Tolan 1
James Tolan
42 Tompkins Place * Brooklyn, NY 11231 * 646-247-9195 *
------
EDUCATION
1997Ph.D. in English and Creative Writing--Poetry, University of Louisiana—Lafayette. Major Field: 20th Century American Literature; Minor Fields: 19th Century American Literature, 19th and 20th Century British Literature.
1993M.A. in English and Creative Writing--Poetry, University of Louisiana—Lafayette.
1987B.A. in Philosophy, Northern Illinois University.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
2014-Full Professor, Borough of Manhattan Community College/CUNY: Modern Poetry, Creative Writing, World Literature II, Short Story, Introduction to Literature, and Developmental Writing
2014Workshop leader, Poetry Festival at Round Top (TX) and The Writers Place (Kansas City, MO)
2013Replacement Faculty (two weeks), Rutgers-Newark MFA program, Rachel Hadas’s graduate poetry workshop
2011-Associate Professor, Borough of Manhattan Community College/CUNY: Modern Poetry, Creative Writing, World Literature I, Detective Fiction,Introduction to Literature, Honors Composition, and Developmental Writing
2003-11Assistant Professor, Borough of Manhattan Community College/CUNY: Modern Poetry, Creative Writing, Advanced Composition, World Literature I, The Short Story, Contemporary Urban Authors, Detective Fiction, Introduction to Literature, Freshman Composition, and Developmental Writing.
2001-03Substitute Assistant Professor, College of Staten Island/CUNY: Writing About Literature (graduate) Teaching Writing (graduate), Creative Writing Workshop (graduate) Autobiographical Writing (graduate), Advanced Creative Writing Workshop, Contemporary Literature, Poetry Writing, Introduction to Creative Writing, and Freshman Composition.
1998-01 Adjunct Associate Professor, College of Staten Island: Studies in Fiction (graduate) Advanced Poetry Workshop, Advanced Creative Writing Workshop, Contemporary Literature, Introductory Creative Writing, and Freshman Composition.
1997-98Instructor, University of Louisiana--Lafayette: Modern Fiction, American Literature II, Introduction to Literature, and Composition.
1997Lecturer, Bucknell University: Advanced Poetry Workshop.
PUBLICATIONS
Books
Poetry
2013 Mass of the Forgotten. Pittsburgh: Autumn House Press.
Editorial
2012 New America: Contemporary Literature for a Changing Society. Co-edited with
Holly Messitt.Pittsburgh: Autumn House Press.
Chapbooks
2011 Red Walls. Dos Madres Press.
Whiskey and the Rake of Mourning. Deadly Chaps.
1997 Fresh Fruit & Gravity. Far Gone Books.
Anthologies, Reprints, and Broadcasts
2015 The Autumn House Anthology of Contemporary Poetry, third edition. “Genius
Loci,” “The Purple Crayon,” “Should you die,” and “The Wind Will Undo
Us.”ed. Michael Simms. Autumn House Press.
2014 Scattered Like Seeds #1217 (Microbook). “The Gentlemanly Art of Pugilism.”
Poems for All (San Diego).
This Land 5.9 (May 1). “The Gentlemanly Art of Pugilism” and “The Return.”
Poetry at Round Top 2014. “Supposed To.” Round Top Festival Institute.
Verse Daily. March 1. “The Wrong Ones.”
2013 From the Poet’s Bookshelf. “Should You Die” and “Downstream.” KRVS
National Public Radio, Lafayette, Louisiana. December 26.
Words and Music: Hair. “The Forest of My Hair.” BBC 3 Radio. February 17.
On the Dark Path: An Anthology of Fairy Tale Poetry. “Red Grown.” Ed. Anita
M. Bernard. 13 Moons Press.
2012 TYCA National Poetry Month Poem of the Day (April 19). “It was the 70s.” National College Teachers of English.
The Rhysling Award Anthology, Science Fiction Poetry Association. “Red
Grown.”
2011 The Autumn House Anthology of Contemporary Poetry, second edition. “Blood
Sport,” “Evening Trees,” “Giggles Before the Void” and“The Purple Crayon.”
ed. Michael Simms. Autumn House Press.
