Tom Thomson In Purgatory

Troy Jollimore, born in 1971, is currently Associate Professor of Philosophy at California State University, Chico. Tom Thomson in Purgatory was also selected by the former U.S. Poet Laureate, Billy Collins, for the Robert E. Lee & Ruth I. Wilson Poetry Book Award.

“Reading this book, you are bound to take both Tom Thomson and his creator to your heart and to savor the miscellany of other poems that make up this superb collection.” —Billy Collins

“Poetry, it seems, is often either funny or good – but very infrequently is it both, as is in Tom Thomson in Purgatory. Borrowing Berryman’s linguistic inversions, and Whit-man’s mossy particulars, Jollimore injects a much needed jolt of helium into contemporary poetry . . . it’s refreshing to see a poet prove you can write mysteriously and coherently at the same time, all while maintaining the belay rope of tradition . . . go out and find this book and take it home, and you will find, pressed beneath its pages, a new and exciting voice in poetry, emerging from the purgatory so many poets know, but this one never deserved: obscurity.” —San Francisco Chronicle Book Review

“In the onslaught of new poetry books, Troy Jollimore’s debut Tom Thomson in Purgatory is muscling to the forefront. . . . there’s a freshness to it and a sort of lighthearted earnestness that bodes well for this poet and his growing cadre of readers.” —Seattle Times

“Jollimore has set the stage for a series of exquisite sonnets … In this reviewer’s opinion, it deserves every prize available.” —The St. Louis Post-Dispatch