Hi. I'm Ed Tankersley.
I’m a writer from Phoenix, Arizona. I've just finished writing my first novel, The Distance and the Weight, set among the expansive landscapes of the Rocky Mountain West and focused on a single mom, her precocious 8-year-old son, and her middle-aged widower father, separately and together navigating the complexities of relationships and family commitments through temptation, loss, regret, and hope. The first dozen scenes from the novel are available on this site in the Novel Excerpts section.
An excerpt of the novel was published in Four Chambers issue 2, and it received a positive notice in The Review Review (see below). I also write short stories and poetry, samples of which you can find on this site.
NEW! I've recently launched Read Write Repeat, a combination online publication and email newsletter. It's writing about writing and reading for writers and readers. Subscribe (for free!) for essays on the craft of writing, guided fiction study, book reviews, original short fiction, and ideas for shaking the words out of your head and onto the page. Let's get together in your email inbox and talk about books and writing.
Bookmark this site and follow me on Facebook for updates on my progress toward finding a literary agent and a publisher for my novel.
Readings/Performances
In 2016, I recorded three of my poems for the Telepoem Booth project, a classic phone booth on which fans can dial up a poem for a listen on a rotary phone.
Also in 2016, I read one of my short stories at Spillers 3 at Crescent Ballroom in Phoenix. You can listen to that reading here.
In 2018, I read new poems from my chapbook World Afire as featured poet at District 4 in Mesa, Arizona.
Publications
I've recently launched Read Write Repeat, a combination online publication and email newsletter. It's writing about writing and reading for writers and readers. Subscribe (for free!) for essays on the craft of writing, guided fiction study, book reviews, original short fiction, and ideas for shaking the words out of your head and onto the page. Let's get together in your email inbox and talk about books and writing.
An excerpt from The Distance and the Weight, my recently completed novel, was published in the beautifully designed and illustrated Four Chambers issue 2. The limited run publication is sold out, but you can read the excerpt and more scenes here on my site.
Four Chambers Press also published a collection of the stories that were performed at Spillers 3, including my story Until This Is Over. The limited run publication is sold out, but I'm using the story in my guided study of fiction over on Story Course, so you can read it there if you'd like.
Reviews
"The finest piece, the most consistently absorbing, the most affecting on a gut level, is Ed Tankersley’s [excerpt] from The Distance and the Weight. … Tankersley puts us in the head and senses of Gordie, a young boy waiting for his mother, who is late to pick him up….When his mother does come, we see that what might have been a story of abandonment is actually one about love and intense connection in the face of difficulties….We root for these two, in a big way."
Laurence Levey, The Review Review, January 2015