Tom C. Hunley is a professor of English at Western Kentucky University and the director of Steel Toe Books. He is the author of four previous full-length poetry collections, two textbooks, and six chapbooks. He is the co-editor, with Alexandria Peary, of CREATIVE WRITING PEDAGOGIES FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY (Southern Illinois University Press, 2015). He divides his time between Kansas and Oz.

Other poems by Tom C. Hunley in Verse Daily:
June 25 2015:   "Self-Portrait as a Child's Stick Figure Drawing on a Refrigerator" "Often I'm a musical instrument..."
March 15, 2014:   "Scotch Tape World" "Taping my thigh and calf together..."
April 7, 2011:   "Self-Portrait as a Child?s Stick Figure Drawing on a Refrigerator" "Often I?m a musical instrument..."
April 10, 2010:   "Slow Dance Music" "I can't explain the rain's attraction to my head..."
December 7, 2008:   "Elegy for Robert Creeley and Pope John Paul II, Dead Three Days Apart" "Something dramatic is going to happen to me soon...."
August 29, 2006:   "At The End Of A Long And Varied Career" " As a child, I rang doorbells and ran off..."

Books by Tom C. Hunley:
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Other poems on the web by Tom C. Hunley:
Four poems
"The House of Hunley"
Five poems
"Moe Szyslak"
"At My Twenty-Year High School Reunion"
"Fantasia"
Twelve poems
Four poems
"My First Car"
"God in the Cheese"
"Um"
Three poems
"Death and Other Dirty Jokes"

Tom C. Hunley's Website.

About The State That Springfield Is In:

"In The State That Springfield Is In, Tom C. Hunley undertakes the quixotic task of engaging with pop culture juggernaut The Simpsons like a true devotee of the show. The results are not only playful and fun, but also deeply autobiographical, with deftly focused attention to formal diversity and voice. Best. Book of Simpsons poetry. Ever."
—Jason Bredle

"Armed with the wondrous ability to turn a phrase, to use words musically and economically, he takes us deeper into the minds of these cherished characters. Tom's poems take us to dark places, places the show itself rarely (or never) chooses to go, yet they are places that make sense for the characters and fans to inhabit. Just as the show capitalizes on its genre as a means to satirize as it sees fit, Tom uses the voices of these characters to perform some of the same tasks as the show: to push buttons, to startle, to incite laughter and thought."
—Denise Du Vernay

"Tom Hunley's clever take on America's quintessential animated sitcom reveals the secret heart of Springfield. He takes each character and takes them for a poetic spin that reveals Hunley's wit and charm."
—Jeannine Hall Gailey