On the Books... "Reflected in the pursuit of creative outlets found in the view of Terman's Genetic Studies of Genius, that the 'laws of nature are correlative, not compensatory', that good things go together... Gregory O'Toole can be likened to the Niagara Falls, beautiful to behold but also harnessed to light up the city of Buffalo and environs." -Walter S. Nosal, Ed.D. Professor, Emeritus, John Carroll University "Gregory O'Toole's poetry runs the gamut from love to philosophy to the playful expression of an exuberant and independent spirit. His poems are for vagabonds and dreamers, for anyone who values the freedom of language and the importance of social critique. Like Kerouac and Micheline, O'Toole is in love with the journeys, the highs and lows, of everyday life." -Ghost Road Press, 2005 "The festival will be chock full of special readings. At 6 p.m. Saturday, Gregory O'Toole will read his poetry. O'Toole has received awards for his work from the National Endowment for the Arts and from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago." -Chicago Sun-Times on the 2005 Chicago Poetry Festival "It seems like there are lots of us right now, thinking people, on a quest to unplug the stopped up hole of what is right and weird in this world, what should be allowed thru..." -Jim James/My Morning Jacket on Big City Freight Train Blues, Denver Poems "...the poetry is story and the story's poetry... battling or embracing and intertwining... the book is a wonderful stream of consciousness, Hemingway-ish, so the written dreams read like dreams should." -Kara Tatone, Telluride Daily Planet "This is a collection that understands. The poems seem to have been written by the protagonist of a favorite novel with whom you most identify. All the experiences and ideas and opinions and conclusions and all the other wonderful occurances of literature that defy words within this book often seem to be echoes of your own mind, slightly filtered through the like-mind of a good friend." -Sam Compton, Editor, GREENDOORHOUSE on Big City Freight Train Blues, Denver Poems "Once again, Greg has made me laugh, made me cry, and made me think about what is truly important in this life. I pull this book out when I want to feel inspired, and I suggest that others do the same." -MediaGab.com

G R E G O R Y O T O O L E // L I T E R A R Y   W O R K S T H E   F R E E W A Y   C H R O N I C L E S The Literary Works of Gregory O'Toole Flashlight portrait by Ben Suchy. "North Dakota Highway" by Gregory O'Toole. Gregory O'Toole (b.1973) is the author of eleven books including Big City Freight Train Blues: Denver Poems (Ghost Road Press, 2005); Outlaw, American Poems on the Run (Number Nine Books, 2003); and Say No More, Poetry from the Back Roads and Blue Highways of America and the Adventures of the Interstellar Roadside Prophet (RMS Books, 2001). Other titles include The Modern Day Road Worn Think Tank Bazaar (Non-fiction novella), Tin Can Stones (Non-fiction stories), The Gadabout Letters (Letters collection), Pomes + The Pictures that Go. (Poetry, prose, and mobile media photographs), Higher Than Heaven (Dreams), The Year I Changed The Royal Guard (Poem and Illustrations). Gregory O'Toole's work is part of the permanent collections of the University of California at Berkeley, Northwestern University, and John Carroll University Library. O'Toole's poems, essays, articles, and short stories have appeared in many international publications including the British Journal of Educational Technology, Learning Technology (IEEE), Chicago Poetry Anthology 2005, Open Windows 2005 (Finalist for the 2006 Colorado Book Award), Chicago Sun-Times, Denver Post, Telluride Daily Planet, Bigfork Eagle, Hungry Horse News, Whitefish Pilot, DMSpace, The Clarion, The National Library of Poetry anthology, and GREENDOORHOUSE. Recently O'Toole was noted along side Jack Kerouac, Mark Twain, and Hunter Thomson in a literary map of Denver, Colorado, as one of the brightest poets practicing in the region. O'Toole has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Montana