“Deadlier Than Thou”:Short Fast and Deadly: The 2010 Anthology. “Foolish
Heart.” ed. Joseph A. W. Quintela. Deadly Chaps.
In the Garden of the Crow. “Red Grown.” Ed. Angela Craig. Elektrik Milk Bath
Press.
Poetry in Performance 39. “Blood Sport.” Eds Gregory Crosby and Lynn Dion.
CUNY Press.
Two Weeks, e-anthology. “Downstream.” Eds Ash Bowen and
Johnathon Williams. Linebreak Press.
2010 TYCA National Poetry Month Poem of the Day (April 17). “The Wind in
Time.” National College Teachers of
English.
2009 Quiddity Public-Radio Program, Episode 2-2. “Five Takes on Lincoln’s
Looks,” “Lincoln Analogues,” and “Tourists at the Temple” (the poems were
broadcast and discussed).
2007 The Best of the Bellevue Literary Review. “Cemetery Plums.” Ed. Danielle Ofri.
Bellevue Literary Press.
2006 PurgaSquare Postcard Series, number 12, Purgatory Pie Press: “The
Gentlemanly Art of Pugilism.”
Family Matters: Poems of Our Families. “The Purple Crayon.” Eds. Ann Smith
and Larry Smith. Bottom Dog Press.
2002- Academy of American Poets ( “The Forest of my Hair.”
1999 What Have You Lost? “The Forest of My Hair.” Ed. Naomi Shihab Nye.
Greenwillow Books.
1996 Coffeehouse Poetry Anthology. “Blood Sport" and "John Hancock's Return.”
Eds. June King and Larry Smith. Bottom Dog Press.
Selected Journals
2015Narrow Fellow: “The Fruit of Our Eden,” “A Nod into Spring,” “Trading Gods” and “Undone.”
2014Connotations Press: An Online Artifact: “The Angel of Social Dance,” Love Song after Lorca,” “Terror in the Service of Delight” and “While I Complained.” January.
2013december magazine: “My Father. Vietnam.”
Wake: “Tag.” 5 September.
2012 Bellevue Literary Review 12.2: “Western Civilization.”
BigCityLit: “A Penniless Piece of Spent Fashion.” 25 January
`
Fogged Clarity: “How Far.” November.
Gargoyle 58: “Bouffant” and “Broken.”
J Journal 5.1“Filched” and “A Murder of Crows.”
Measure 6.2: “A Parliament of Rooks.”
Midwestern Gothic 6: “To Slaughter.”
Ploughshares 38.1: “The Big Sleep.” Ed. Nick Flynn.
Quarter after Eight 18: “The Egg Man, the Podiatrist, and Me.”
2011 Connecticut Review 33.2: “Active Shooter Support Tips,” “Chicago 1942,”
and “Without Feathers.”
Enchanted Conversation: “Red Grown.”15 December.
Fairy Tale Review 7 (Brown Issue): “Devil Born.”
Gargoyle 57:“Corpus Poetae.”
Linebreak: “Supposed To.”27 April.
Montreal Review: “Mr. Waters and the Crackers.” June.
2010Knockout3.1: “The Coup,” “A Nod into Spring,” and “A Sense of
Community.”
Linebreak: “Inheritance.” 14 December.
Louisiana Literature 27.2: “The House is Surrounded.”
Paterson Literary Review38: “It was the 70s.”
2009Lilliput Review 167: “The Nick of Time.”
Quiddity International Literary Journal 2.2: “A Crow Apart,” “Marriage: The
Meat Course” and “The Wind in Time Will Undo Us in Its Way.”
2008The Fourth River 5: “Breath Robins,” “Half a Man Loves a Woman in
Two” and “Stray.”
Margie: The American Journal of Poetry 7: “Whiskey and the Rake of
Mourning.”
Quiddity International Literary Journal 1.2: “Five Takes on Lincoln’s Looks,”
“Lincoln Analogues” and “Tourists at the Temple.”
2007Good Foot 7: “Giggles Before the Void.”
2006Fulcrum 5: “The History of Fresh Fruit in America.”
Lake Effect: A Journal of the Literary Arts 10: “The Darkening of the Host.”
