bradthechimera

Retired English Professor and stem cell transplant recipient. Latest book:

[bradthechimera @bradthechimera]

Very excited to read PAPER BLACK LEAF, by Brian Trehearne! He was my favorite poetry teacher of all time and I know bits and pieces of his own poetry but it’s fantastic to have it in such a gorgeous collection!

[bradthechimera @bradthechimera]

My Canadian poetry mentor is publishing a book of his poems! I can’t wait to read it. @brian-trehearne.bsky.social Here is "Mercy", a poem from my new book of selected poems *Paper Black Leaf*. For more poems from the book and details go to https://t.co/D4cSk4q2IN.

[bradthechimera @bradthechimera]

Happy and excited to say that SPY’S MATE is a finalist in the 2026 CANREADS book awards in the Mystery/Suspense category! Can’t wait to go to the awards ceremony in Toronto.

[bradthechimera @bradthechimera]

@BillSimmons Can’t wait!!!

[bradthechimera @bradthechimera]

I know money is tight for many but please consider pre-ordering THE BIRDS OF POVERTY RIDGE, my forthcoming collection, through the link below. The deadline to pre-order is January 30, so if you’re inclined to buy the book please order ASAP. Thank you!

https://t.co/nTCGmAxc2W

[bradthechimera @bradthechimera]

The poems [in this book] grapple with themselves—the voices of songbird, family man, victim, caretaker, priest—but together they are a choir; they build a shared “museum of compassion”—Susan Kelly-DeWitt, author of Frangible Operas

[Finishing Line Press @FLPress]

FLP POETRY BOOK OF THE DAY: The Birds of Poverty Ridge by Brad Buchanan
On SALE:   https://t.co/uXknvfAxYl

The Birds of Poverty Ridge, by Brad Buchanan, is a searching meditation on the author’s return—after catastrophic illness—to a changed and changing life. These poems explore both old and new neighborhoods as they observe seasonal rituals, mourn the loss of love, trace the tenuous renewal of desire, and celebrate our ongoing transformations. #renewal #loss #love #transformation #rituals #celebration #neighborhood #birds #songs

Brad Buchanan taught British and Postcolonial Literature, as well as Creative Writing, at Sacramento State University until his retirement in 2016. His writings have appeared in more than 200 journals, and he has published four book-length collections of poetry, among them The Scars, Aligned: A Cancer Narrative (Finishing Line Press, 2019) and Chimera (Finishing Line Press, 2022). He has also published three academic books, a medical memoir, and a novel: Spy’s Mate. He was diagnosed with T-cell lymphoma in February 2015, and underwent a stem cell transplant in 2016. He is currently Northern California chapter leader of Man Up to Cancer, a support group for men coping with cancer. He also facilitates recurring online Writing As Healing workshops through the UC Davis Cancer Center, Cancer Bridges, and NMBTlink.

PRAISE FOR The Birds of Poverty Ridge by Brad Buchanan

In this powerful, moving collection of seventy-two finely-crafted poems, Brad Buchanan takes us on a journey from an almost unbearably painful exploration of cancer and divorce to a Zen-like appreciation of the small, redeeming moments of life that console us in times of grief and loneliness. Buchanan has a genius for details, which he uses to create an emotional landscape that is, at one and the same time, lyrical, terrifying, and redemptive.
–Mary Mackey, author of The Jaguars That Prowl Our Dreams (Marsh Hawk Press, 2018), winner of The Eric Hoffer Award for Best Book Published by A Small Press

“Who gets custody of the shared memories?” asks the speaker in “How to Take Stock of an Empty House.” This question reverberates throughout Brad Buchanan’s The Birds of Poverty Ridge, a book which takes stock of a life in the wake of illness and recovery, the end of a long marriage, and a move downward on the socio-economic ladder. As readers of Buchanan know, he is a survivor, a poet who finds beauty even in the darkest times. As Pound observed, “What thou lovest well remains,” and Buchanan’s love for his children, for grace in all its guises, and for the transformative power of language, grant custody of a sustaining light. Read The Birds of Poverty Ridge and hear the cries of a neighborhood, and of our shared world, “in all its beauty / and disrepute.”
–Joshua McKinney, author of Sad Animal (Gunpowder Press, 2024), winner of the John Ridland Poetry Prize

