James Tate

Author profile

born

December 08, 1943 in Kansas City, MO, The United States

gender

male

genre

Poetry, Literature & Fiction

About this author

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James Vincent Tate was born in Kansas City, Missouri. He has taught creative writing at the University of California, Berkeley and Columbia University, and currently teaches at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where he has worked since 1971. He is a member of the poetry faculty at the MFA Program for Poets & Writers, along with Dara Wier and Peter Gizzi.

Dudley Fitts selected Tate's first book of poems, The Lost Pilot (1967) for the Yale Series of Younger Poets while Tate was still a student at the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop; Fitts praised Tate's writing for its "natural grace." Despite the early praise he received Tate alienated some of his fans in the seventies with a series of poetry collections that grew more and m...more

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Books by James Tate

Average rating: 4.18 · 2,082 ratings · 181 reviews · 33 distinct works

	Return to the City of White Donkeys 4.25 avg rating — 342 ratings — published 2004 — 3 editions	My rating:
	Selected Poems 4.19 avg rating — 318 ratings — published 1991 — 3 editions	My rating:
	Worshipful Company of Fletchers 4.11 avg rating — 228 ratings — published 1995 — 2 editions	My rating:
	The Ghost Soldiers 4.13 avg rating — 182 ratings — published 2008 — 4 editions	My rating:
	Memoir of the Hawk 4.15 avg rating — 168 ratings — published 2001 — 2 editions	My rating:
	Shroud of the Gnome 4.10 avg rating — 137 ratings — published 1997 — 2 editions	My rating:
	The Lost Pilot 4.47 avg rating — 144 ratings — 4 editions	My rating:
	Dreams of a Robot Dancing Bee: 44 Stories 3.99 avg rating — 89 ratings — published 2001 — 2 editions	My rating:
	The Oblivion Ha-Ha 4.11 avg rating — 80 ratings — 4 editions	My rating:
	Distance from Loved Ones 4.35 avg rating — 57 ratings — 2 editions	My rating:

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Quotes by James Tate

“Jesus got up one day a little later than usual. He had been dreaming so deep there was nothing left in his head. What was it? A nightmare, dead bodies walking all around him, eyes rolled back, skin falling off. But he wasn't afraid of that. It was a beautiful day. How 'bout some coffee? Don't mind if I do. Take a little ride on my donkey, I love that donkey. Hell, I love everybody.”
― James Tate

4 people liked it

“He is being nibbled to death by ducks.

--More Later, Less the Same”
― James Tate, Selected Poems

tags: aggravation

3 people liked it

“I am not a part of this home any longer. I am a tiny thing created by indifferent scientists. I am an experiment, a mechanical bee placed near the hive. The real bees were happy being bees until I came along and gave them all the false information that destroyed their little lives.”
― James Tate, Dreams of a Robot Dancing Bee: 44 Stories

2 people liked it

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Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
The Next Best Boo...: The Last Letter Game	1922	1928	Apr 09, 2012 11:09am

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