Tom C. Hunley's eighth full-length collection, The Loneliest Whale in the World, was published by Terrapin Books (2024), his eighth chapbook, Abridged: Erasure Poems, was published by Kelsay Books, his first short film, You're Not Alone, was produced by Forerunner TV Inc., and his second short film, Awesomistic, was produced by Lindsey Entertainment. A professor at Western Kentucky University, he divides his time between Kansas and Oz.

Other poems by Tom C. Hunley in Verse Daily:
June 18, 2023:   "Dear God, Show Me How to Walk in Wonder" "Dear God, when I watched my firstborn..."
January 17, 2022:   "Loving The Traumatized Teen While She's Acting Out" by Tom C. Hunley   "Before our children's birthday parties, we determined..."
December 7, 2021:   "If You've Met One Autistic Person, You've Met One Autistic Person" "My son's the only person that I know..."
January 25, 2021:   "The Last Time I Took My Son To The Movies" "We saw Wonder, the story of a boy..."
July 28, 2020:   "The Fact That There's A Snake Tunneling Through My Grass Doesn't Make The Parting Of The Blades Any Less Beautiful." "Many things are strange...."
March 26, 2018:   "Surrounded By Aliens" "Who isn't a baby in a blanket..."
May 2, 2016:   "Men Are From Marvel; Women Are From DC" "Worst. Therapy. Couch. Ever. I got off..."
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..."

Other poems on the web by Tom C. Hunley:
Two poems
Three poems
"he Last Time I Took My Son To The Movies"
Three poems
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"

About The Loneliest Whale in the World:

"Reading Tom C. Hunley's The Loneliest Whale in the World is like talking with a best friend who is both hilarious and deeply sincere. Hunley's mind has the ability to mix together David Lee Roth, adopting a child, a surreal chili recipe, a diagnosis of an autoimmune disease, the persona of rock / paper / scissors, a son with autism, the inscription on Charles Bukowski's tombstone, aging, and skinny dipping to create a collection that makes us want to keep reading. This is Hunley's gift-to see the world through a prism where the light shines on everything. And this book is an absolute gem."
—Kelli Russell Agodon

"These poems are prayers, at times to God, at times to whoever might need what they offer. They are at once profound and quotidian, and the tension humming between those two poles is named compassion. It is hard-won, this compassion, yet Hunley wears it like a loose garment, which is one of the pleasures of this book. In the end these poems are a way to remind us that we are not alone, that there is a world inside this world, and it is beautiful."
—Nick Flynn

"The very cool 'My Chili Recipe: An Ars Poetica' includes an actual chili recipe as well as advice that's excellent for chili and poetry: stir occasionally. A good poem requires a kind of mixing or churning, a change (or changes) in direction, in tone or feeling, if it's to offer anything new or worthwhile, and imagination is always the source of the stir. What I find so pleasurable about Tom C. Hunley's poems is the multifaceted nature of his imagination, whether conceptual, ethical, sonic, emotional, or imagistic. I had faith in this book from the first few pages, both that the poems would have something to offer, something to say, and that I wouldn't be able to predict what that was. That's the way it is with the best cooks-they deliver the goods, but you don't know how."
—Bob Hicok