Tamara J. Madison ... Pages 8

Tamara J. Madison is an author, poet, editor, and instructor. Her critical and creative works have been published and recorded in various journals, magazines, anthologies, podcasts, and exhibits including Linden Avenue, Poetry International, Extract, Web del Sol Review of Books, Tidal Basin Review, Black Magnolias, and aaduna. She has also been published in the anthologies, SisterFire (HarperCollins), Temba Tupu (RedSea Press), and Check the Rhyme (LitNoire Press).

She is the author of Collard County (short stories), Kentucky Curdled (poetry), and Sistuh’s Sermon on the Mount (poetry chapbook – Open Hand Press). Her most recent poetry collection Threed, This Road Not Damascus is published by Trio House Press (May 2019) and was short-listed under the title, Breast Poems, in the 2015 W illow Books Literature Award. Threed, … has been reviewed in Poetry International, Cider Press Review, Empty Mirror Review, and Cordella Magazine. Her poetry has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and for Best of the Net.

Tamara is the creator and host of BREAKDOWN: The Poet & The Poems, a conversation series on YouTube to spread awareness of poets and their poetry as inspiration and motivation for everyday life.

Tamara has performed and recorded her work for stage, television, and studio. She enjoys facilitating creative writing workshops for campus and community. She is an MFA graduate of New England College and an Anaphora Arts W riting Residency fellow (2021). She currently lives in Orlando, Florida where she teaches as a professor of English and Creative W riting at Valencia College. For more information, visit www.tamarajmadison.com.

W ith permission from Tamara Madison: W riter/Poet Tamara J. Madison

Exec. Director The W ashington Foundation

The new must never ignore the old for within the weathered, tired, and tried are answers that should be embraced

As we welcome the avant-garde of young and new honor, we must, the wisdom of aged and old that which is known as tradition and lore

Unique beauties can co-exist for it is God who created each

The Rock of my Salvation told me so . . .