My poems can make a difference!

Daniel Becker was born in Miami, 1949, and attended Miami public schools till college (U Pennsylvania 1971), med school (Washington University 1975), public health (Harvard, 1978), internal medicine residency (Harvard, Brigham 1977-78), MFA at Warren Wilson 2001 (note the delay in processing life into poetry); from 1979-1985 I worked for the U Miami Miller School of Medicine at Jackson Memorial Hospital (where I was born and where my boss needed help on the wards and racing his sailboat on Biscayne Bay, which we could see from the top floor of the hospital). In 1985 my wife (a neurologist) and I took jobs at the U of Virginia School of Medicine, and we've been in Charlottesville VA since. Two kids--now grown and full of advice for their parental units, a rotating cast of dogs and cats--always two at a time so that we'd have a spare just in case, my wife's horse (know what a barn widow is? the husband who is home while the wife is at the barn), and various wooden boats (ask me for pix). I retired from clinical practice and teaching two years ago. I am still learning how to adapt without a beeper and the electronic health record following me everywhere. A chapbook, Chance 2006; a full collection 2nd Chance (New Issues Press, first book prize 2022). I was and am eager to publish and slow to be published. Now, I swim laps 3-4 x a week, volunteer at the public library and a food bank; build bridges for the hiking trails that surround the city and cross 25 streams, and follow my wife on bird walks where I ask "what's that?" and she explains.

Your support gives me vital inspiration as I write for thirty days this month.

Tupelo Press provides the canvas; I bring my words, accompanied by a cohort of fine poets, writing thirty poems in thirty days, all ours to edit and submit as we wish. 30/30 poems have been taken by over 200 journals and featured in over 40 published chapbooks, all so Tupelo Press can keep publishing exquisite and diverse voices that might never be heard otherwise.

Every dollar gives me confidence to write more, and helps the press place more poems in gorgeous books. Help me to help this distinguished press. Give today!