Author, Writer, Poet
Reposting my poem When It was Dark Enough to honor my father and uncles who were WWII veterans. I often wonder what they thought during our Fourth of July family picnics when their kids lit off fireworks. Complex irony between the horrors of war and childish fun.
The link takes you to the poetry page on my website where When It Was Dark Enough is the first sample poem.
Here is a clip of my segment from the zoom Reading to Benefit Shade Literary Arts, which was organized by Cristina Deptula of Authors, Large and Small.
I was honored to read with several amazing authors: Mary Mackey, Alice Taylor, Henry Hitz, Martha Franks, Kiran Bhat, and Gini Grossenbacher.
Authors, Large and Small and Shade Literary Arts acknowledge the injustice of wrongful law enforcement killings of Black people. Both organizations support Black Lives Matter and see and hear the affected communities.
Shade Literary Arts and Authors, Large and Small Literary Publicity are coming together to host virtual benefit readings for Shade Literary’s emergency fund for queer writers of color struggling due to coronavirus. The fund distributes small direct grants, usually of a few hundred dollars each, to as many individual applicants as possible.
If you would like the full recording or a transcript, or if you would like to contribute to Shade Literary Arts, please email authorslargeandsmall@gmail.com.
I read from my collection The Poet’s Garage.
Just for fun and to celebrate the launch of my poetry collection, The Poet’s Garage, from Unsolicited Press, here’s a brief podcast of the title poem.
Based on a true story, the poem tells how we learned there was another Terry Tierney, a suspected felon, living in Lincoln, Nebraska when we moved there. My arrival aroused several official computers. The police and the social services department thought I lied about my quiet life as a graduate student supported by my tolerant, librarian wife.
Ironically, when I wasn’t distracted by writing poetry in Lincoln, I was working on my dissertation about William Makepeace Thackeray and his various protagonists as doubles of himself. Those doubles have much less contrast with one another than me and my apparent double.
The cover of The Poet’s Garage depicts the poem, complete with pools of grease where lines have spilled, the cardboard box of active verbs, and the files of proper nouns. As in the poem, the poet has eluded arrest, so far.
The Poet’s Garage is available from Unsolicited Press, Powell’s, Barnes and Noble, Amazon and other retailers. You can also support your local bookstore by searching for them on Indiebound.
My poetry collection, The Poet’s Garage, was published today by Unsolicited Press! My thanks to the editors, friends, and fellow writers who helped make it happen. Here’s a link to the press release: http://www.unsolicitedpress.com/blog/announcing-the-release-of-terry-tierneys-the-poets-garage
The Poet’s Garage is available from Unsolicited Press, Powell’s, Barnes and Noble, Amazon and other retailers. You can also support your local bookstore by searching for them on Indiebound.
Thanks to Kristen Caven and Karma Bennett for giving me a chance to read for the CWC Berkeley branch on Zoom, and thanks to my publisher Unsolicited Press for reposting. I read five poems from my upcoming collection, The Poet’s Garage.
http://www.unsolicitedpress.com/blog/terry-tierney-author-of-the-poets-garage-reads