzmann (@MatthewOlzmann) with “Letter to the Person who Carved His Initials into the Oldest Longleaf Pine in North America.” Beautiful, devastating. Matthew’s lecture on apostrophe has been a gift that keeps on giving to me in my writing. 2/3 tinhouse.com/letter-to-the-p…
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2nd Zbigniew Herbert’s “Careful with the Table.” I took from his prescriptive definitions and turned them into questions in my own piece. And wow, like Matthew’s poem, what a way to stick the landing! I love reading poetry—it broadens my horizons when I write fiction. 3/3
CAREFUL WITH THE TABLE At table you should sit calmly and not daydream. Let us recall what an effort it took for the stormy ocean tides to arrange themselves in quiet rings. A moment of inattention and everything might wash away. It is also forbidden to rub the table legs, as they are very sensitive. Everything at the table must be done coolly and matter-of-factly. You can't sit down here with things not completely thought through. For daydreaming we have been given other objects made of wood: the forest, the bed.

ALT CAREFUL WITH THE TABLE At table you should sit calmly and not daydream. Let us recall what an effort it took for the stormy ocean tides to arrange themselves in quiet rings. A moment of inattention and everything might wash away. It is also forbidden to rub the table legs, as they are very sensitive. Everything at the table must be done coolly and matter-of-factly. You can't sit down here with things not completely thought through. For daydreaming we have been given other objects made of wood: the forest, the bed.
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All right, gotta do this. Very hard to cut it down, but tried to obey the rules! In no particular order:
20 tracks 1. Paul Simon - Mother & Child Reunion 2. Mission of Burma - Secrets 3. Public Image Ltd. - Poptones 4. Pharoahe Monch - Simon Says 5. Hot Chip - Boy From School 6. The New Pornographers - Letter From an Occupant 7. Mos Def - Mathematics 8. Television - Venus 9. The Fall - Blindness 10. Songs: Ohia - Farewell Transmission 11. The Who - Baba O’Riley 12. GZA - Liquid Swords 13. M.I.A. - Paper Planes 14. My Bloody Valentine - Only Shallow 15. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Straight to You 16. Del the Funky Homosapien - Mistadobolina 17. Solange - Cranes in the Sky 18. The Rolling Stones - Gimme Shelter 19. New Order - Thieves Like Us 20. The Beatles - Paperback Writer

ALT 20 tracks 1. Paul Simon - Mother & Child Reunion 2. Mission of Burma - Secrets 3. Public Image Ltd. - Poptones 4. Pharoahe Monch - Simon Says 5. Hot Chip - Boy From School 6. The New Pornographers - Letter From an Occupant 7. Mos Def - Mathematics 8. Television - Venus 9. The Fall - Blindness 10. Songs: Ohia - Farewell Transmission 11. The Who - Baba O’Riley 12. GZA - Liquid Swords 13. M.I.A. - Paper Planes 14. My Bloody Valentine - Only Shallow 15. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Straight to You 16. Del the Funky Homosapien - Mistadobolina 17. Solange - Cranes in the Sky 18. The Rolling Stones - Gimme Shelter 19. New Order - Thieves Like Us 20. The Beatles - Paperback Writer

Nick Worrall 🎸@heathensquirrel
20 Aug 2023
Make a 20-track comp of your all-time fav tracks, each artist can only feature once. Not the 'best' songs, the ones that bring instant joy the second you hear the first note, the ones that give other people the best insight into what stirs your soul. Share when ready. #20tracks
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One of the (many) things I love about working in Brookline is the variety of cuisine. Where else are you gonna get an acclaimed experimental Thai restaurant two doors down from a no-frills authentic Sichuan shop that sells the real kind of chicken that makes your mouth go numb?
Close-up on a table with a fuzzy pile of chopped chicken & chilis in the background & a white rice bowl with a hand dipping chopsticks into it in the foreground.

ALT Close-up on a table with a fuzzy pile of chopped chicken & chilis in the background & a white rice bowl with a hand dipping chopsticks into it in the foreground.

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I’m just saying: if I was a start-up trying to get people back into the office, I’d check out Brookline Village. Right on the D branch of the Green Line. Beautiful historic office stock (and a co-working space!). Friendly neighbors (me).
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Antisemetic hate crimes are an issue that both I and the great command staff at @BrooklineMAPD take incredibly seriously. Thanks to the members of the Department who reacted swiftly but calmly to investigate the situation and keep the congregation safe.
Brookline PD@BrooklineMAPD
19 Aug 2023
Increased law enforcement activity at Temple Beth Zion, 1566 Beacon St, due to a bomb threat received earlier this evening. At this time, all indications suggest that this was a hoax call. Police and other officials remain on scene investigating.
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We’re lucky to have a real pluralistic religious culture in Brookline. We have vibrant Jewish congregations of many branches. We have wonderful Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant communities. I was privileged to be able to celebrate Ramadan with our Muslim neighbors this year.
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All that doesn’t even scratch the surface. Our faith-based communities talk with and support each other. Our diverse beliefs make us stronger and better neighbors. We will not tolerate intolerance of any kind, from anyone.
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Keep writing.
A screen capture from Duotrope (a creative writing submissions tracker) with the following statistical information: From June 4, 2014 to August 17, 2023: 85 submissions sent. Acceptance percentage: 4.9%. Rejection percentage: 82.7% Non-response percentage (withdrawals/lost/no response): 12.3% Acceptance-to-rejection ratio (excludes non-responses): 5.6% Fees/Tips paid: GBP £3.00, USD $170.50

ALT A screen capture from Duotrope (a creative writing submissions tracker) with the following statistical information: From June 4, 2014 to August 17, 2023: 85 submissions sent. Acceptance percentage: 4.9%. Rejection percentage: 82.7% Non-response percentage (withdrawals/lost/no response): 12.3% Acceptance-to-rejection ratio (excludes non-responses): 5.6% Fees/Tips paid: GBP £3.00, USD $170.50
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In response to strong advocacy by the Select Board and the @brooklinema Planning Department, the state has altered a key provision of the MBTA Communities Act guidelines to allow places like us to mandate ground-floor commercial use in compliant districts. brooklinetownnews.com/2023/0…
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While this is a huge win for us and communities like us, it doesn’t change the Select Board’s vision for complying with the law: use the current consensus plan to achieve both technical compliance in existing districts and smart, measured changes along a major mixed-use corridor.
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On a grimmer note, this change also includes more penalties for noncompliance. I hope all of Brookline agrees that’s not an option.
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