About Me   

Thomas Phalen is an Irish/American dual national. He retired after 38 years practicing law and devoted himself singularly to writing poetry and prose fiction. He has been writing nearly all his life, but with a diligent consistency for the past 40 years. Among other journals, his poetry and stories have been published in The Lune, The Blue Mountain Review, The Muleskinner Journal, Icarus, The Wild Umbrella, Third Wednesdays, SBLAAM, Written Tales, Wilderness House Literary Review, and Cider Press Review. He was a four-time contributor in poetry at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference in Middlebury, Vermont, and in Erice, Sicily. He obtained his Master in Philosophy degree in Creative Writing from the Oscar Wilde Centre for Irish Writing at Trinity College, Dublin. He is an editor of The Muleskinner Journal. He has published a poetry chapbook, nearly a dozen single poems, several short stories and two creative nonfiction pieces, during his late-in-life writing career. He suffered the life-threatening loss of his wife, Stacie Schimke, the Forever Love of His Life, on March 10, 2023, in Dublin Ireland, while he was a student at Trinity College. The trauma of that loss has become the singular defining event in his life and his recent poetic efforts have explored the love they shared, and the grief, horror, sorrow, and despair that such an event carries in its wake. He lives alternately in Phoenix, Arizona and in Dublin, Ireland with his genius Border Collie, Finnbar.

Conferences

Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vermont, August 15-25, 2018, and August 14-24, 2019, Contributor in Poetry.

Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, Middlebury College, Erice, Sicily, September 22-28, 2019, and September 20-26, 2020, Contributor in Poetry.

 Education

Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland, M.Phil in Creative Writing, Oscar Wilde Centre for Irish Writing, April 2025