“This week, the announcement will go out that my debut collection is being acquired by Curbstone/Northwestern University Press for publication in 2025. In the anonymous peer review that was a required step on the way to a contract, my reviewer wrote:
I find not only are the poems full of the best words in the best order, but the poems are ordered in the best way for an experience of a book. In some ways this collection is similar to a book-length poem, in the way different parts echo one another at well-orchestrated moments, while always continuing to flow ahead with a kind of elegance that can only come, I imagine, out of a great deal of work and thought put into order and "timing" but which this poet has made to seem inevitable..."
This "work and thought put into order and 'timing'" was 100% accomplished in your class on ordering the manuscript! Your thoughtful teaching was instrumental to this book! So, thank you, Tess. I'm incredibly grateful.”
- Margot Case
“Tess was brilliant in every aspect of consulting with me on my poetry manuscript. She asked great questions--questions that helped me re-see individual poems and think about the arc of the project, and big-picture questions that have continued to sustain and grow my writing. From the start, I could tell she cared about me and my poems, and I admired how deftly she used our conversations to craft her feedback toward what would help me most. She was generous with her time and her attention, and I left all of our interactions feeling energized and inspired. The thing I valued most was her insight: she got right to the heart of what was at stake in my poems, and she helped me begin to articulate this with more grace, nuance, and sophistication that I could have on my own. I can’t recommend her highly enough.”
- Jack Christian
"As a theatre person and new to writing poetry this was especially wonderful in creating a bridge of languages characters settings and occasions. Taylor crammed so many important ideas into her lecture, but her pacing reflected mostly her enthusiastic desire to pass on as much as possible. A remarkable talk pulling in poetry from so many periods and styles. Great poet/teachers are rare and wonderful creatures. Thanks so much for this wonderful festival."
- John Sweeney
"This masterclass was amazing! I loved the poems by the amateur writers and the tools that Tess has given us are priceless"
- Soumya Guntoor
"it was one of the best workshops i have attended. Smart and well organized and so pertinent to all writing."
- Mary Augusta Thomas
"TY!! Every minute was so great i didn’t have enough to write all the notes and thoughts I had! I would say this is one if not the best lit class lectures ever."
-Sharyn Moore
Thank you for an amazing focus: setting the stage. I'm a retired singer (opera, choir), and now have turned to writing poems. So, your "The Poem's Stage" approach sang to me loud and clear. Just bought Rift. Squee!
- Gwendolyn Soper
I learned more in last week’s class than most other classes combined. You are a very good teacher. Here’s what. I never read a poetry book all the way through, just picking a single poem, or maybe two, before moving on to something else. And that may be a good way for some volumes. BUT Belfast Confetti was a revelation. I began noticing right from the get go the word “confetti” thinking it somewhat peculiar given the poems it resided within. THEN on page 72, in “Brick” he throws “Belfast confetti” at us, putting a new meaning of the word “confetti” as it came before. One can read the word as a bunch of paper particles snowing down in celebration, but that is a misreading, I think, of what he is trying to say. Or maybe he is using more than one definition of the word . Or, or, or. It is a masterful book and I thank you for helping me appreciate what I am reading.
- Nancy