AMERICAN AUTHORS CHALLENGE 2022--FEBRUARY--TESS GALLAGHER

Most biographical sketches of Tess Gallagher put “poet” first in the list of her accomplishments. She has also written enough short fiction to fill three collections, and has collaborated with an Irish oral storyteller, Josie Gray, to produce a volume of authentic yarns from the West of Ireland entitled Barnacle Soup.

There are those who would argue that among her greatest contributions to literature has been her unstinting commitment to preserving, protecting and promoting the work of her late husband, Raymond Carver, with whom she lived for the last 10 years of his life. She brought to light how much his editor, Gordon Lish, changed Carver’s work, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, and she fought to have it published in its original form. She credits Carver’s influence and inspiration for her expanding her writing into the short story form, of which Carver is widely considered a master.

Many of her poems have been published in The New Yorker and can be accessed on the magazine’s website. There’s a paywall, but non-subscribers do get a few freebies, I believe.

Gallagher was born and grew up in Port Angeles, Washington, where she still maintains two homes. She studied with Theodore Roethke at the University of Washington. She has taught in various universities, mostly on the U.S. East Coast, and directed the Creative Writing program at Syracuse University in the 1980s. Her first husband was a navy-trained pilot, who aspired to be an astronaut, but ended up flying helicopters in Viet Nam during the war. Although he survived his experiences there, the marriage and his youthful dreams, did not.

Tess Gallagher has lived at least part time in Ireland for decades, and a bit of the Emerald Isle occasionally creeps into her voice. For 25 years, she shared her life there with Josie Gray, and the two artists took inspiration from each other. She encouraged his painting, and often created poems based on Gray’s work. An article in the South Whidbey (Washington) Record from 2009 tells of their collaborations. (Gray died in 2017.)

A podcast featuring a 2019 interview with Tess Gallagher can be heard here, and is well worth the hour plus of listening time.

Thanks Linda. I shall enjoy listening to that later this week.

I will be reading her most recent volume of poetry Is, Is Not.

A long time reader of her work. I wrote this article for Belletrista a few years back: http://www.belletrista.com/2011/Issue%2013/features_3.php (There are some story spoilers in the article)

>2 Caroline_McElwee: Oh, thanks so much for sharing the link to your Belletrista appreciation, Caroline. I probably read it back when, but as I did not know her work at all at the time, it didn't sink in.
I highly encourage everyone who is participating (or even considering it) to follow Caroline's link.

I've added this thread to the group wiki. Have fun with it!

At the Owl Woman Saloon, Tess Gallagher's first book of short stories, was my choice - for the intriguing title.

"Red Ensign" was my favorite story, with unexpected fun despite the near "drowning" theme.

The balance of the stories were not too inviting despite lovely poetic sentences
until "Rain Flooding Your Campfire" met early expectations.

I'm going to read Moon Crossing Bridge (at least) for this month's challenge.

Karen O.

I read the only poem I have access to through any of my libraries. "Lynx Light" is in The American Voice Anthology of Poetry. I hope to fit in a wild card read sometime this month.

Stolen Dress

BY Tess Gallagher

I was walking through a vast darkness
in a dress studded with diamonds, the cloth
under them like chain mail—metallic,
form fitting like the sea to its horizon. I could
hear waves breaking on the shore and far off
concertina music drifting over the dunes. What
was I doing in high heels in sand in a diamond-studded

dress that had to be stolen? Fear washed
through me, as if one of those waves had
risen up and, against all the rules of waves,
splashed me from the shoulders
down. I was wet with diamonds and fear.
A small boat held offshore with its cold
yellow light pointing a long watery finger at me

while the stolen feeling of the dress sparkled
my location out into the universe. Thief! Thief!
came an interplanetary cry, causing me to
gaze up into the star-brilliant firmament,
for it wasn’t just a sky anymore. It had
taken on biblical stature. How had I
gotten into this dress, these unruly

waves, this queasy feeling I would be
found out? Time to run! my heart said,
pumping away under its brocade
of diamonds. Strange vacancies had
accumulated after all my sleep-plundered
nights. Thief! came the cry again, as if
I should recognize myself. And I did.

I flung those high heels into the depths,
took up my newfound identity, and without
the least remorse, began to run those diamonds
right out of this world.

I'm pretty swamped with book club reads this month, but I did discover an edition of short stories by Gallagher, The Lover of Horses, languishing on my first edition shelf. I'll try them out and report back.

I'm nearly finished with the At the Owl Woman Saloon collection. It has some remarkable pieces in it. Unlike a lot of short fiction, Gallagher's work has not yet left me with that "so what?" feeling I often get at the end of a story.

Is, is not (Tess Gallagher) (16/02/22) ***1/2



Some fine poems in this volume, especially in the second half, and an interesting, short autobiographical afterword.

I think I have read almost all of Gallagher's oeuvre now, except one volume of selected poems, which I will get to later in the year. She is certainly a writer I revisit. Of her poem volumes, perhaps Dear Ghosts, is my favourite. Her essays A Concert of Tenses: Essays on Poetry is fine. I love all her volumes of short stories, and her memoir Soul Barnacles: 10 more years with Ray is worth a read.

I finished Moon Crossing Bridge today. I found the poems interesting and well-written, though none really touched my heart. The Asian influence was compelling. I'm glad to have read this new-to-me author.

Karen O

As a byproduct of my research in preparation for February, I came across Barnacle Soup, a collection of oral tales tweaked and put down on paper through Tess Gallagher's collaboration with her long-time companion, Irish storyteller Josie Gray. They are amusing, often delightful little glimpses at daily life in a simpler time and place, but they surely lose something in translation. I longed to hear a West of Ireland voice spinning them out.

It's nearly March! We're reading Bernard Malamud next, and his thread is here.

A lot of her poetry collections are available on Open Library, Linda.

I wanted to read The Lover of Horses but have gotten bogged down with too many books and too little time with RL intruding dramatically.

Have switched to her collection Portable Kisses which I am enjoying and should finish today (tomorrow by your reckoning!)

>15 PaulCranswick: Thanks, Paul. I will explore Open Library. I have barely sampled Gallagher's poetry, so that will be a good source.

>16 laytonwoman3rd: OpenLibrary is a great resource.