The Tiger and Other Tales

Fiction. Jack Foley's autobiography begins, "What is a life but stories?" The stories collected here are not his life but a fantastic consciousness in which he is as lost as anyone. Foley writes what he does not know; he writes what he can imagine. The dead sprout up here as easily as leaves of grass.

Stylistically the stories range widely—some are comic, some bring tears. All manifest "the strangeness and the power of poetry," plunging us into the enigma of the human heart.

Jack Foley (born 1940) has published thirteen books of poetry, five books of criticism, and VISIONS AND AFFILIATIONS, a "chronoencyclopedia" of California poetry from 1940 to 2005. His radio show, Cover to Cover, is heard on Berkeley station KPFA every Wednesday at 3; his column, "Foley's Books," appears in the online magazine, The Alsop Review. With his late wife, Adelle, Foley performed his work (often "multi–voiced" pieces) frequently in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is continuing to work with others. With poet Clara Hsu, Foley is co–publisher of Poetry Hotel Press. In 2010 Foley was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Berkeley Poetry Festival, and June 5, 2010 was proclaimed "Jack Foley Day" in Berkeley.