Therese Gleason is author of three poetry chapbooks: Hemicrania (Chestnut Review Chapbooks, 2024), winner of the 2025 Jean Pedrick Chapbook Prize from the New England Poetry Club; Matrilineal (Finishing Line, 2021), honorable mention, 2022 Jean Pedrick Chapbook Prize; and Libation, co-winner of the South Carolina Poetry Initiative Chapbook Competition (University of South Carolina, 2006).
Her poetry, fiction, and essays have appeared in 32 Poems, America, Chestnut Review, Cincinnati Review miCRo Series, Indiana Review, Lunch Ticket Amuse-Bouche, Literary Mama, New Ohio Review, On the Seawall, Pithead Chapel, Rattle Poets Respond, and others.
Her manuscript-in-progress, Driveway, was selected as a finalist for the 2024 Codhill Press Guest Editor Series, a semifinalist for the 2023 Airlie Book Prize, and a finalist for the 2022 Wolfson Press Chapbook Contest. Other honors include Honorable Mention for the 2022 Frank O’Hara Prize from The Worcester Review; finalist in the 2022 Atlanta Review International Poetry Contest; Pushcart Prize nominations for poetry and essay; Best-of-the-Net nominations for poetry and fiction; and the 2025 Wigleaf Top 50 (Very) Short Fictions Longlist.
Therese has an MA in English from the University of Kentucky, and an MFA in Poetry from Pacific University. She has taught English as a Second Language, composition, and creative writing at Saint Louis University’s Madrid campus, the University of Kentucky, the University of South Carolina, and, most recently, Clark University. A certified dyslexia therapist, ESL, and Spanish teacher, she teaches language and literacy to multilingual learners in a public elementary school. Originally from Louisville, Kentucky, she currently lives in Worcester, Massachusetts with her husband and three teenagers.
Hemicrania Launch Party and Reading (Video)
Interview with Maria S. Picone on Hemicrania, Chestnut Review
Review of Hemicrania in New Ohio Review‘s 2025 Summer Online Exclusive
Review of Hemicrania in Literary Mama, July/August 2025 Issue
Purchase Hemicrania on Bookshop, Amazon, or Barnes and Noble.
Therese Gleason 