You Cannot Save Here
Recognition:
Jean Feldman Poetry Prize winner
Pushcart Prize Nominated: “You Cannot Save Here”
You Cannot Save Here is a collection of poems about how we live when each day feels like the world is ending. The poems ask what we do with the small moments that matter when so much around us—climate disaster, gun violence, pandemics, wars—makes these days feel apocalyptic. The book is a bit speculative and a bit confessional. It’s queer, punk, and woven tightly with cultural allusion—from visual art to video games, pop culture to counterculture.
You Cannot Save Here is available now from Washington Writers’ Publishing House
Praise for You Cannot Save Here:
“Moll’s poems rocket the reader towards their ’favorite apocalypse,’ and with a voice both energetic and compelling, reminds us how to hold on to what we love, even as the world is falling apart around us. You Cannot Save Here is an intimate and ambitious collection about being queer during the end of days, and how those days are not drained of playfulness, desire, and awe—all that might one day rescue us back to ourselves.” —Steven Leyva, member of the WWPH poetry judging committee
“What an oracle Moll has crafted, what revelation. At once a prayer for love & a new queer elegy for what has already departed, these poems are tense & blisteringly lucid. This is necessary & timely work, especially for those of us who were born in one plague & delivered through & into many others. You Cannot Save Here is an exciting addition to our queer canon.”—Meg Day, Author of Last Psalm at Sea Level
“In Moll’s You Cannot Save Here, the reader reckons with a world of disaster-in-progress studded with small, luminous consolations. The thrust is elegiac, but the solace and solidarity, revelations and reveries, are far from foregone conclusions. These are attentions and tensions the poet gifts us for the journey we are lucky to share.”——Dora Malech, Author of Flourish, Editor of The Hopkins Review
“A threnody for what we have lost, what we are losing, and all that we still cling to, told in a poet’s language but with a speculative fiction writer’s eye on possible futures. Moll will break your heart, even as they offer glimpses of everything most worth saving.” —Sarah Pinsker, Author of A Song For A New Day
Interview with Holly Bowers for Little Patuxent Review
Interview with Sheilah Kast @ On The Record, WYPR
Interview with Judith Krummeck @ Booknotes, WBJZ
Interview with Jona Colson for Maryland Literary Review
Profile by Imani Spence for the Baltimore Banner
Interview with Shiksha Dheda for JMWW
Out of Step: A Memoir
Recognition:
Lambda Literary Award Winner, Bisexual Nonfiction
2018 American Library Association Over the Rainbow list
2017 Non/Fiction Prize Winner
Out of Step: a memoir is the story of a working-class bisexual boy running off to join the army during two wars and the era of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” It’s a queer coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of masculinity and secrecy. I was a lot of things when I joined: punk, nerdy, left-leaning, poor, but never patriotic. So what makes a pink-haired queer raise his right hand to enlist just as the nation is charging into war? This isn’t a flag-waving memoir, or a classic war novel — it’s the stories of me figuring out who I am as I figure out where I fit. Here’s what writer and educator Michael Kardos, who selected the book as the winner of the 2017 Non/Fiction Collection Prize said about the book:
“Moll’s searing clarity, ear for language, and extraordinary range of storytelling methods imbue this essay collection with the musicality of a symphony and the intimacy of a treasured mix-tape. This is a stunning and important book.”
Out of Step: A Memoir is available now from Mad Creek Books (The literary imprint of Ohio State University Press). Ask your local bookstore to order you a copy, or buy directly from the press.
Praise for Out of Step:
“Out of Step is not just Moll’s memoir; it is a loving and empathetic portrayal of those around him, paying explicit attention to the vulnerable, the outcast and the misunderstood.” —Times Literary Supplement
“Filled with raw emotion, wry humor, and unselfconscious reflection, [Out of Step] conveys Moll’s unwavering sense of self in a refreshing, inspiring way.” —Foreword Reviews
“Moll’s evocation of his army life is deadly serious yet always insightful as he questions himself and, finally, tells the truth he discovers.” —Booklist
“Out of Step is the story of a young man trying to find his place in the disparate worlds of American military and civilian life. . . . Moll’s take is thoughtful and fair, both critical of the military while recognizing how it built him.” —Shelf Awareness
Go to the Ant, O Sluggard
This chapbook is a small collection of poems about work in the age of anxiety. It is a collection of “fibs,” a contemporary poetic form, that explores gender, labor, self, and capital in the office environment. Moll explores how workers must flatten the things that matter to them, the things that make us human, as they navigate the modern workplace. Find the collection here.
Anthologies
Glitter + Ashes (Edited by dave ring)
Recognition:
Finalist, Lambda Literary Award, LGBTQ Anthology
Finalist: Ignyte Awards, Best Anthology
Glitter + Ashes: Queer Tales of a World That Wouldn’t Die is an anthology of post-apocalyptic fiction centering queer joy and community in the face of disaster. What does hope look like when everything is lost? Now, more than ever, we need to revel in the bright spots amidst the darkness.
The twenty-three stories (and two poems) contained here, as well as the roleplaying game Dream Askew by Avery Alder, imagine queer community in myriad futures interrupted by collapse. Post-apocalyptic futures glittering and bleak, challenging and eerie. Glitter + Ashes is here to hold up a torch.
My poem “Wrath of a Queer God” opens this anthology.
Praise for Glitter + Ashes:
“This well-edited anthology is remarkably tonally cohesive, united by a fresh view of the apocalypse and themes of community, mutual care, and self-actualization in the face of adversity. Readers both queer and otherwise will find much to love in this joyful celebration of difference and the power of choosing tenderness in a tough world.”
— Publishers Weekly
Press and Reviews:
Starred Review, Publishers Weekly
Review, Lightspeed Magazine
Incoming: Veteran Writers On Coming Home (Edited by edited by Justin Hudnall, Julia Dixon Evans, and Rolf Yngve)
Incoming features true stories from American veterans and service members, in their own words, surrounding the process of returning home from deployment, and transitioning back to civilian life. Honest, hilarious, and harrowing, these are beautifully crafted and necessary narratives to help readers of any background begin to understand why the most difficult battle often begins once war ends.
My story “Last Year” was published in this anthology of writing from military and veteran authors. Find the anthology here.
Tonee Moll 