Biography

My name is Denise Tolan.

I am a writer who believes what Virginia Woolf says is true: "On the outskirts of every agony sits some observant fellow who points."

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I am a pointer. 
 

I love love love the novel Moby-Dick.

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I love teaching English.

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I also write both fiction and non-fiction. Check out some of my publications.

News and Stuff

Newest piece just published in Atlas and Alice. It's called Sell You, Sell Me.

Have a new piece out in Barren Magazine called "The History of Tedium."

Upcoming Pieces:

• Flock Fall/Winter 2020

• Penn Review  Spring 2021

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My piece, "A Very Short History of Abuse," published in this anthology, was recently nominated for Best Short Fictions 2020!

Order a copy here!

Great Weather for Media

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My newest work in Crack the Spine is called 

Mercury Rising.  

Denise's non fiction piece at Bodega , "Things That go Boom," was a finalist for the 2019 Penelope Niven International Literary Award

Click the Bodega link to read!!

Denise was a finalist for the Diane Woods Memorial nonfiction prize.

Read "Betrayed by Blood" in Lunch Ticket

Denise's piece in Lunch Ticket's Amuse-Bouche Spotlight, Because You are Dead, was selected for inclusion in 2018's Best Small Fictions.

Order 2018's Best Small Fictions.

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 Story up at Queen Mob's Tea House. Enjoy!!

Publications and Awards

Fiction

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Non-Fiction

• "Divisible by Two." Quirk Magazine (print only)
   

• "God Dumps Doug." Reed Magazine (print only)
   

• "Saying Goodbye to an Atheist." The Great American Literary Magazine (Nominated for the Best of the Web 2015)
   

• "Six o'Clock Mass." Empty Sink Publishing
   

• "Something Like a Man." Apple Valley Review
   

• "Mutually Miscible." Sleet Magazine
   

• "Finding the Pieces." Saturday Evening Post

Available on Amazon 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01NBNDY19

• "Because You Are Dead." Lunch Ticket

Also available at Amazon in Best Small Fictions 2018
 

• "Mouth Open Wide." Hobart

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• "The Terms of Archaeology " West Texas Literary Review

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• "Obligations to the Lost"  Still Point Arts

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• "Thank a Bad Girl"  Storyscape Journal

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• "Let's Call Him Pepe" The Raven's Perch

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• "We Probably had Sex in Your Yard" The Airgonaut

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• "How Would You Grieve Me?" Queen Mob's Tea House

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• "A History of Tedium" Barren Magazine​

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• "Mercury Rising"       Crack the Spine

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• "Snake Light" The Tishman Review
   

• "Never Two Without the Three" Gravel

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• "Divisible By Thirteen" Mojave River Review

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• "Making Visible the Invisible" (Academic)
   

• "Interview with Kat Meads" Southern Lit Review

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• "Betrayed by Blood" Lunch Ticket

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• "Malocchio" Santa Ana River Review

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• "Things That Go Boom" Bodega Magazine

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• "A Very Short History of Abuse" Great Weather for Media 

Available on Amazon 

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• "The Underside of Normal" Fugue 

Awards

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• 2019 Finalist Palooka Press

• Nominated for Best Small Fictions 2020 by Great Weather For Media

• 2019 Finalist Arts for the People Chapbook Contest

• 2019 Longlist Ink Tears Short Story Contest

• 2019 International Literary Awards, Penelope Niven Prize in Nonfiction: finalist

• 2019 Gambling the Aisle Chapbook Prize: finalist 

• 2018 Diane Woods Memorial Award: finalist, non fiction

• 2018 The Best Small Fictions, Lunch Ticket: winner

• 2018 International Literary Awards, Penelope Niven Prize in Nonfiction: finalist

• 2018 Forge Fellowship: finalist

• 2017 Wigleaf’s Top 50, Apple Valley Review, long-listed

• 2017 River Styx Schlafly Beer Micro-Brew Micro-Fiction contest: semi Finalist

• 2017 Saturday Evening Post Fiction Contest: finalist

• 2016 Texas Observer Short Story contest: honorable mention

• 2016 SunStruck Magazine Creative nonfiction writing contest: winner

• 2015 Best of the Net, The Great American Lit Mag: nominee

• 2013 Glimmer Train’s Award for New Writers: honorable mention

• 2012 Glimmer Train's Very Short Fiction Award: finalist