Carson started writing when he was a child. He read a lot of poetry when he was away from home at a boarding school called Milton Academy. One of his favorite poets was Kenneth Koch. When he grew up he went to school at Columbia University in New York City, the school where Kenneth was a teacher. When talking to a newspaper Carson said that he was "delighted" to study with Kenneth. Carson said, "if you’re a musician and your favorite musician is Bob Dylan you can’t just show up at Bob Dylan’s house. You can’t just [meet and talk to] Bob Dylan. The poetry world is like that. [Sometimes you can meet and talk to famous poets.]"