Brian Teare

Brian Teare was born in Athens, Georgia in 1974, and grew up in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.^[2] He received a Bachelor of Arts in English and creative writing from the University of Alabama, then a Master of Fine Arts from Indiana University Bloomington in 2000.^[1][3]

Teare has taught creative writing in the San Francisco Bay Area and at Temple University. As of 2021, he was an associate professor of Poetry at the University of Virginia.^[1]

Teare published his debut poetry collection, The Room Where I Was Born, with University of Wisconsin Press in 2003.^[4] The collection won the 2003 Thom Gunn Award and Brittingham Prize in Poetry.^[5]

In 2008, Teare founded the micropress Albion Books.^[3]

Teare's second poetry collection, Sight Map, was published by the University of California Press in 2009.^[6]

In 2010, Teare published Pleasure with Ahsahta Press.^[7] The collection won the 2011 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry,^[8] and was a finalist for the Northern California Book Award for Poetry.^[9]

Companion Grasses, Teare's fourth poetry collection, was published with Omnidawn Publishing in 2013.^[10] Slate named it one of the year's best books of poetry.^[11] The following year, it was a finalist for the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award and Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry.^[2][3][12]

Teare's fifth poetry collection, The Empty Form Goes All the Way to Heaven, was published by Ahsahta Press in 2015.^[13][14]

Doomstead Days, Teare's sixth poetry collection, was published by Nightboat Books in 2019.^[15] That year, it was longlisted for the National Book Award for Poetry.^[16][17] In 2020, Doomstead Days won the Four Quartets Prize^[18] and was a finalist for the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award,^[3] Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry,^[19][20] and National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry.^[21]

Teare's seventh poetry collection, Poem Bitten by a Man, was published by Nightboat Books in 2023.^[22][23][24] In 2024, the collection won the William Carlos Williams Award,^[25] and was a finalist for the Thom Gunn Award.^[26] It was also nominated for the 2024 PEN/Jean Stein Book Award,^[27] though Teare withdrew the book from consideration, along with several other authors, due to the organization's response to the Gaza war.^[28]

Teare has received the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Literature, Pew Center for Arts & Heritage Fellowship (2015), Wallace Stegner Fellowship in Creative Writing,^[29] Guggenheim Fellowship (2020),^[18] American Antiquarian Society Fellowship and MacDowell Colony residency.^[1]

• The Room Where I Was Born. University of Wisconsin Press. 2003.
• Sight Map. University of California Press. 2009.
• Pleasure. Ahsahta Press. 2010.
• Companion Grasses. Omnidawn Publishing. 2013. ISBN 978-1-890650-79-7.
• The Empty Form Goes All the Way to Heaven. Ahsahta Press. 2015. ISBN 978-1-934103-62-3.
• Doomstead Days. Nightboat Books. 2019. ISBN 978-1-64362-002-2.
• Poem Bitten by a Man. Nightboat Books. 2023. ISBN 978-1-64362-210-1.