Tory Adkisson is the author of The Flesh Between Us (SIU Press 2021), winner of the Crab Orchard Series Open Book Competition. His poems have appeared widely in journals such as Third Coast, Crazyhorse, Adroit Journal, Boston Review, Quarterly West, and elsewhere. He lives in Oakland and teaches writing at UC Berkeley.

Books by Tory Adkisson:

Other poems on the web by Tory Adkisson:
Two poems
"Orientalism"
"The Garden"
"Harbingers"
Two poems
"Homophone"
"In Ear & Ear"
"First Harvest"
"After The Fall"
"Your Animal Heart"

Tory Adkisson's Website.

Tory Adkisson on Twitter.

About The Flesh Between Us:

"Tory Adkisson's poems are fervent, vulnerable. He illuminates the 'wilderness of flesh' that divides and connects us. I found myself leaning closer to his lyricism, his courage, his inventiveness. The Flesh Between Us is a powerful debut, rich with language that startles, lingers."
—Eduardo C. Corral

"Adkisson's stunning debut examines relationships in all their forms—familial, romantic, literary, mythic, and erotic. As the title The Flesh Between Us so powerfully suggests, Adkisson looks at connection and its limitations, studying the difference between intimacy and attachment through the touchstone of flesh. These deeply sensual poems rove through an evolving pantheon of gods 'thriving on quiet moments of violence' that seem natural and tender despite their darkness. Adkisson lets readers revel in the sumptuous pleasures of his lines but recognizes each of these intimacies comes with an inevitable departure that is, yes, cruel, but also sweet. These losses are like this book: unforgettable."
—Traci Brimhall

"Adkisson is a classical poet with a hard style. He can be both funny and dark. I admire his emotionalism when writing about love, lost love and the dangers of loving. His poems mix autobiography with myth as he tries to make sense of the chaos around him. His poems have backbone, and I admire this, too."
—Henri Cole

"In finely tuned portraits, aubades and anecdotes, Adkisson precisely examines queer love and the body, allowing the human enterprise its adjacency to a wilder world—animal, vegetal and sexual. He assembles, in essence, a poetry bestiary, where all of our senses are heightened, alert to both danger and ecstasy. Reading The Flesh Between Us, I couldn't help but think of tide pools teeming with life, entire redolent worlds in which the intimacy and industry of living and dying are experienced in a brief bright moment of awe."
—Kathy Fagan

"Tory Adkisson's The Flesh Between Uscharts the mythic within the body itself, revealing a landscape of intimacy made of bone and muscle and blood, with verses meant to create 'a new/ species of mystery: hybrid forms/ born to be sentient & buzzing.' These are poems of longing, poems that examine the self within a dialogue of flesh, poems that explore the encounter, where 'the kink of your tongue/ will always be like a word// of prayer against my palate.' With The Flesh Between Us, Adkisson lays bare the love and loss held within the winged form of the human body."
—Brian Turner