How to live after marital separation and divorce, after surviving the terrors and brutalities of cancer? How to deal with the dislocations of the heart, the body, the mind–how to cross the street into an unknown neighborhood which is both literal and spiritual? These are questions the poems in Brad Buchanan’s newest book The Birds of Poverty Ridge document and explore, traveling with deft musicality through the memories and experiences, “shuffling ghosts in their bright array.” The poems grapple with themselves—the voices of songbird, family man, victim, caretaker, priest—but together they are a choir; they build a shared “museum of compassion.” As the speaker says in “What Will Survive in Us is Love”: “those in whom / love is so strong / can suffer almost anything…”
–Susan Kelly-DeWitt, author of Frangible Operas (Gunpowder Press, 2024)

Please share/please repost  #flpauthor #preorder #AwesomeCoverArt  #poetry # FLP
#book #read #poems

[bradthechimera @bradthechimera]

As readers of Buchanan know, he is a survivor, a poet who finds beauty even in the darkest times… [his] love for his children, for grace in all its guises, and for the transformative power of language, grant custody of a sustaining light.
—Joshua McKinney, author of Sad Animal

[Finishing Line Press @FLPress]

FLP POETRY BOOK OF THE DAY: The Birds of Poverty Ridge by Brad Buchanan
On SALE:   https://t.co/uXknvfAxYl

The Birds of Poverty Ridge, by Brad Buchanan, is a searching meditation on the author’s return—after catastrophic illness—to a changed and changing life. These poems explore both old and new neighborhoods as they observe seasonal rituals, mourn the loss of love, trace the tenuous renewal of desire, and celebrate our ongoing transformations. #renewal #loss #love #transformation #rituals #celebration #neighborhood #birds #songs

Brad Buchanan taught British and Postcolonial Literature, as well as Creative Writing, at Sacramento State University until his retirement in 2016. His writings have appeared in more than 200 journals, and he has published four book-length collections of poetry, among them The Scars, Aligned: A Cancer Narrative (Finishing Line Press, 2019) and Chimera (Finishing Line Press, 2022). He has also published three academic books, a medical memoir, and a novel: Spy’s Mate. He was diagnosed with T-cell lymphoma in February 2015, and underwent a stem cell transplant in 2016. He is currently Northern California chapter leader of Man Up to Cancer, a support group for men coping with cancer. He also facilitates recurring online Writing As Healing workshops through the UC Davis Cancer Center, Cancer Bridges, and NMBTlink.

PRAISE FOR The Birds of Poverty Ridge by Brad Buchanan

In this powerful, moving collection of seventy-two finely-crafted poems, Brad Buchanan takes us on a journey from an almost unbearably painful exploration of cancer and divorce to a Zen-like appreciation of the small, redeeming moments of life that console us in times of grief and loneliness. Buchanan has a genius for details, which he uses to create an emotional landscape that is, at one and the same time, lyrical, terrifying, and redemptive.
–Mary Mackey, author of The Jaguars That Prowl Our Dreams (Marsh Hawk Press, 2018), winner of The Eric Hoffer Award for Best Book Published by A Small Press

“Who gets custody of the shared memories?” asks the speaker in “How to Take Stock of an Empty House.” This question reverberates throughout Brad Buchanan’s The Birds of Poverty Ridge, a book which takes stock of a life in the wake of illness and recovery, the end of a long marriage, and a move downward on the socio-economic ladder. As readers of Buchanan know, he is a survivor, a poet who finds beauty even in the darkest times. As Pound observed, “What thou lovest well remains,” and Buchanan’s love for his children, for grace in all its guises, and for the transformative power of language, grant custody of a sustaining light. Read The Birds of Poverty Ridge and hear the cries of a neighborhood, and of our shared world, “in all its beauty / and disrepute.”
–Joshua McKinney, author of Sad Animal (Gunpowder Press, 2024), winner of the John Ridland Poetry Prize

How to live after marital separation and divorce, after surviving the terrors and brutalities of cancer? How to deal with the dislocations of the heart, the body, the mind–how to cross the street into an unknown neighborhood which is both literal and spiritual? These are questions the poems in Brad Buchanan’s newest book The Birds of Poverty Ridge document and explore, traveling with deft musicality through the memories and experiences, “shuffling ghosts in their bright array.” The poems grapple with themselves—the voices of songbird, family man, victim, caretaker, priest—but together they are a choir; they build a shared “museum of compassion.” As the speaker says in “What Will Survive in Us is Love”: “those in whom / love is so strong / can suffer almost anything…”
–Susan Kelly-DeWitt, author of Frangible Operas (Gunpowder Press, 2024)

Please share/please repost  #flpauthor #preorder #AwesomeCoverArt  #poetry # FLP
#book #read #poems

[bradthechimera @bradthechimera]

In this powerful, moving collection of seventy-two finely-crafted poems, Brad Buchanan takes us on a journey from an… exploration of cancer and divorce to a Zen-like appreciation of the small, redeeming moments of life.
—Mary Mackey, author of The Jaguars That Prowl Our Dreams

[Finishing Line Press @FLPress]

FLP POETRY BOOK OF THE DAY: The Birds of Poverty Ridge by Brad Buchanan
On SALE:   https://t.co/uXknvfAxYl

The Birds of Poverty Ridge, by Brad Buchanan, is a searching meditation on the author’s return—after catastrophic illness—to a changed and changing life. These poems explore both old and new neighborhoods as they observe seasonal rituals, mourn the loss of love, trace the tenuous renewal of desire, and celebrate our ongoing transformations. #renewal #loss #love #transformation #rituals #celebration #neighborhood #birds #songs

Brad Buchanan taught British and Postcolonial Literature, as well as Creative Writing, at Sacramento State University until his retirement in 2016. His writings have appeared in more than 200 journals, and he has published four book-length collections of poetry, among them The Scars, Aligned: A Cancer Narrative (Finishing Line Press, 2019) and Chimera (Finishing Line Press, 2022). He has also published three academic books, a medical memoir, and a novel: Spy’s Mate. He was diagnosed with T-cell lymphoma in February 2015, and underwent a stem cell transplant in 2016. He is currently Northern California chapter leader of Man Up to Cancer, a support group for men coping with cancer. He also facilitates recurring online Writing As Healing workshops through the UC Davis Cancer Center, Cancer Bridges, and NMBTlink.

PRAISE FOR The Birds of Poverty Ridge by Brad Buchanan

In this powerful, moving collection of seventy-two finely-crafted poems, Brad Buchanan takes us on a journey from an almost unbearably painful exploration of cancer and divorce to a Zen-like appreciation of the small, redeeming moments of life that console us in times of grief and loneliness. Buchanan has a genius for details, which he uses to create an emotional landscape that is, at one and the same time, lyrical, terrifying, and redemptive.
–Mary Mackey, author of The Jaguars That Prowl Our Dreams (Marsh Hawk Press, 2018), winner of The Eric Hoffer Award for Best Book Published by A Small Press

“Who gets custody of the shared memories?” asks the speaker in “How to Take Stock of an Empty House.” This question reverberates throughout Brad Buchanan’s The Birds of Poverty Ridge, a book which takes stock of a life in the wake of illness and recovery, the end of a long marriage, and a move downward on the socio-economic ladder. As readers of Buchanan know, he is a survivor, a poet who finds beauty even in the darkest times. As Pound observed, “What thou lovest well remains,” and Buchanan’s love for his children, for grace in all its guises, and for the transformative power of language, grant custody of a sustaining light. Read The Birds of Poverty Ridge and hear the cries of a neighborhood, and of our shared world, “in all its beauty / and disrepute.”
–Joshua McKinney, author of Sad Animal (Gunpowder Press, 2024), winner of the John Ridland Poetry Prize

