Tom Courtney Biography

Tom’s poems 'Petals' and 'A Place for Me' were featured poems of the month at Poetry Deep by Ecaria on the website http: //www.geocities.com/ecaria/poetry/fp-aug02.html. His poem “Unless” was published in an anthology of writings “The Black Whole” by Down in the Country Press. See http: //press.downinthecountry.com/theblackwhole.html. It is available at Amazon and other major booksellers.

He was awarded by the University of California Irvine Poetry Arts Project, for his poem 'Zams'. See http: //www.communications.uci.edu/news/release_detail.asp? key=929

His prose writing “The Defector” was awarded by the Poetry Society of America in the Alice Fay Di Castagnola competitions. See http: //www.poetrysociety.org/psa-awards.html for current PSA activities.

His Biblical study is included in the “Loving Strangers as Ourselves” anthology published by Mennonite Church and is available online at http: //secure.mcc.org/mccstore/index.php? main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=208.

Tom moderates a Yahoo Group poetry group at http: //groups.yahoo.com/group/Poetry-for-Publication and maintains a website at http: //forklift1.com/poetry.html.

He enjoys live readings and has performed his poetry at Basement Coffee House & Showcase in Los Angeles, Espresso in Pasadena, Out Loud in Santa Monica, Gallery 57 in Fullerton, Iguana Cafe and Coffee Haus in Orange, Blue Marble Cafe in Costa Mesa, Alta in Newport Beach and more.

Tom’s formal education is a BA in Political Science and an MBA in Finance from UCLA, with studies further in accounting, computer science, business law, creative writing and Bible.

* The PSA or Poetry Society of America, with headquarters in New York, was founded in 1910 by Whitter Brynner, George Santayana, Jessie Rittenhouse and Edward Wheeler; early members including Robert Frost, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Ezra Pound, and Carl Sandberg. The PSA was responsible for the creation of the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry.