Thomas Hubbard authored Nail and other hardworking poems, Year of the Dragon Press, 1994 and Junkyard Dogz, (2002). His poetry has appeared in various literary journals such as Emeralds in the Ash, Omniscient, PoetsWest, Square Lake, Vox Populi 2001, and others; most recently in the Washington Poets Association Anthology of 2005, Mute Note Earthward. He also reviews books. His most recent reviews appeared in Raven Chronicles, November 2004.
A mixed-blood descendant of Cherokee, Irish, Miami and English ancestry, Hubbard grew up among factory workers and went to work in a glass factory, making bottles and jars. After six years in factories around the country, hitch-hiking for months on end during layoffs, he quit the trade and earned a teaching degree in English and Sociology, graduating Ball State University in 1969. Because of his anti-war involvement with SDS and underground newspapers, he was employable only in very needy schools. His teaching career began in Gary. Over the next thirty years he was in and out of teaching mostly in ghetto schools, working also as a carpenter, blues musician and freelance writer, and attending various graduate schools. During these years he fathered four sons. He arrived in Seattle in 1991, newly divorced and broke.
After his father's death in 1994 Hubbard began a memorial project. Over the next five years he compiled, edited and in 2000, published Children Remember Their Fathers, an anthology of works by performance poets from around the country. Many of the poems in CRTF were gathered from slam poets during his appearance at the National Poetry Slam in Ann Arbor, 1995, as winner of the Seattle Grand Slam. Two years later Hubbard retired from teaching written expression in Tulalip Reservation's Heritage School to focus on his Gazoobi Tales imprint, publishing works of merit that might not get a reading elsewhere. Hubbard recently completed an audio CD of his Junkyard Dogz. An anthology of poetry about mothers is near completion, and he is releasing a call for submissions for an anthology of Native American poetry and short prose. He currently lives aboard his sloop in Puget Sound.
Thomas was the winner of the Seattle Poetry Grand Slam in 1995.
This is an "official" site in that this page was constructed with the assistance and active collaboration of the poet, Thomas Hubbard. The website "author" is Karen M. Strom.
© 2005 Thomas Hubbard and Karen Strom.
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