Brandon Thurman

I’m a poet living in the Arkansas Ozarks with my husband & son. I’m the author of the chapbook Strange Flesh (Quarterly West, 2018) and have poems in Best New Poets, The Adroit Journal, Beloit Poetry Journal, Nashville Review, RHINO, Sixth Finch, and others. I was named a 2021 Gregory Djanikian Scholar in Poetry, was a semi-finalist for the 2022 92y Discovery Poetry Contest, and have received nominations for the Pushcart Prize, Best New Poets, & Best of the Net. My first full-length manuscript has been a semi-finalist for the 2019 Charles B. Wheeler Poetry Prize, the 2020 Akron Poetry Prize, and the 2020 Brittingham & Felix Pollak Prizes, as well as a finalist for the 2020 Berkshire Prize and the 2021 Autumn House Poetry Contest.

author photo credit: Lauren Ethridge

Purchase directly from Quarterly West.

“Strange Flesh is a truly gorgeous poetry collection that gives us so much atmosphere and energy. I found myself wanting to read each poem again and again. Christ-haunted, lyrically brilliant, Strange Flesh is one of those rare collections I want to read aloud to myself at night.” —Garrard Conley, author of Boy Erased

poetry

The Adroit Journal, “Jesus Bug” (Issue 27); “Charismata,” “Diagram of the Body Held in Worship, & “Invasive Species” (Issue 37, Gregory Djanikian Scholar Portfolio)

The Arkansas International, “Interpreter” & “Mosquito” (nominated for Best of the Net)

Bayou Magazine, “Poem to My Son as Interstellar Explorer” (print)

Beloit Poetry Journal, “Anointed” & “Mud” (print)

The Blueshift Journal, “Don’t quench the spirit,“

DIALOGIST, “Poem to My Son as T-Rex” (nominated for the Pushcart Prize)

Dirty Paws Poetry Review, “The Congregation Sings ‘How Great Thou Art’“

Duende, “An Unnamed Stage of Grief“

Foundry, “Skinner’s Analysis of Verbal Behavior: Listener Discriminations“

Frontier Poetry, “New Moon Ceremony” (included in Best New Poets 2022)

Glass: A Journal of Poetry, “The Language of Birds” (nominated for Best New Poets)

Hampden-Sydney Poetry Review, “Hell” (print)

The Journal, “Love Poem in Which My Mother Does Not Appear“

The Lonely Crowd, “In Whom We Live & Move & Have Our Being” & “Asked to Be a Sperm Donor, I List the Pros & Cons” (print)

Muzzle Magazine, “Shed“

Nashville Review, “Ishmael in the Wilderness“

Ninth Letter, “Church Camp” (nominated for Best New Poets)

Noble / Gas Qtrly, “Decalogue“

No Tokens, “The Hypnotist Loses Concentration” (print)

[PANK], “Charismata” (print)

Parentheses Journal, “& Delilah” (nominated for Best New Poets)

Radar Poetry, “Smokewood Apiary“

RHINO, “Something in the Air” (print)

Ruminate, “The Two-Body Problem” (print)

Sepia, “I Wanted to Live No Matter What“

Sixth Finch, “Spare“

Shenandoah, “Poem to My Son as Darth Vader” (nominated for the Pushcart Prize), “Invasive Species,” & “Dead Languages“

Storyscape, “1994“

Tinderbox Poetry Journal, “Upon Being Asked if I Have Baby Fever,” “Speaking in Tongues,” “Ars Poetica,” & “How to Make a Gunbox Hymnal“

Zone 3, “Communion” (print)

prose

The Boiler, “Augury”

Cream City Review, “The Book of Revelation” (print)

reviews

EcoTheo Review, “‘Bring the Knife & Bring the Choir’: On C.T. Salazar’s American Cavewall Sonnets“

Newfound, “Upending the Myth: On torrin a. greathouse’s Wound from the Mouth of a Wound“

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