Arts Council for founding, producing and publishing GREENDOORHOUSE - an internationally distributed literary arts grassroots periodical that focuses on emerging artists and creators of cross-media foundation. Other Awards include: The Bare Walls Scholarship Endowment from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago; Dean's Academic Graduate Scholarship from the University of Denver; Graduate Teaching Assistantship from the University of Denver; Honorary Member of the National Campaign for Tolerance; Best Spot News Photograph from the Montana Newspaper Association; Consortium Essay Contest winner from Spalding Sporting Goods; Cellbytes international cell-phone photo exhibition featured artist; "Big City Freight Train Blues, Denver Poems" was recognized on the Valparaiso University Poetry Review 2005-06 Recommended Books list. Gregory O'Toole is a member of the Colorado Poets Association and the Academy of American Poets. Visit the complete publications list» P O E T R Y BIG CITY FREIGHT TRAIN BLUES Denver Poems Published by Ghost Road Press (Available now $12.50 US) BIG CITY FREIGHT TRAIN BLUES has been newly recognized on the Valparaiso University Poetry Review 2005 Recommended Books list The nightlife, street people, cafes, galleries, theatres, snowfall, and beebop rifraff antics of life in Denver is depicted with rhythmic spontaneity in this set of 35 new poems. On the book..."It seems like there are lots of us right now, thinking people, on a quest to unplug the stopped up hole of what is right and weird in this world, what should be allowed thru..." -Jim James/My Morning Jacket **Read the interview by Ghost Road Press » OUTLAW American Poems on the Run Published by Number Nine Arts & Books, LLC Available Now for $12.50 US. To order click here. "Reflected in the pursuit of creative outlets found in the view of Terman's Genetic Studies of Genius, that the 'laws of nature are correlative, not compensatory', that good things go together...Gregory O'Toole can be likened to the Niagara Falls, beautiful to behold but also harnessed to light up the city of Buffalo and environs." -Walter S. Nosal, Ed.D. Professor, Emeritus, John Carroll University SAY NO MORE Poetry from the Backroads and Blue Highways of America and the Adventures of the Interstellar Roadside Prophet Published by RMS Books Available Now for $12.50 US. To order click here. "...the poetry is story and the story's poetry... battling or embracing and intertwining... the book is a wonderful stream of consciousness, Hemingway-ish, so the written dreams read like dreams should." - Telluride Daily Planet POCKET COLLECTIONS American Road Poetry Like an Elephant in the Forest [00] Autobiography of A Wolf [99] Purple Velvet Fictionpoems [99] Some Things Take You Higher [99] this very being is It. [98] Early January Mountain Morning Frost [98] Far Off Places [97] Daikensho in the City, Daikensho in the Woods [96] American Road Prose & Highway Dharma [96] Free download, print, pass around to your good buddies. Free! Read the pocket collections » SONGS OF THE PROLETARIAT Poems A collection of poems from across North America, from the inner city streets of Chicago to the faraway coastline of Quintana Roo, Mexico. (coming soon) VALENTINE HILL ROAD Poems A collection of poems from urban and rural life in Pennsylvania. (coming soon) THE YEAR I CHANGED THE ROYAL GUARD An Epic Adventure A 245 stanza lyrical poem about a traveling, adventurous orphan child and the various Silverstienian monsters, loonies, and compadres with whom the narrator crosses paths. Pen and ink, mixed media collage illustration. Q U A N T U M E D I A   T H E O R Y ELECTROMANIA, Vol. I Observations from Inside A Media Rich Culture, Jack Kerouac to the Present Instances of media ecology in Quantumedia format. Graphomania |psychiatry| Morbid and excessive impulse to write. Origin: Grapho-+ G. Mania, insanity Agromania |psychiatry| An obsolete term for a morbid impulse to live in the open country or in solitude. Origin: G. Agros, field, + mania, frenzy