Travel becomes the antidote for a disintegrating love affair as these poems take the reader deep into Kelley's wanderlust at the turn of the millennium. From the rise of the Internet and the death of Princess Diana to the First Congo War and the tragedy of September 11, Kelley's personal journey from America to Europe intersects with history-making events and pop culture.

In 1968, Irene Laureux's husband was murdered during the Paris riots and his body dumped near Notre-Dame cathedral. Thirty years later, she finally catches up with his killer. With the help of American writer Martin Paige, Irene will illuminate decades of secrets and lies only to discover that her husband's death is part of something far more sinister.

A young, American writer, Martin Paige, agrees to chaperone a group of high school seniors on their graduation trip to Paris as a favor to his best friend, teacher Diane Jacobs. Diane hopes Europe will act as a catalyst to lift Martin from his grief following the suicide of his lover, Peter. In Paris, Martin meets a widow, Irene Laureux, still grieving the mysterious death of her husband during the 1968 riots. As Martin begins to fall in love with a student, David McLaren, a terrorist attack on the Metro irrevocably changes all the characters lives.

Poetry. LGBT Studies. "To render is to strip away, to make clear. With RENDER, Collin Kelley has a story to tell, one that is shaped by language that both shutters and illuminates meaning. Kelley's elegiac, soaring series of poems, serve as an open invitation to join him on his brave, ribald romp across the landscape of his memory. What unfolds is as intimate--and at the same time, as exposed--as underthings pinned to a clothesline. RENDER presents a deconstructed world which Kelley brilliantly reconstructs through his deft use of language: a world which is Kelley's for the mending, amending, and, ultimately, ours for the rending."--Vanessa Daou