Deborah Tall

Deborah Tall is the author of four books of poems, most recently SUMMONS, which was chosen for the Kathryn A. Morton Poetry Prize by Charles Simic and published by Sarabande Books. She is also author of two books of nonfiction, THE ISLAND OF THE WHITE COW: MEMORIES OF AN IRISH ISLAND (Atheneum) and FROM WERE WE STAND: RECOVERING A SENSE OF PLACE (Knopf; paperback, Johns Hopkins University Press), and co-edited the anthology THE POET'S NOTEBOOK (Norton) with Stephen Kuusisto and David Weiss. Tall has edited the literary journal SENECA REVIEW since 1982.

Her poems and essays have appeared in numerous magazines and journals such as Agni, Antaeus, Antioch Review, Colorado Review, Fence, Georgia Review, Gettysburg Review, Harvard Review, Indiana Review, Iowa Review, Ms., The Nation, The New York Times, Orion, Partisan Review, Ploughshares, Poetry, Prairie Schooner, The Southern Review, Tikkun, Yale Review, and many others. Her work is also anthologized in a number of collections including, American Nature Writing, In Short, Where We Stand: Women Poets on Literary Tradition, Rooted in the Land: Essays on Community and Place, Anthology of American Verse, Travelers Tales, Roots and Flowers, and others.

Her awards include residencies at the MacDowell Colony and Yaddo, a grant from the Ingram Merrill Foundation, 5 Faculty Research Grants from Hobart and William Smith Colleges, the Hopwood and the Michael R. Gutterman awards for poetry from the University of Michigan, and a "Citation of Achievement" from the Coordinating Council of Literary Magazines for "editorial vision" in Seneca Review.

Tall has given readings of her work, appeared on panels, lectured, and conducted workshops nationwide and abroad for many years at universities, libraries, book stores, symposia, and festivals. She has been Writer-in-Residence at the Chautauqua Institute and has had poems commissioned by the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester and the Adirondack Museum.

Tall received a B.A. from University of Michigan in 1972 and an M.F.A. from Goddard College in 1979. She has taught writing and literature at Hobart and William Smith Colleges since 1982 and lives in Ithaca, New York, with her husband, writer David Weiss, and their two teenaged daughters, Zoe and Clea.