Timothy Gager's Blog

 

Excited to appear on the Meat For Teacast! Listen on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. 

Apple Podcasts

Join Elizabeth McDuffie as she has a great chat with Tim Gager, author of Shadows of the Seen and the upcoming book, These New Orbs, as well as many other works. He reads from Shadows of the Seen and discusses AI and many other things! Grab a beverage and a snack and tuck in!

I've had poems, two flash-memoir pieces, and a flash fiction in three issues of Meat for Tea: The Valley Review, which is amazing! Here are the issues: 

  

Here are all the 2026 Summer readings, and at the bottom links to ALL the videos from 2020-now. Also, subscribe to the YouTube channel.

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       Jessica Keener

                  Tony Gloeggler

      Laurin Macios

          

        Susan Buttenwieser   

          Miriam Manglani  

            Jessica Harman

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And all the rest, (2020-2026)

                                     

Winter 2026 (link to replay)

 Sarah Lippmann, Rebecca Fishow, Sandra Simonds, Lisa Borders, Anne Starr, John Compton, Millicent Borges Accardi, Jennifer Bannan, Susan Rich with Jennifer Markell and Erin Murphy (Birdbrains Anthology), Wayne-Daniel Berard

 

Autumn 2025 (link to replay website)

Alexandra Naughton, Heather Kays, Matt Jasper, Emily Schultz, Susan Michele Coronel, Misty O'Hara, Elizabeth Searle, Ryan Vine

Summer 2025 (link to replay website)
Elizabeth Hazen, Bob Walicki, Andrew Siditsky, Michael Ansara,Michael Martone, Hosho McCreesh 

     Winter - Spring 2025 (link to replay website)

Eileen Pollack, George S. Peterson, Ellen Kombiyil, M.K. Jackson,  Chad Parenteau, Kerry Beth Neville, Lawrence Kessenich, Linda Carney-Goodrich, Amy Alvarez, Kurt Baumeister

    Autumn 2024 (link to replay)

Jackie Corley, Dawn Tripp, Sara Letourneau, Kristin Bok, Edward Belfar, JoeAnn Hart, Margaret Young, Gabby Gilliam, Lee Varon 

Summer 2024 (link to replay website)
Susan Zalkind, Jessica Anya Blau, Gregory Wolos, Melissa Cundieff, Ben Tanzer, John Amen
Spring 2024 (link to replay website)
Doug Crandell, Mathew Olzmann, William Orem, Martin Ott, M.P. Carver, Phil Temples, Mag Gabbert, Robert Fleming, Danielle Legros George, Michael Keith, Mark Wish
Autumn-Winter 2023 (link to replay website)
Marianne Leone, Tiffany Davenport, Jennifer Friedman Lang, Ray Guidrox, Gary Grossman, Elizabeth McKim, Carla Panciera, Dr. Dannagal G. Young, Ellis Elliot, Enzo Silon Surin, Josh Barkan, Laura Zigman, Tom Laughlin
Spring/Summer 2023 (links to website)
Jane Roper, John Wesick, Jennifer Martelli, John Fulton, Tricia Barker Barton, Cynthia Atkins, Katie Moulton, Yael Goldstein Love, Julia Lisella
Winter 2023 (link to website)
Suzanne Frischkorn, Kim Addonizio, Thomas McNeely, Jenna Le, Sarah Bridgins, Lee Matthew Goldberg, Lise Hanes, Dr. Paula Perez, Michael Mark, Maya Williams, Hannah Sward, Caitlin Avery, Carla Swartz, Stacy TenHouton, Donna Spruijt-Metz, Morgan Baker
Autumn 2022 (link to website) 
Jonathan Papernick, A.K. Small, Aaron Tillman, David Rockland, Kimberly Ann Priest, Sain Griffiths, Harris Gardner, Lisa Taylor, Michael Keith, Jim Shepard, Zach VandeZande, Rusty Barnes, Daniel Nester. Kurk Lovelace (reading from Annemarie O'Connell's book), and Nina Shope
Spring/Summer 2022 (link to website) 
Sara Lippmann, Robin McLean, Gregory Orr, Rich Murphy, Diane Suess, Ron Tanner, Aleathea Drehmer, Christina Adams, Sharon Applegate Greenwald, Lucas Scheelk, Joseph Milosch, Barbara Legere, Ellene Glenn Moore, Vincent Cellucci and Chris Shipman
Winter 2022
Renuka Raghaven, Jessica Cuello, Jen Knox, Daniel Biegelson, Alison Stine, John Rosenthal, Peter Crowley, Maggie Doherty, Erin Khar, Elan Barnehama, Marguerite Guzman Bouvard
Autumn 2021
DeMisty Bellinger, Cheryl Pappas, Matt Bell, Michael Keith, Gloria Mindock, Molly Gaudry, CD Collins, Kevin Prufer, Beth Robinson/Chris Joseph, Alina Stefanuscu, Meg Smith, Gregory Wolos, Damian Dressic, Jason Wright, Blake Butler 
Summer 2021
Natalie Brobin Bonfig, John Domini, Anna VQ Ross, Rachel Yoder
Spring 2021
Sandra Simonds, George Wallace, Caroline Levitt, Charles Coe, Susan Henderson, Major Jackson, Kara Vernor, Meredith Goldstein, Kimberly Ann Priest, Joanna Rakoff
Winter 2021
Rick Moody , Laurette Folk, Mark Saba, Sarah Anne Johnson, Josh Barkan/ Jennifer Haigh, Keetje Kuipers, January O'Neil,  Elle Nash, Danielle Zaccagnino, Marty Beckerman, Nathan Graziano , Steven Cramer
Autumn 2020
Carly Israel, Daphne Kalotay, Ryan Ridge, Marge Piercy, Kerry Beth Neville, Yuyutsu Sharma, Chris Joseph, Elizabeth Gordon McKim, Diana Spechler, Jonathan Escoffrey, Dewitt Henry, Brian Sonia-Wallace, Rebecca Fishow, Marguerite Bouvard, Pamela Painter, Kim Chinquee, Jessica Keener, Amy King

