T. J. Beitelman's poems, stories, and essays have appeared in literary magazines all across this great land. He has received fellowships from the Alabama State Council on the Arts and the Cultural Alliance of Greater Birmingham, and he's nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He has published two chapbooks: Pilgrims: A Love Story, which won Black Lawrence's Black River Chapbook Contest, and 13 Curses and Other Love Poems, which won the Dream Horse Press Chapbook Contest. He teaches at the Alabama School of Fine Arts. His full-length collection In Order to Form a More Perfect Union will be published by Black Lawrence Press in 2012.

Books by T. J. Beitelman:

Other poems on the web by T. J. Beitelman:
"11"
"Square One"
"Matrushka"
"An Aubade for the African Queen and it's Big Bang"

T. J. Beitelman's Blog.

T. J. Beitelman on Twitter.

About Pilgrims: A Love Story:

"Jude Law and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 'dusty and dry and alone,' 'their minds a certain kind of wild,' light out for the territories in a red Edsel, in search of something, but find nothing, and so realize their only recourse is to 'make a something of a nothing,' specifically a something which can accommodate Las Vegas, candle tricks, Emily Dickinson, and a ghost town 'shrine of We-Don't-Know.' Beitelman takes us on a pilgrimage both sensual and metaphysical, both comic and tragic, warning us against 'shimmer, shine, and show' while delivering bushels of each."
—Joel Brouwer

"Beitelman's voice is sure as we navigate a roadmap between oasis and urban beehive, clarifications on loneliness, aloneness, and solitude. The 'pilgrims' in this sequence desire a fresh authenticity (of self and in relationship), but are finally left only to stare: ' . . . There's no one left but / You to watch You now' amid the 'shimmer, shine, and show.' Mirrors. A disorienting existential pose surrounded by street-talk of the street-smart. Pilgrims: A Love Story draws the reader to the tough and simple sheen of language, and to its everquestioning narrative. The old tale of 'wait and see' echoing once more."
—Katherine Soniat