T. Anders Carson

T. Anders Carson
Originally uploaded by random acts of poetry.

T. Anders Carson is a people's poet. He writes about family, odd slices of life and the nagging place of where we can be as a people. His work has appeared in 34 countries including translations into Greek, Japanese and Swedish. His poems and reviews have been in The Comstock Review, The Ottawa Citizen, The Montreal Gazette, Prairie Journal Trust, Fire, Poetry New Zealand, Fish Drum, slipstream, Poetry Motel and Dream Catcher. He has performed his poetry in Oslo, Paris, NYC, Atlanta, Nashville, New Orleans, Ottawa, Toronto, Stockholm Trois Rivieres and Vancouver, Toronto. He's had the obligatory poet jobs; cleaning up after fires, carrying the mail, working with the homeless mentally ill on the streets of Ottawa, and taking care of his two ailing grandparents. He was orphaned young and opted to write from that dark place. His work seethes in hope, despite severe challenges. He takes his enthusiasm to the classroom and has taught poetry at St. Lawrence College in Kingston, ON and numerous other classrooms from Scarborough to Cairo. He's published two books and 4 chapbooks. He put a backpack on in his early twenties and visited the far reaches of Greece, India and Nepal. He edits a magazine out of Detroit, MI entitled freefall. He is the youngest ever to attend The Helene Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico. They gave him three months to write up in the mountains of Taos, NM. He wrote most of Folding the Crane when he was there. He won the 2000 Canadian Poetry Association contest and has placed as a finalist in the Scottish Open Poetry Competition for the last 4 years. In his spare time he is a soccer coach for the Portland FC U16 team.He lives with his wife and two kids outside of Portland, ON.

Here are some reviews of his work.

In a Different Shred of Skin T. Anders Carson roots out the genuine, casting aside of artificial distractions. His poetry bores at the heart of that which defines us; the travails of human interaction, the search for meaning and experience in a world increasingly insular and similar. Suicide, mental illness, abuse, but also fleeting tenderness and compassion, mark these poems like faded signposts on a rough gravel road. -Matt Firth, Front & Centre Magazine

This book is stunning -both because of the excellent photos by Michael B. (of Switzerland) but also the raw strength of Carson's powerful revelations about the death of his parents, the nature of loneliness and the ways we struggle to cope with deep trauma. By opening up in the his way, Carson allows others to do the same. - Emily Pohl-Weary, broken pencil

It is his openess and honesty that has gained him a world-wide audience.