Margie: The American Journal of Poetry 5: “Red Walls.”
Rock & Sling 5.2: “Caravaggio & Thomas” & “Raising Christ.”
2005REAL: Regarding Arts and Letters 30.1: “I h]ate your pancakes” and “The
Return.”
2003Bellevue Literary Review 3.1: “Cemetery Plums.”
2002Many Mountains Moving 5.1:“Sacrifice.”
Margie: The American Journal of Poetry 1: “The Purple Crayon.”
1999Luna 1.2: “History is not forgetting.”
1998 Salt Hill Journal 5: “The Watch.”
1997Wisconsin Review 31.2: “A Body Divided.”
1996Atlanta Review 3.1: “The Forest of my Hair.”
The Yalobusha Review 2: “Drafting the Flame.”
1995American Literary Review 6.1: "The Wrong Ones."
Windsor Review 28.1: "Celebrating Our Anniversary," "Christmas Star," and "Evening Trees."
1992Indiana Review 15.2: "Blood Sport." The Quarterly 24: "Small Birds."
Prose
Essays
2013Bibliotekas. “A Way of Being in the World.” August 18, 2013.
2010Changing English17.4, “Between Worlds: Poetry, Ethnicity, and Class.”
353 – 362.
Guest Blogs
2012“John Ashbery.” Ploughshares Online (July 27). 869 words.
“Cornelia St. Café and The Perfect Sense Reading Series.”Ploughshares Online (July 6,). 837 words.
“Martín Espada on Colonialism and the Poetry of Rebellion in Puerto Rico.” PloughsharesOnline (June 22). 1,179 words.
“Poetry and Its Whores.” Ploughshares Online (June 1). 617 words.
“Poetry, Hip Hop, and Academia: A Discussion with Camille Rankine, Patrick Rosal, and Tracy K. Smith.” Ploughshares Online (May 11). 788 words.
The Death of Poetry?” Ploughshares Online (April 27). 655 words.
Book Reviews
2011Galatea Resurrects, “As If Free by Burt Kimmelman.” (March).
2,157 words.
free-by-burt-kimmelman.html.
2010Gently Read Literature,“Without That Bottle of Tequila: James Tolan on
Kim Addonizio’s Lucifer at theStarlite.” (April). 1,156words.
PRESENTATIONS
Selected Principal Featured and Group Poetry Readings and Talks
2015Cornelia Street Café with Al Ortolani, George Wallace and others, June 15.
Poets at the Sum of Uncountable Things, Court Tree Collective, Brooklyn, with Denver Butson, Nicole Callihan, and Lorraine Doran, May 14.
Lincoln Through the Arts, Hoogland Center for the Arts, Benedictine University, Springfield, IL, with Toi Derricotte and Jamal May, May 1.
EX LIBRIS, Live Poetry Video Chat, James Tolan on Robert Duncan’s
H.D. Book, March 17.
Cornelia Street Café, book launch for the Autumn House Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry with Ed Ochester, Alicia Ostriker and others, March 13.
Poets House, January 8.
2014Ozark Poets and Writers Collective, Nightbird Books, Fayetteville, AK, with Olivia Stiffler, May 27.
Bright Hill Literary Center, Treadwell, NY, with Estha Weiner, May 22.
Book Woman, Austin, with Nicole Callihan, May 9.
Kaboom Books, Houston, with Nicole Callihan and Lorraine Doran, May 8.
Southern Methodist University, McCord Auditorium, with Nicole Callihan and Lorraine Doran, May 7.
Full Circle Bookstore, Oklahoma City, with Nicole Callihan and Lorraine Doran, May 6.
Lucky’s on the Green (sponsored by Book Smart), Tulsa, OK with Nicole Callihan and Lorraine Doran, May 5.
Writers Place, Kansas City, with Nicole Callihan & Jo McDougall, May 2.
Cornelia Street Café, Manhattan, with Tony Leuzzi and Nicholas Samaras, April 27.
Savannah College of Art and Design with Olivia Stiffler, April 23.
Book Lady (sponsored by Seersucker Live), Savannah with Olivia Stiffler, April 19.
