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John Tessitore

Goodreads Author

Born

Brooklyn, The United States

Website

http://www.johntessitore.com

Twitter

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Genre

Poetry, Fiction, History

Member Since

January 2014

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/johntessitore

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John Tessitore is a writer, poet, and liberal arts advocate. His poems have appeared in a variety of journals, he has published several chapbooks and two novellas, and he hosts Be True, a literary podcast. He has been a journalist and biographer, taught history and literature at colleges around Boston, managed national policy studies on education and civil justice, and directs a national language-education association. He serves as Co-Editor Across the Pond for The Wee Sparrow Poetry Press.

17 posts
John Tessitore's Blog

It's So Hard to Break Free

I’m having a very hard time writing about Thy Brother's Blood: A Novella. It’s still so fresh in my mind. So let’s start simple, with first principles:

It’s a book that somehow contains everything I know.

It’s very strange.

I’m proud of it.

I hope you like.

Not bad so far. Honesty is the best policy. And clarity.

Now here’s the back cover synopsis, which is always insufficient but another good place Read more of this blog post »

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Published on March 31, 2026 05:16 • Tags: contemporary, fiction, gothic, novella

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John Tessitore’s books

Average rating: 3.66 · 38 ratings · 15 reviews · 33 distinct works

	John Steinbeck: A Writer's Life 4.14 avg rating — 7 ratings — published 2001	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Muhammad Ali : The World's Champion 3.50 avg rating — 6 ratings — published 1998 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Extraordinary American Writers 3.75 avg rating — 4 ratings — published 2004 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Hunt and the Feast: A Life of Ernest Hemingway liked it 3.00 avg rating — 4 ratings — published 1996 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	F. Scott Fitzgerald: The American Dreamer liked it 3.00 avg rating — 4 ratings — published 2001 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	All the Lonely American Roads 3.50 avg rating — 2 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Jigsaw Men: A Novella it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 2013 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	On Self-Expression After the Revolution: Poems and Images it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Dark Ways Mysterious: Fragments it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Parchment: A Prayer Quintet really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 1 rating — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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The Nature of Things

by Lucretius

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Jul 24, 2019 12:01AM

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A Little Book on Form: An Exploration Into the Formal Imagination of Poetry

by Robert Hass

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Jun 19, 2019 06:32PM

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Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage

by Haruki Murakami

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Feb 15, 2019 07:54PM

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John’s Recent Updates

John Tessitore wrote a new blog post It's So Hard to Break Free I’m having a very hard time writing about Thy Brother's Blood: A Novella. It’s still so fresh in my mind. So let’s start simple, with first principles Read more of this blog post »
Mar 31, 2026 05:16AM · like

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