Thank you for visiting The Poet’s Garage website, home of my new poetry collection, Why Trees Stay Outside, my recent rust belt novel, The Bridge on Beer River, my sixties road trip novel, Lucky Ride, and my poetry collection, The Poet’s Garage, along with poetry, short stories, and news. You’re welcome to touch anything, but please beware of greasy words.
Why Trees Stay Outside
“Why Trees Stay Outside is a delightful exploration of innocent questions, earned curiosities, and fugitive answers. Terry Tierney plays expert words into poems.” – Kim Shuck, 7th Poet Laureate of San Francisco Emerita
“Terry Tierney’s Why Trees Stay Outside beats an enduring pulse of loss and love, pain and wonder in counterpoint with the ecological and political chaos of this time.” – Maw Shein Win, author of Storage Unit for the Spirit House (Omnidawn)
“Terry Tierney soars and dives into the conundrums of living we didn’t realize but need to know. His turns of phrase will stay with you—a masterful book of poems.” – Bruce Isaacson, Emeritus Poet Laureate, Clark County, Nevada
Why Trees Stay Outside was published by Unsolicited Press on October 1, 2024. You can order the collection from the publisher HERE and from most retailers including your local bookstore, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or bookshop.org.
In Terry Tierney’s second poetry collection, Why Trees Stay Outside, voices emerge from our social, political, and natural environment, including perspectives we thought were inanimate or at least insentient, some human, some spiritual. Through provocative imagery, they ask how we can save ourselves, find love, and find meaning given our current relationships with one another and the earth. The chorus of questions radiates with occasional remorse, but the poems also flash with redemption and humor. By exposing features of our physical and personal environments, their wealth of perspectives, and our innate desire to create and destroy, these accessible poems dare us to reconsider our assumptions and find a way forward.
You can find sample poems and links to journal publications on my Poetry page.
The Bridge on Beer River
Publisher’s Weekly—Book Life Editors Pick
Feathered Quill Book Award Finalist—Short Story / Anthology
Chanticleer Awards Semi-Finalist for Literary Fiction
“The characters in The Bridge on Beer River drink too much, fight for survival, and fight one another while clinging to friendship and humor.” — Lee Kravetz, author of The Last Confessions of Sylvia P
“Written in tight, unsentimental prose, with wry, crackling dialog, The Bridge on Beer River reminds us of the value of friendship, believing in yourself, and the lure of that one big gamble that could really pay off.” — Anne Leigh Parrish, author of An Open Door
The Bridge on Beer River was published by Unsolicited Press on July 11, 2023. You can order the novel from your favorite bookstore or from the publisher HERE along with most retailers including Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and bookshop.org.
A rust belt city in decline retains the solace of romance, which often proves to be an empty promise or even a curse. With a wry perspective and unflappable determination, Curt embodies all the town’s ills, including his own problems with drinking, work, and relationships, as he tries to save himself and rescue his friends in his own unconventional and unlawful ways. In The Bridge on Beer River, a novel-in-stories set in Reagan-era Binghamton, New York, characters scramble for subsistence while hoping for love and a better life.
Many of the stories from the novel have previously appeared in literary magazines, and you can sample those versions HERE.
Lucky Ride
Maxy Award Finalist for Literary Fiction and Humor
Bookfest Second Place Award for Literary Fiction
Bookfest Third Place Award for Historical Fiction
San Francisco Book Festival Honorable Mention for General Fiction
Chanticleer Awards Long List for Literary Fiction
“[An] engaging tale of nomadic hippiedom . . . Flash’s journey is frightening and heartening.” – The San Francisco Chronicle
My irreverent Vietnam-era road novel, Lucky Ride, was published by Unsolicited Press on December 31, 2021. You can order the novel by clicking here. The novel is also available from most retailers, including Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Bookshop.org, and your local bookstore. Here is where you can find versions for kindle and other e-book formats. The novel is also available as an audio book.
Set in the Vietnam War era, Lucky Ride tells the story of a recent veteran, an unraveling marriage, and a hitchhiking trip steeped in hippie optimism, post-war skepticism, and drug-induced fantasy. Read more about the novel, including a review and excerpts, here.
The Poet’s Garage
Pushcart Prize Nominee
My poetry collection 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.
Here are Reviews of The Poet’s Garage.
The collection includes many of the poems mentioned on the Poetry page and a couple of flash flash fiction pieces, along with many new poems.
Please visit the Audio and Video page for clips of me reading several poems and stories along with panels and interviews.
For future readings and other appearances, please visit the Events page.