How to live after marital separation and divorce, after surviving the terrors and brutalities of cancer? How to deal with the dislocations of the heart, the body, the mind–how to cross the street into an unknown neighborhood which is both literal and spiritual? These are questions the poems in Brad Buchanan’s newest book The Birds of Poverty Ridge document and explore, traveling with deft musicality through the memories and experiences, “shuffling ghosts in their bright array.” The poems grapple with themselves—the voices of songbird, family man, victim, caretaker, priest—but together they are a choir; they build a shared “museum of compassion.” As the speaker says in “What Will Survive in Us is Love”: “those in whom / love is so strong / can suffer almost anything…”
–Susan Kelly-DeWitt, author of Frangible Operas (Gunpowder Press, 2024)

Please share/please repost  #flpauthor #preorder #AwesomeCoverArt  #poetry # FLP
#book #read #poems

[bradthechimera @bradthechimera]

It’s always a pleasure to be Finishing Line Press’s Book of the Day! https://t.co/H9Nhx5Di9n

[bradthechimera @bradthechimera]

@Chesschick01 @gmcanty @Kasparov63 @chessNwine @MagnusCarlsen @GMHikaru

[bradthechimera @bradthechimera]

I had the honor of talking to Marco Ciappelli about SPY'S MATE, soccer, writing, and other fun topics on his Audio Signals Podcast. https://t.co/Axji5eqP1g

[bradthechimera @bradthechimera]

@chesscom @chessqueen @FIDE_chess @GothamChess @ChessbaseIndia @STLChessClub @chess

[bradthechimera @bradthechimera]

I had the honor of talking to Marco Ciappelli about SPY'S MATE, soccer, writing, and other fun topics on his Audio Signals Podcast. https://t.co/Axji5eqP1g

[bradthechimera @bradthechimera]

I had the honor of talking to Marco Ciappelli about SPY'S MATE, soccer, writing, and other fun topics on his Audio Signals Podcast. https://t.co/Axji5eqP1g

[bradthechimera @bradthechimera]

I will be reading from SPY'S MATE, my "chesspionage" novel this evening (Saturday Nov. 29) at Beers Books, 712 R Street in Sacramento at 7:00PM. There will be fun merch to give away, and a Q&A with attendees! Be there or be 64 squares...

[bradthechimera @bradthechimera]

Nine years ago I came to New York City for a last-ditch clinical trial at Memorial Sloan Kettering to cure my post-transplant lymphoma. I was blind and still very sick. This year I’m in NYC to see the sights, play chess, and promote my new novel. How many blessings can I count?

[bradthechimera @bradthechimera]

Very excited to be doing an event for SPY’S MATE at Chess Forum in NYC!

[bradthechimera @bradthechimera]

I have a new book of poems coming out in 2026, and it is now available for preordering. Its title is The Birds of Poverty Ridge, and the cover art (see below) is by my daughter Nora. It would be absolutely wonderful if people pre-ordered their copies now!

https://t.co/nTCGmAxJSu

[bradthechimera @bradthechimera]

#Chess #chesspionage

[bradthechimera @bradthechimera]

I'll be doing a virtual book launch for SPY'S MATE through El Gigante (hosted by Danny Romero) on the 14th of November 2025, 7:00 to 8:30pm Pacific Time (open mic to follow). The door opens at 6:55pm. Link is here:

https://t.co/55rKDU9EJl

[bradthechimera @bradthechimera]

@chesscom @lichess @ChessBase @ChessbaseIndia @chessqueen @FIDE_chess @GothamChess @STLChessClub @chess

[bradthechimera @bradthechimera]

I'll be doing a virtual book launch for SPY'S MATE through El Gigante (hosted by Danny Romero) on the 14th of November 2025, 7:00 to 8:30pm Pacific Time (open mic to follow). The door opens at 6:55pm. Link is here:

https://t.co/55rKDU9EJl

[bradthechimera @bradthechimera]

I'll be doing a virtual book launch for SPY'S MATE through El Gigante (hosted by Danny Romero) on the 14th of November 2025, 7:00 to 8:30pm Pacific Time (open mic to follow). The door opens at 6:55pm. Link is here:

https://t.co/55rKDU9EJl

[bradthechimera @bradthechimera]

I'll be doing a virtual book launch for SPY'S MATE through El Gigante (hosted by Danny Romero) on the 14th of November 2025, 7:00 to 8:30pm Pacific Time (open mic to follow). The door opens at 6:55pm. Link is here:

https://t.co/55rKDU9EJl