Tess Gallagher




 * for the Blue Heelers character, see Teresa 'Tess' Gallagher

Tess Gallagher (born July 21, 1943 in Port Angeles, Washington) is an American poet, essayist, author and playwright. She attended the University of Washington, where she studied 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 The Maxine Cushing Gray Endowed Libraries Visiting Writers Fellowship (University of Washington), 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 Carver, who died from cancer in 1988. Her newest collection, Dear Ghosts, is her follow-up collection, written in 2002.

Gallagher has taught at many colleges, most recently at Bucknell University and Whitman College. She recently published an essay in The Sun Magazine titled "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 Jakuchō Setouchi, a Buddhist nun from Kyoto, which took place after the death of Raymond Carver.

Poetry

 * Stepping Outside Penumbra Press, 1974 (Chapbook)
 * Instructions To The Double Graywolf Press, 1976
 * Under Stars Graywolf Press, 1978, ISBN 9780915308194
 * Willingly Graywolf Press, 1984, ISBN 9780915308460
 * The Hug (1984)
 * Amplitude Graywolf Press, 1987, ISBN 9781555970994
 * Moon Crossing Bridge Graywolf Press, 1992, ISBN 9781555971564
 * I Stop Writing the Poem (1992)
 * Portable Kisses Capra Press, 1992, ISBN 9780884963424
 * My Black Horse Bloodaxe, 1995, ISBN 9781852243067
 * Dear Ghosts, Graywolf Press, 2006, ISBN 9781555974435—Poetry Finalist for 2007 Washington State Book Award

Fiction

 * The Lover of Horses Harper & Row, 1986, ISBN 9780060914356
 * At The Owl Woman Saloon Scribner, 1997, ISBN 9780684826936; Simon & Schuster, 1999, ISBN 9780684847566
 * The man from Kinvara: selected stories, Graywolf Press, 2009, ISBN 9781555975371

Essays

 * A concert of tenses: essays on poetry University of Michigan Press, 1986, ISBN 9780472093700
 * Soul Barnacles University of Michigan Press, 2003, ISBN 9780472089123

Screenplays

 * "Dostoevsky: A Screenplay" & "King Dog a Screenplay" (Capra Back-to-Back Series) with Raymond Carver (Paperback - Dec. 1985)
 * Words Like Distant Rain (2006)

Anthologies

 * "Sudden Journey",  The body eclectic: an anthology of poems, Editor Patrice Vecchione, Macmillan, 2002, ISBN 9780805069358