A Funeral of Strangers Gathered Over a Body of Thought

“At once lyrical & frank, anguished & unflinching, A Funeral of Strangers Gathered Over a Body of Thought is less a book of poems & more like a voyage—& McGowan, an insightful, compassionate, & trustworthy guide well-versed in navigating the unknown. McGowan writes about grief, desire, shame, & transformation with an eerie beauty, with language so exacting it is always on the verge of cutting you open to reveal the strangers inside yourself. In this collection, McGowan imagines & interrogates a world in which escaping & coming home are one & the same, & we are all the better off for it.” — Mac Crane, author of I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself and A Sharp Endless Need

“The kind of poetry collection that reminds you why you fell in love with poetry in the first place. T.J. McGowan has an extraordinary command of language, moving effortlessly between the visceral and the philosophical, the intimate and the cosmic. There is a fearlessness here, both in what McGowan is willing to confront and in how willing he is to let the poems take unexpected formal and linguistic risks.” — Alicia Cook, author of The Music Was Just Getting Good

“T.J. McGowan is the antidote to avoiding our hearts. His words evoke a visceral response; he takes us down, into, and through a life fully lived — his infestations, confrontations, and reckoning with the big questions life asks us to face and feel, including a father’s final silence. This is the hard-earned, heart-worn route to surviving yourself and to what’s on the other side. Brutal and tender, and as devastating as it is inspiring.” — Jeremy Goldberg, author of It’ll Be Okay, and You Will Be Too

“Honestly, if I have one word to describe this collection, it would be “grand.” McGowan has such grand language and it is big enough to tackle the subject of death. It is existential and metaphysical, but there are very specific tender moments that personalize it and humanize it. It felt like, even though there is love, nothing saves us from death. From time. From inevitability. But it wasn’t a downer. It felt like a sensible realization in a way. But the tender moments bring the whole book warmth and light.” — Lauren Eden, author of This is the Last Time I Will Write About Boys

“A deeply human protest but, also, an undeniably honest tribute to the dead, our ideas and memories of them. This book is for those of us who have to live without them. This destroyed me, as looking into a mirror should. It’s for everyone who has, and will, face the inevitability, the horror and the terrible beauty of loss. You must read this for when it comes for you but don’t keep it in a glass box, only to be broken for emergencies. Carry it with you, and keep it close.” — Joe Favalaro, screenwriter, author of Pure Decline

“A book of this magnitude, one that will shed tears and pat them dry, is a rare feat. McGowan’s new collection does not fluff words; you feel the pain with clear and sharp focus. Empathy flies off the tongue, one page at a time. This is a personal chronicle of love, death, and what happens after.” — Josh Dale, author of Rage: Stories and Duality Lies Beneath

T.J. McGowan, also known as The Everyday Bite, is a Bronx-based writer, poet, and spoken word artist. His work has appeared in Collective Unrest, Vamp Cat Mag, Flash Fiction Magazine, BX Writers, and Mojave Heart. He is the author of the chapbooks Anatomy of Us and God is a Woman, the spoken word album I Wear Another Man’s Name, and the novel Timeless Gardens & Other Beautiful Miseries. T.J. also performs as one half of the meditative metal duo Subtle Bodies, blending spoken word and trip-rock.

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