 COMING IN THE FALL: 

September

10, Kai Maristed 

24, Lara Egger 

October

8, David Daniel with artist George Cochran 

22 Scott Withiam

November

5,  Wyn Cooper

19  Elizabeth Searle

December

3,  Olivia Laughton

17 Keith O'Shaughnessy

 Sat, September 5, 2026, 1:30 PM EDT, Keene, New Hampshire

The Timothy Gager Uno (acoustic),
at the 2026 Keene Music Festival

Chapters Stage
12 Emerald St, Keene, NH

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Wed, September 9, 2026, 5:00 PM EDT, Manchester, NH

for These New Orbs

Featuring at NAV Arts Reading


The Bookery
844 Elm Street, Manchester, NH

hosted by Jon Wesick

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Wed, September 23, 2026, 7:30 PM EDT, Lynn, Ma

for These New Orbs

Featuring at Speak up at the Walnut St. Cafe


Open Mic at 7:30, My feature, 8:30 PM
157 Walnut Street, Lynn, Ma

hosted by Call Dave Somerset

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Sun, September 27, 2026, 7:00 PM EDT, Lynn, Ma

The Timothy Gager Uno (acoustic),
Sunday Music Feature, Walnut St. Cafe


Open Mic at 7, My feature, 8:30 PM
157 Walnut Street, Lynn, Ma

hosted by Roger Jermyn and Dave Somerset

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Thur, November 12, 2026, 7:30 PM EDT, Mansfield, Ma

for These New Orbs

Featuring at Pour Me a Peom
plus open mic

51 Park Street, Mansfield, MA

hosted by Wayne-Daniel Berard and Sara Letourneau

      The frustrations of publishing, as Ibbetson #59 had to be pulled back because it was printed with corrupted poems. My poem Stalked By An Orb You Barely Know appears in the wonderful print mag, Ibbetson Street (#59), and Doug Holder gave me a copy of the unreleased, pulled-back edition at the Boston Poetry Marathon. 

My poem was one of the corrupted ones (line-breaks), but you can read it here, as intended in a google doc .

     Maybe the issues with the printing mistakes can become a collector's item. Historically, these things become potentially valuable, even when unintended. 

    Does anyone remember Billy Ripken's baseball card? Billy had a card that became one of the most valuable cards of all time. Why? When posing for his annual baseball card, he grabbed a bat he had marked with a marker on the knob so that he wouldn't use it in a game. He did this for all his batting practice bats. What he wrote on this one was "Fuck Face" which no one at Fleer noticed until it was too late. Then pulled production and photoshopped the Ripken card, but the ones making it out into the world became valuable collectors' items. 

As for the poem itself, I was joking with someone about being a stalker and was challenged to write a funny poem about it. It is part of my orb series and part of my next book These New Orbs. 

 Eight years ago  I dissected the poem "Sobriety" in Chris Rice Cooper's Art and Humanity Blog, so when she asked if she could interview me for another of her series, Inside the Emotion of Fiction, , of course I said, yes. 

THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY

Christal interviewed me about of the emotions behind the opening excerpt which was reprinted in the interview, but the real emotional turmoil was the writing of one of the main characters, and the events around him which mirrored a very difficult year in my life. Many of the things which happened to Lucky, also were things I also struggled with, in the year before I started writing the Shadows of the Seen. 

As they say, for more information on that, read all about it!

The 2 Deans: Dating, Dread and Disaster

Dean and Dawes: Dating, Dread and Disaster

and whatever other dIsasters we want to make fun of. Starring Dean (Timothy Gager) and Dawes (Jackie Dawes)

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DEFINITION-In chemistry, particle collision is the basis of reaction rates. According to collision theory, atoms and molecules must collide in order to react.

    There's a chemistry lesson for you within this flash fiction piece that appeared today in Zvi Sesling's 10 X 10: Flash Fiction magazine. The above definition (in italics) is found in science, but my flash fiction is talking about the other kind of chemsitry, the kind that exists or doesn't exist between two people. In that kind of chemistry there is some jilting, stalking, interference, explosive events, which, in life, happens. (Not very healthy class-Study up!).  

In the above video, pretend that the protons in the video are four human beings colliding at a certain location, let's say in Cambridge, Ma. (And then a kitchen sink and chair come out! Did you watch it?)

  The piece 10 X 10 published , Particle Collision was written two years ago and was a blast to write. It appears on the last page when you click the link. Riding a metaphor until it pops is a lot of fun. Yes, there is some truth within it if you figure out the riddle, but often a particle is just a particle. Nothing happens. 

Maybe I was full of hot air, and that was the result of a flame,
which may have become a forced situation. Confused? Yeah, me too. 

 

 

It startswith a hug to people I’d not seen since last time. I say, “No shaking handson the first day,” knowing I've voluntarily let down my guard in the bestof ways. I am about to leave Earth as I know it.  

The peopleyou love are the ones who, even after time apart, rejoin you like birds inflight, without pause. Nothing has to be said. Everyone just flies with eachother within the V, within that wedge. We welcome the new birds and want themto fly with us, then come back and join us again. Nothing is better here than the“all” whether an outward signal, an aura, emotions or something not necessaryto say out loud. It shows up in vibration, in fact, showing love is revolutionary.

One thing Ilove is you can do everything or nothing while you’re here. People canparticipate in organized activities or walk around until they hear a voicesinging, or a guitar or mandolin playing. There's usually someone sitting onthe edge of a porch whose paint you can watch dry, or someone else to simplysit and talk with. When there are people singing in groups with five to six inperfect joyous harmony there is always a seventh to discover and contribute.

Some of thebrightest stars are the children of all ages who have come here as children andthey bring their own back here. If only these life experiences could be passedon as part of our DNA. Unfortunately, genetics seems more likely to pass alongthe things you'd rather it didn't (see epigenetics)...so, we pass things inreal-time and in our experiences here. Organic.

Sudden. Theweek ends: Sunday, bags packed, the Laighton approaching from the distance tobring us back to Earth. Nothing can be done about it.

We end withhugs, eyes moistened. No crying until I’m on the highway, when I realizeI hadn’t experienced the emotion of sadness in seven days. Then, what I'dfought off overtakes me. Suddenly I'm driving while sobbing.

It onlytakes a few hours back to fall into routine, and feel that I am not just a visitorin my own house. I know I am no longer at Star.  I am back on Earth, with the obvious remindersof checking the mail, or the less obvious, like holding a paper towel in myhand with a quick thought that “this is compost,” before remembering there isnot a bin for that here.

A few yearsago, on the island, a friend sat with a few of us and tried to come up with aplan on how to bring the feeling of Star Island back home in some way, shape orform. We discussed everything we do at Star that we can bring back and make itfeel like here. A few weeks later, from the facilitator of this casual groupcame a two-word email:

We can’t

     In their Creators on Creating Series, my friend Meia Geddes, who I ran into at AWP in Baltimore, a great place to run into people who live 30 minutes from you, talked about interviewing me and it's an honor to be interviewed for her journal. When I get questions e-mailed to me, I like to answer off the top of my head....read the question and then, basically free write. 

GO TO THEIR SITE AND READ IT! 

As we know, sometimes sites go down, so I'm pasting the interview below, here in my News, so it'll never disappear. 
Also, the side scroll below will be of great help. 

Creators on Creating: Timothy Gager

 

Poetry feels like one of the few places where people are authentic these days. 

Do you feel that way?

I do. Besides, words, meaning, craft is important and authentic as well. Sometimes

 it can be faux-authentic depending on how it plays on the page. 

As poets we are good actors, the challenge is the projection of the work representing 

thoughts and feelings. I try not to dwell on the mundane, unless I’m being playful 

with the day-to-day. 