L E T T E R S The Gadabout Letters Highway Insights and Lifelike Correspondence Letter Poems 2000 - 2005 Daily musing of a Quantumedia nature (Includes "The String Cheese Diaries American Stories, Highway Ramblings, and Notes from Above the Treeline") N O V E L The Modern Day Road Worn Think Tank Bazaar The Invincible Years "The van rolled up to the curb near the rock I was sitting on and I saw Chet inside behind the windshield with his Cubs hat on pulled down low shading his eyes against the bright southwest sun. His beard had grown back in full and his hair hung out around the cap long and curly; his face looked weathered and slightly tired, like he'd come a long, long way looking for something that only he would know when it had been found. He also appeared to feel right at home behind the plastic-wrapped steering wheel of the proudest but ugliest conversion van I'd ever seen, idling there on the warm blacktop streets of San Diego, California, about as far as one can go from Chicago and still be motoring the roads of the contiguous lower forty-eight states." (excerpt) S H O R T   S T O R I E S Tin Can Stones Prose Stories A collection of essays and short stories of social adventure, commentary and critique "Gerome Morrow Proposed to Me the Greatest Con in History" A Radio-QMX e-publication "Heroes, Influences, and then There's Hunter" A Radio-QMX e-publication   BLACK TEA PROSE Stories Graphomania |psychiatry| Morbid and excessive impulse to write. Origin: Grapho-+ G. Mania, insanity Agromania |psychiatry| An obsolete term for a morbid impulse to live in the open country or in solitude. Origin: G. Agros, field, + mania, frenzy E D I T O R I A L S The Unknown Zone A DMSpace editorial - Published by the University of Denver O'Toole, Gregory. "Eloquence of the Great Forgetting." unKnown Zone. DMSpace University of Denver 15 May 2004. O'Toole, Gregory. "Double Helix 0s and 1s." unKnown Zone. DMSpace University of Denver 31 Mar 2004. O'Toole, Gregory. "Remediation of the Burn-out John Bender" unKnown Zone. DMSpace University of Denver 25 Feb 2004. Vagabond Notebook Published by the Flathead Publishing Group, Montana O'Toole, Gregory. "Remembering Smokey” Vagabond Notebook. Flathead Publishing Group July 25, 2002. O'Toole, Gregory. "Roundup Victims & the War on Drugs” Vagabond Notebook. Flathead Publishing Group. July 3, 2002. O'Toole, Gregory. "Wolves, Ranchers & the Words of Louis Armstrong” Vagabond Notebook. Flathead Publishing Group. July 5, 2002. O'Toole, Gregory. "Where Have All the Leaders Gone?” Vagabond Notebook. Flathead Publishing Group. May 15, 2002. O'Toole, Gregory. "Ten Years After” Vagabond Notebook. Flathead Publishing Group May 8, 2002. O'Toole, Gregory. "Maybe Sometimes the President Just Wants to Look Good” Vagabond Notebook. Flathead Publishing Group. May 1, 2002. O'Toole, Gregory. "ANWR: The Maddness Continues” Vagabond Notebook. Flathead Publishing Group. March 2, 2002. L I T E R A R Y   A N T H O L O G I E S Open Windows 2005 Literary anthology A Finalist for the 2006 Colorado Book Award Published by Ghost Road Press 2005 Includes A Painted Saint Jude (poem) by Gregory O'Toole Chicago Poetry Anthology 2005 Published by Chicago Poetry August 2005. Includes Two Candles by Gregory O'Toole GREENDOORHOUSE The Quantumedia periodical documenting the philosophical pursuit of the fundamental unit of electromagnetic energy Published by Number Nine Arts & Books, LLC. Funded by the Opportunity Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Montana Arts Council. More » D R E A M S Higher Than Heaven A Book of Dreams Not Yet Published. Coming soon P U B L I C A T I O N S   L I S T For a complete publications list click here » The entirety of the literacy, digital poetics and cultural studies created by or documented on this site are property of Gregory O'Toole. Each work is potentially a remediated hybrid. This is good, but it makes it somewhat difficult to accurately categorize all of the work into specific media types. Use your judgment. Enjoy your visit. Peace.