Poetry Festival at Round Top with Eduardo Corral, Joy Harjo, Jane Hirshfield, Gregory Orr and others, April 11-13.
Our Lady of the Lake University Literary Festival, San Antonio, April 10.
Elizabethtown College, with Nicole Callihan & Lorraine Doran, March 20.
University of Pittsburgh-Greensburg with Nicole Callihan and Lorraine Doran, March 19.
Boxcar Books, Bloomington, IN with Nicole Callihan and Lorraine Doran, March 18.
Parnassus Books, Nashville, with Nicole Callihan and Lorraine Doran, March 17.
Malaprops Bookstore, Asheville, NC with Nicole Callihan and Lorraine Doran, March 16.
Beyond Baroque Foundation, Los Angeles, with Cecilia Woloch and Sarah Mclay, March 9.
Autumn House Press AWP off-site reading, Seattle, with Connie Hales, Danusha Lameris, Sheryl St. Germain and others, February 27.
Poets House, december magazine reading with Marvin Bell and others, January 26.
2013Newark Public Library with students from the Rutgers-Newark MFA Program, December 4.
Mellow Pages Library, Williamsburg, Brooklyn with Jason Schneiderman, November 16.
Mixer Reading Series, Manhattan, with Jeffrey McDaniel and Katie Peterson, November 12.
BookCourt, Brooklyn, with Cecilia Woloch, November 8.
St. Francis College, Brooklyn, October 2.
Community of Writers Conference, Chatham University, Pittsburgh, with Toi Derricotte, August 7.
AWP Off-site Reading/Book Launch for New America with Ada Limon, Evie Shockley, Patricia Smith, and others.
The Cornelia Street Café, NYC book launch for New America with Dinaw Mengestu, Karen Hartman, and others.
2012New York Poetry Festival with Rachel Eliza Griffiths
NYU Bookstore with Stephanie Brown and Martha Rhodes
BookCourt, Brooklyn, with Denver Butson and Jennifer Michael Hecht
2011School of Visual Arts, sponsored by Poets and Writers
The Cornelia Street Café, book launch for The Autumn House Anthology of Contemporary Poetry with Jan Beatty, Alicia Ostriker and others.
Nuyorican Poets Café, book launch for In the Garden of the Crow
Cornelia Street Café, with Jason Schneiderman and Roger Sedarat
2009Chatham University, Pittsburgh.
2007St. George Library, part of the In the Branches Series, co-sponsored by Poets House and the New York Public Library
Nuyorican Poets Café, part of the Friday night invitation slam
Scholarly and Pedagogical
2012Elizabethtown College (PA). “Between Worlds: Poetry and Class.”
2009College English Association National Conference, Formal Challenges to Literature Panel. “Words in Air; Valuing and Evaluating Spoken Word Poetry.” Pittsburgh.
2005Southwest Popular Culture Association Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM, “Changing the Model: Creative Writing as Practice not Workshop.”
INTERVIEWS
2014“To Be Flooded Once More: Tony Leuzzi in Conversation with James Tolan.” The Brooklyn Rail. November 5.
Learnist. Interviewed by Maggie Messitt.
New Letters on the Air: James Tolan and Olivia Stiffler. Interviewed by
Angela Elam. July 25.
SELECTED GRANTS, HONORS and AWARDS
2015 Chancellor’s Research Fellowship, City University of New York.
Scholarship,Southampton Writers Conference with Vijay Seshadri.
2014 Sabbatical Fellowship.
2013 PSC-CUNY Summer Research Award.
2011 PSC-CUNY Summer Research Award.
BMCC Tenured Faculty Publication Award.
2010 PSC-CUNY Summer Research Award.
2009 BMCC Faculty Development Grant.
Fellow,Salzburg Globalization Seminar.
2008 BMCC Tenured Faculty Publication Award.
2005 PSC-CUNY Summer Research Award.
2004PSC-CUNY Summer Research Award.
2002Premiere Grant, New York Department of Cultural Affairs.
1996Scholarship, Ropewalk Writers’ Retreat.
1995Lyon College Scholarship, White River Writers' Workshop.
1994Scholarship/Residency with Robert Creeley, Atlantic Center for the Arts.
