I've authored more than a dozen books: click on a book cover for an excerpt. My books are available from Small Press Distribution or Amazon. Here's my bio.
A few links
I've been anthologized in
- The Norton Anthology of Post-modern Poetry
- In The American Tree
- Primary Trouble: An Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry
- Best American Poetry 1993
- Best American Poetry 1988
- 49+1: Počtes Americain
I'm a co-author of The Grand Piano, an experiment in collective autobiography by ten writers identified with Language poetry in San Francisco.
mark(s) published four poems from To the Cognoscenti, my most recent book, in somewhat different form.
"Open Rebuke, Concealed Love" appeared in Letters of the Law and in an annual volume of Best American Poetry — along with this brief comment written for the volume.
Hear me reading and talking with fellow poet Ammiel Alcalay at the University of Pennsylvania's Kelly Writers House.
I wrote for 5things, one of the first artist-created blogs, edited by James Huckenpahler on four occasions:
- May 1, 2001 (writing about composer Alan Hovhaness, Fernando Pessoa and David Schubert, among other things)
- June 19, 2001 (includes photographs from Abu Dhabi, Karachi, Bangalore and Mumbai)
- August 1, 2001 (writing about my first 22 cars), and
- Valentine's Day 2002, collaborating with poet, teacher and therapist Beth Joselow (to whom I'm married).
Some responses
“Quiet, enriching, satisfying, sensuously intellectual & intellectually sensuous."
Pierre Joris on To the Cognoscenti
“I feel fortunate to have been able to accompany Tom through his books for three decades now. I'd love to feel that we have another three to travel.”
Ron Silliman on To the Cognoscenti
“The world, as refracted through the lens of Tom Mandel's poetry, takes on the singularity of a new kind of order."
John Ashbery on Realism
a “magnificent poem, one that ‘holds the night between two pale fingers.’”
George Lakoff on Absence Sensorium
“A visionary poet... grave, circuitous journeys toward truth, knowledge, eternity.”
Cahners on Letters of the Law
“Relentless excursions out of our familiar “monochromatic desert of grasp” into the domain of discovery.”
Harry Mathews on Realism
“One of the most extraordinary collections of poetry to have come my way during my lifetime.”
Harry Mathews on Four Strange Books
“An enormous book, aligned with a deepest sense of history and culture.”
Lyn Hejinian on Four Strange Books