Tricia McCallum

Poet

Markham, ON

Canada

Ontario CA

Email:

writer@triciamccallum.com

Website:

www.triciamccallum.com

Author's Bio

Poetry is my church. I go to it for redemption, for answers and for comfort.

My poetry is not really simple, I don’t think, but it is about ordinary things. I’m not an abstract thinker. I’m interested in ordinary life. It continues to provide me with more than enough to write about.

I feel passionately that a poem, any poem, should earn its keep. First, I want to be moved by a poem. To be reading it and feel there is nowhere else I want to be, nothing else I’d rather be doing.

I want to be reminded of something I’ve forgotten. I want to feel I’ve heightened my awareness somehow. I want to stir inside a little. And I want to feel smarter for the reading of it, wiser, in perhaps inexplicable ways.

And I want to be told something by a poem. Something I hadn't been paying attention to, but should have. It might be about love, even if it is bad love. Or especially because it is bad love--such a common heartbreaking thing.

Publications & Prizes

Book:

The Music of Leaving (Demeter Press, 2014)

Prizes won:

I have a book of my poems coming from Toronto's Demeter Press in October, 2014, entitled "The Music of Leaving." I also published a poetry collection in 2011 entitled "Nothing Gold Can Stay: A Mother and Father Remembered."

My poem “Thirst” won the goodreads.com poetry contest in December 2011. In May 2012 I won the contest again with my piece “There’s Always the Guy.” These wins have been a true tonic for me, spurring me on to new work and boosting my audience and exposure tremendously: It’s amazing the reach of the goodreads.com website. And the fact that their contest winners are decided on by the members themselves via online voting is a delicious bonus.

Here is "Thirst:"

The sun was hotter.
You can tell.
Look at us squinting against it in photos then.
Everything washed out by the glare,
cheekbones, jawlines,
all detail surrendered.
Dazzled,
we could be anybody.

The gardens, look, they’re parched.
It hurt to walk on the grass.
We lay in scorched backyards
slathering butter on our chests,
chain-smoking, eating fluorescent cheesies,
swilling bright red soda.
Everyone burned raw.

And we knew
nothing could go wrong.
Our lives lay ahead of us.
Men were above us,
landing on the moon.

Personal Favorites

What I'm reading now:

Bark. by Lorrie Moore, The Opposite of Loneliness. by Marina Keegan, Acts of God. by Ellen Gilchrist, Can't and Won't. by Lydia Davis, Poems that Make Grown Men Cry. by Anthony Holden

More Information

Gives readings:

Yes

Travels for readings:

Yes

Identifies as:

Scotch-Irish American

Prefers to work with:

Adults

Fluent in:

English

Born in:

Glasgow

South Sudan

Raised in:

Barrie, ON

Canada

Ontario

Please note: All information in the Directory is provided by the listed writers or their representatives.

Last update: Jul 01, 2014