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.

My Latest Piece is up at the Santa Fe Writer's Project. It's called "Saying Goodbye to an Atheist." Check it out here!
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 "My Mother Tells Me" is up at The Penn Review. Please give it a read!

Work in Crack the Spine called 

Mercury Rising.  

Letter By Letter was just published in Sonora Review. It's a tough one to read, but please do.  

Read Medication Guide Ambien (ām’bē–ən) at Digging Through the Fat.

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

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

• "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 

• "Saying Goodbye to an Atheist"  SFWP 

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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 

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• "Visiting Rena"  Flock

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• "My Mother Tells Me" The Penn Review

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• Finalist Best of the Net 2022

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

• 2019 Finalist Arts for the People Chapbook Contest

• 2019 Finalist Palooka Press

• 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