Tess Gallagher

:"for the Blue Heelers character, see Teresa 'Tess' Gallagher"Tess Gallagher (born 1943) is a poet, essayist, novelist, and playwright. Born in Port Angeles, Washington, she attended the University of Washington, where shestudied creative writing with Theodore Roethke and later Nelson Bentley as well as David Wagoner and Mark Strand. Her honors include a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation, two National Endowment for the Arts Awards, the Maxine Cushing Gray Foundation Award, and the Elliston Award for "best book of poetry published by a small press" for the collection "Instructions to the Double" (1976).

Her third husband Raymond Carver encouraged her to write short stories, some of which were collected in "The Lover of Horses" (1987) and "At the Owl Woman Saloon" (1996).

Her book "Moon Crossing Bridge" is a collection of poems written after the death of Raymond Carver, who died from cancer in 1988. Her newest collection, "Dear Ghosts," is her follow-up collection, written 14 years later.

Gallagher has taught at many colleges, most recently at Bucknell University and Whitman College. She recently published an essay in The Sun Magazine entitled "Instead of Dying"about alcoholism and Raymond Carver's having maintained his sobriety. The essay was initially delivered at the Welsh Academy.

"Distant Rain", published in 2006, is a conversation between Tess and Jackuchō Setouchi, a Buddhist nun from Kyoto, which took place after the death of Raymond Carver.

Works

Poetry

"Stepping Outside" (Chapbook)
"Instructions To The Double" (1976)
"Under Stars" (1978)
"Willingly" (1984)
"Amplitude" (1987)
"Moon Crossing Bridge" (1992)
"I Stop Writing the Poem" (1992)
"Portable Kisses" (1993)
"My Black Horse" (Published In Great Britain, 1995)
"Dear Ghosts," (2006)

Fiction

"The Lover of Horses" (1986)
"At The Owl Woman Saloon" (1996)

Essay Collections

"A Concert Of Tenses" (1983)
"Soul Barnacles" (2003)

Other Works

"Words Like Distant Rain" (2006)

External links

* [http://www.wiredforbooks.org/tessgallagher/ 1986, 1990 interviews with Tess Gallagher] by Don Swaim at Wired for Books