Thomas P. Lynch. Courtesy Aldersgate.
Thomas P. Lynch (born 1948) is an American poet and essayist.[1]
Life[]
Lynch was born in Detroit, and educated by the Congregation of Christian Brothers at Brother Rice High School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Lynch then went to university and mortuary school, from which he graduated in 1973. He took over his father's funeral home in Milford, Michigan in 1974, a job he has held ever since.
Lynch married in 1972 and divorced in 1984. He later remarried, to Mary Tata in 1991. He has a daughter and 3 sons.
In 1970 Lynch went to Ireland, to find his family and read William Butler Yeats and James Joyce, an experience he recounts in his book Booking Passage: We Irish and Americans. He has returned many times since then, and now owns the small cottage in West Clare that was the home of his great-great-grandfather, and which was given as a wedding gift in the 19th century. He spends a portion of each year there.
Lynch's work has appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry, The Paris Review, Harper's, Esquire, Newsweek, the Washington Post, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Irish Times, and The Times of London. His commentaries have been recorded and broadcast by BBC Radio, RTE and NPR.
He has read and lectured at universities and literary centers throughout Europe, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and the United States. Lynch is also a regular presenter to professional conferences of funeral directors, hospice and medical ethics professionals, clergy, educators, and business leaders. He is an Adjunct Professor in the graduate creative writing program at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He has appeared on C-SPAN, MSNBC, The Today Show, and the PBS Bill Moyers series, On Our Own Terms.
Thomas Lynch Poet & Undertaker
Writing[]
New York Times: "One of the wonderful things about Thomas Lynch's Skating With Heather Grace is its mix of accents and settings. In his first book of poems, Mr. Lynch shows himself a master of Irish-influenced invective, an echo of brogue recalling the days when a poet's curses meant something"[2]
Recognition[]
His collection of essays, The Undertaking: Life studies from the dismal trade, won both the Heartland Prize for non-fiction and the American Book Award,[3] and was a finalist for the National Book Award. A second collection of essays, Bodies in Motion and at Rest, won the Great Lakes Book Award.
Lynch is the recipient of grants and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Michigan Council for the Arts, the Michigan Library Association, the Writers Voice Project, the National Book Foundation, the Arvon Foundation and the Arts Council of Ireland.
His work has been the subject of two documentary films. "Learning Gravity" directed by Kathel Black for Little Bird Productions UK aired on the BBC and RTE. PBS Frontline's "The Undertaking" a film by Karen O'Conner and Miri Navasky aired in October 2007 on PBS stations nationwide. It won the 2008 Emmy Award for Arts and Culture Documentary.
Publications[]
Poetry[]
- Skating with Heather Grace. New York: Knopf, 1986.
- Grimalkin, and other poems. London: Cape, 1994.
- Still Life in Milford. New York: Norton, 1998.
- Walking Papers. New York: Norton, 2010.
Short fiction[]
- Apparition, and late fictions: A novella and stories. New York: Norton, 2010.
Non-fiction[]
- The Undertaking: Life studies from the dismal trade (essays). New York: Norton, 1997.
- Bodies in Motion and at Rest: On metaphor and mortality (essays). New York: Norton, 2000.
- Booking Passage: We Irish and Americans. New York: Norton, 2005.
Thomas Lynch, poet, essayist, and undertaker, reading in Kennys 2016
Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy the Poetry Foundation.[4]
See also[]
References[]
Notes[]
- ↑ Thomas P. Lynch b. 1948, Poetry Foundation. Web, Nov. 19, 2014.
- ↑ Flamm, Matthew (1987-10-04). "FACING UP TO THE DEADLY ORDINARY". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DEFDD1F31F937A35753C1A961948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1. Retrieved 2008-06-13.
- ↑ Warnock, Gabrielle; O'Connell, Jeff (2000). Face to Face. Trident Press Ltd. p. 252. ISBN 1-900724-46-4. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=kG0pzzLYTXEC&pg=RA1-PA252&dq=%22Thomas+Lynch%22+%2B%22grimalkin%22&num=100&sig=YL4PKmo1zs6jD6QU9kD3-l01Qvg. Retrieved 2008-06-13.
- ↑ Thomas P. Lynch, Poetry Foundation. Web, Mar. 13, 2013.
External links[]
- Poems
- "Himself" at Poetry Out Loud
- Thomas P. Lynch b. 1948 at the Poetry Foundation
- Prose
- Audio / video
- Thomas Lynch at YouTube
- Audio: Thomas Lynch reads "Euclid" from Walking Papers: Poems 1999 - 2009
- Audio: 2001: Lynch reads his poems & essays at RealAudio]
- Video: Lynch discusses the business of death on display at a funeral directors convention. An excerpt from the documentary, HOW TO LIVE FOREVER
- PBS: Frontline "The Undertaking"
- Books
- Thomas Lynch at Amazon.com
- About
- Thomas Lynch Official website.
- Interview with author Thomas Lynch at Aldersgate, 2014.
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