Burgess Needle Biography

Burgess Needle, an Arizona poet, has a new collection of poems out by Big Table Press titled THAI COMIC BOOKS and Other Poems. They may be found at www.burgessneedle.com. Burgess lives in Tucson with his wife, Barbara, a retired school psychologist. Burgess was awarded an undergraduate degree in English Literature from the University of Massachusetts (Amherst) after ten years in which he alternated between work and classes. Some of the more interesting jobs he had were: machinist in an American Can Plant, manufacturing picture frames, making submarine sandwiches, short order cook, rod man on a survey team and producing plastic molds for Avon products. Immediately after he received his degree he joined the Peace Corps and served in Thailand for two years where he taught English, fell in love with the Thai people, their food and culture. A number of his later poems grew out of his Thailand experiences. After returning to America he entered graduate library school (University of Arizona) and eventually became a school librarian for the Tucson Unified School District. He has also been a co-director of the Southern Arizona Writing Project. In addition to perfecting his book talks, he made a name for himself as a somewhat scary Edgar Allan Poe impersonator. His dream has always been to write and publish poetry. During the last two years his work has appeared in: Black Mountain Review(UK) , Blackbox Manifold (UK) , Nutshell, Decanto (UK) , Kritya (India) , decomp, Free Verse, Poetry Monthly International, Concho River Review, Gutter Eloquence, Thirteen Myna Birds, Autumn Sky, Red Fez, Gloom Cupboard, Centrifugal Eye, and Iodine. Diminuendo Press has just published his collection: EVERY CROW IN THE BLUE SKY. He will happily respond to any e-mails sent his way: bbneedle@cox.net His web site is
www.burgessneedle.com'
www.everycrowinthebluesky.com