​
You write: “Can you hear me at this distance / saying, I don’t need people /

 I can stay in my room. / But I don’t have to be that person anymore.” 

So much of writing is solitary and language can keep oneself company so well. 

 How has the process of letting the world in more unfolded for you?

I think that it is more of a metaphor for isolation, and the wondering if you are important

 or just a tree in the forest, so to speak. My isolation now is more to re-energize than 

anything else, not because I’m depressed. I appreciate my alone time, certainly stay 

busy, but this alone time is also for my spirituality and to stay “in tune.”

I so appreciate the vulnerability in your poems. How do you decide how vulnerable 

to be? Or is anything a go?

No decision to go or not go into vulnerability, but emotional vulnerable is one thing for my 

writing that is an open book. I may not wish to share innermost secrets but rather innermost

 thoughts. We are all vulnerable, whether we like it or not, but how that plays out, and how 

much you want to show is the key. As they say, “you MUST go there.” I think I must be

 vulnerable to be honest and take that leap because otherwise the extreme opposite can just 

be objects sitting on a shelf, which of course there is an art in that too.

How do you decide whether something belongs in a prose piece or poem?

Most likely, I decide before I even start what genre I’d like to produce, but maybe after the 

first two lines or sentences I can go the other way immediately if I see something in there.

 If it’s not that immediate then it’s going to be where it is at that moment, poetry or fiction,

 or recycle bin.

You write in the Introduction to Best of Timothy Gager about having an ego for many 

years and then learning some humility. Could you talk a bit about this phenomenon 

of writers and ego?

Well, we are all pretty much self-centered sons of bitches, aren’t we? It’s just a matter of 

reeling it in. Self-centeredness, mind you, is just thinking about yourself, which our mind

 tends to do whether we like it to or not. I learned humility in my recovery, and I feel the 

best when after fifteen years, when someone else in the rooms tells me, “I didn’t know 

you wrote.” There is a time and place for everything to be done or said.

Relatedly, and conversely, do you think art reduces ego? That is one of the reasons 

I think that art is of tangible value to the world, because the act of creating seems 

to reduce individual ego.

Today less so than ever. Social media is just ego, and one must promote, to some extent there. 

Who is the person always having a good time or succeeding is all you see there. 

We, as humans, seek and yearn for endorphins much more than acts of philanthropy.

You’ve been sober for 15 years. How have your writing and life changed in this time?

I mean I hope I would have naturally gotten better in fifteen years organically, I know my 

focus is better, and how I move through narratives or how themes change and stay aligned.

How has having children changed you and your writing?

Other than having time to write when they were younger? 

It gives me more to write about, but also, they are now grown adults, so I feel that it is 

their story to write.

Are you always looking at the world through a poet’s lens? Or do you have multiple 

brain states? I know you work full time as a social worker which requires a different 

set of skills.

I have lenses to look through that’s for sure, and also wear many hats. Social work, 

podcasting, host of a literary series, performing solo as singer-songwriting artist, 

full-time meetings of recovery…so for writing. It’s like I’m driving and a red car rolls 

by, and I think, “Look, there’s a red car.” For me, something strikes me and I can say, 

“Look, there’s a poem, or a flash, or a novel.” I don’t go looking for it, but it will always find me.

Could you talk about the Dire Literary Series and your more recent adventure 

into podcasting?

Eighteen years live, and now six as a virtual series, which someone got me to start up 

again in 2020. I try to be of service to other writers, but I get so much out of it. It’s amazing 

talking to writers, sort of geek-tacular in many ways. Now the podcast I started with a college

friend because we were talking about dating and disasters which happen, so I do that too, 

every week. Disasters in dating are hilarious, and as my therapist says, “now you have an 

 outlet for your type of sense of humor.” Writer Jackie Dawes is now my co-host and the 

podcast is called Dean and Dawes: Dating, Dread and Disasters.

It might be self-explanatory, but could you elaborate on what you mean by “live 24/7,” 

which you write in your book’s Introduction and when signing books?
​
One Day At a Time. 24 hours a day for 7 days a week, then, for me life is better.

 I try to do that. Live for life to be better. It already is about a million times over.

Meia Geddes is a writer, artist, and librarian. She has written a collection of lyrical missives addressed to the world, LOVE LETTERS TO THE WORLD, and a novella, THE LITTLE QUEEN. Meia was born in Hefei, China, raised in Sacramento, California, and lives in Boston, Massachusetts. She holds a bachelor's degree from Brown University and master's degree from Simmons University's School of Library and Information Science, and has been the recipient of a Fulbright grant to South Africa.