1992Associated Writing Programs Intro Award in Poetry.
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
Associated Writing Programs and Poets House
SELECTED SERVICE
National and Community
2015Cornelia Street Café, Poetry Reading Event Organizer and Moderator: John Hodgen, Quitman Marshall, and Olivia Stiffler, April.
2014BookCourt, Brooklyn. Event Organizer and Host: Poetry Reading for Copper Canyon Poets Natalie Diaz, Roger Reeves, and Brenda Shaughnessy, January 27.
2011National Endowment for the Humanities Bridging Cultures Program: Illuminated Verses, Respondent, Charged with developing public curricula and event programming in Muslim poetry.
Cornelia Street Café, Event Organizer: Book Launch for The Autumn House Anthology of Contemporary Poetry.
2010Poets House, Moderator and Event Organizer: “Darrell Bourque and Sheryl St. Germain: Two Louisiana Poets in Conversation.”
Cornelia Street Café, Poetry Reading Event Organizer and Moderator: “Darrell Bourque and Sheryl St. Germain.”
2001-3The Muddy Cup Poetry Series, Founder, Administrator, and MC.
University-wide
2014-Faculty Mentor, CUNY Baccalaureate Program.
2011-13PSC-CUNY Research Awards, English and Creative Writing Panelist.
2011CUNY Undergraduate Poetry Awards, Founder and Organizer. Arranged funding through the BMCC president’s office for university-wide poetry awards for CUNY undergraduates in four award categories, created award categories and guidelines, arranged for advertising and university-wide announcements, created sub-committees for each award category, arranged award ceremony, fielded submissions and questions, and arranged for a final judge and award ceremony.
College-wide
2013Organizer and MC with Jason Schneiderman, Native American Poetry Reading with Natalie Diaz and Orlando White.
2012Judge, BMCC Poetry Awards.
2007Organizer and Facilitator.Talk on translation and the poetry of Cesar Vallejo by Clayton Eshleman,
2006-Poets House, Liaison, responsibilities include providing students and faculty with access to visiting poets in the Branching Out series via pre-event question and answer sessions and free tickets to the lectures as well
as a participant in the Poets’ Focus Group regarding long-range planning and development for Poets House. Integrated BMCC students and faculty into NEH-funded Bridging Cultures events at Poets House and BMCC in spring 2011, including a daylong seminar at BMCC and a break-out session the next day to plan nation-wide curricula for integrating Islamic poetry into programming at public institutions.
2005-08Faculty Council, At-large Member.
Faculty Development Committee, Chair, responsibilities included administering and awarding Faculty Development Grants, planning and organizing Fall Faculty Day, The Joe Doctor Colloquium and the Faculty Development Grant Awards ceremony.
2004-06Writing and Literature Club, Faculty Advisor.
Departmental
2013-Mentor for Junior Faculty.
2012-13Composition Committee, Chair,
2009-13Personnel and Budget Committee, Member.
2004-12Writing and Literature Committee, Co-chair, winner of the 2008 Diana Hacker Outstanding Program Award from TYCA.responsibilities have included developing the major; expanding the curriculum; recruitment; advisement; establishing, judging, and presenting annual writing awards; organizing professional events and readings; negotiating matriculation agreements with senior colleges; establishing and maintaining relationships with professional organizations; and instituting and managing the program’s message board.
2001-03Interim Writing Director, responsibilities included leading and organizing pedagogy workshops for adjuncts, classroom observations of adjunct instructors, mentoring, committee work, and outcomes assessment.
2000-07College of Staten Island Master’s Faculty, responsibilities included student mentoring, thesis direction, and reading and providing questions for Master’s Exams.
REFERENCES
Dr. Darrell Bourque, former Louisiana State Poet Laureate and Professor Emeritus,
University of Lousiana-Lafayette
Lee Bricetti, Executive Director of Poets House
Dr. Timothy Gray, Professor of English. College of Staten Island
Dr. Burt Kimmelman, Professor of English, New Jersey Institute of Technology
Dr. Sheryl St. Germain, Professor and MFA Director, Chatham College
Afaa Michael Weaver, Professor, Simmons College
CREDENTIALS
Complete dossier available upon request