Thomas Centolella

Thomas Centolella is an American poet and educator.

Life

Centolella has published three books of poetry: Terra Firma, Lights & Mysteries and Views from along the Middle Way.^[1] His fourth book, Almost Human, is forthcoming in 2017 from Tupelo Press. His poetry has appeared in Alaska Quarterly Review,^[2] American Poetry Review,^[3] Parthenon West Review, Ploughshares, and The Los Angeles Times, among many other periodicals.^[4] His poem "View #45", was read at the United Nations as a part of Poets Against the War.^[5] "In the evening we shall be examined on love" and "Lines of Force" were featured on Garrison Keillor's Writers' Almanac on NPR.^[6][7]

He has been a visiting writer at many universities and colleges.

Mr. Centolella served as a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. He has taught literature and creative writing at San Francisco State University, at the University of California, Berkeley (Extension), at the Institute on Aging (San Francisco), at San Francisco WritersCorps, and in the California Poets in the Schools Program.^[1]

He currently lives in San Francisco^[1] and teaches at College of Marin and in private workshops.

Awards

• 1990 National Poetry Series (selected by Denise Levertov)
• 1991 American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation, and Bay Area Book Reviewers Award (aka, Northern California Book Award).
• 1992 Lannan Literary Award for Poetry.
• 1996 Poetry Medal from the Commonwealth Club of California (aka California Book Award).
• 2015 The Dorset Prize, Tupelo Press.

Work

Books

• Terra Firma. Copper Canyon Press. 1990. ISBN 978-1-55659-030-6. 
• Lights & Mysteries. Copper Canyon Press. 1995. ISBN 978-1-55659-106-8. 
• Views from along the Middle Way: poems. Copper Canyon Press. 2002. ISBN 978-1-55659-161-7. 
• Almost Human. Forthcoming (2017) from Tupelo Press.

Anthologies

• The Place That Inhabits Us: Poems of the San Francisco Bay Watershed, Sixteen Rivers Press (2010)
• Chad Sweeney, ed. (January 2009). Days I Moved Through Ordinary Sounds. City Lights Publishers. ISBN 978-1-931404-10-5. 
• Robin Chapman; Judith Strasser, ed. (2007). 75 Poems on Retirement. University of Iowa Press. ISBN 978-1-58729-527-0. 
• Justin Daniel Belmont (2005). The Art of Bicycling. Breakaway Books. ISBN 978-1-891369-56-8. 
• devorah major, ed. (2004). The Other Side of the Postcard. City Lights Foundation. ISBN 978-1-931404-06-8. 
• Regina Barreca, ed. (2002). Don't Tell Mama! The Penguin Book of Italian American Writing. Tandem Library. ISBN 978-1-4177-0459-0. 
• Maggie Anderson; David Hassler, ed. (1999). Learning by Heart: Contemporary American Poetry about School. University of Iowa Press. p. 58. ISBN 978-0-87745-663-6. 

Editor

• Grace Grafton, Thomas Centolella, Calif Lakeshore Alternative Elementary School (2002). I Fall Into the Bright, Bright World: Poems. Manic D Press. 
• Grace Grafton, Thomas Centolella, Calif Lakeshore Alternative Elementary School (2002). The Irresistible Earth: Poems. Manic D Press. 

Poetry

• "The Raptors". Ploughshares. Spring 1995. 
• "The Orders". Ploughshares. Spring 1995. ^[8]
• "View #45", poemhunter

References