About Teresa Burns Gunther
Award-Winning Author
My Continuing Fascination
I’m a writer. A painter, a voracious reader, a dancer, gardener, photographer, and fledgling bird watcher and Tai Chi practitioner. I am a mother, a wife, daughter, a sister, a friend, and an activist who also shakes up a kick-ass martini.
My continuing passion, to borrow a phrase from Eudora Welty, is to understand how we keep on keeping on in the face of all of it. I have always felt compelled to write, a passion born of my curiosity to discover what lies within, to understand how the world buffets me and why. I write to put words to the many sidedness of life, it’s people, spaces, creatures, weathers, and moods. I write to imagine what it is to live inside someone else’s skin, to feel the weight of another’s sorrow and the measure of their joy.
My fascination with families and character is informed by growing up the oldest daughter in a large working-class Catholic family. I spent many years in college, earned several degrees. I’ve explored wild places and cities of the world, held a wide range of jobs, in the US and abroad, from high rise offices, government buildings, and department stores, to rodeos, men’s clubs, and bars. I’ve worn many hats: environmental planner, bartender, public advisor, business owner and hotel maid, to name a few. Every job taught me about people—what brings us together and pulls us apart.
My love of nature and study of environmental science also inform my storytelling. I’ve worked with a broad range of scientists, resource specialists, and policy experts in areas of preservation, resource protection, urban development, transportation, bullet trains, solar energy, and high voltage powerlines. I’ve been privileged to serve on nonprofit boards, committees, and service organizations that do the most essential work and remind me to cherish the ravishing gifts of this world.
Writing Samples
Kinship
May 13, 2021 Natalie hunted her front yard for her paper beneath a silver morning sky stained with crimson. The kid who delivered, from a dented Camry blasting death-metal at 4:00 a.m., had an unenthusiastic arm. She found it near the sidewalk, wedged in a …
Proud Flesh
November 30, 2021 In her English class, Gillian was assigned an ode. She wrote to the jagged Zorro scar above her knee from the August night she taught Benny to surf in the rickety trailer camper their father towed. They’d been banished from his …
Conflagration
A fire engine speeds up the county road, its siren’s wail warped on the devil wind: wah-waaaaaah-wah. Los Diablos’ howl is dark, gritty with acrid smoke. Corina peers out the window—curtainless: #5 on the prepare to evacuate list. …
– Kevin “Mc” McIlovy
Publications
Fiction
“Conflagration”, 2023 (Gemini Magazine Short Story Contest, First Prize)
“Laughing Man”, 10by10, Flash Fiction Stories, Coming June 2023
“A Hard Man to Find” The Courtship of Winds, Winter 2023
“Man Side of the Bed”, (Honorable Mention), TulipTree Publishing, Stories That Need To Be Told 2022 (forthcoming 2023)
“War Paint”, New Millennium Writing, (Winner 52nd Annual Award for Fiction, 2022)
“Proud Flesh”, Everyday Fiction, November 2021
“Kinship”, Next Tribe, May 2021
“Abundance,” Mid-American Review 2019; Finalist, Sherwood Anderson 2018-2019 Fiction Award; Finalist for the New Letters 2018 Prize for Fiction
“Lilies”, Finalist, New Millennium Writing Award, 2018
“A Whole Hand”, The Madison Review, Spring 2017
“Visiting Hours”, Finalist, Glimmer Train Press, June 2016
“Wild Places”, Alaska Quarterly Review, Spring & Summer 2016
“Magic Fingers”, Dogwood: A Journal of Poetry and Prose, 2016
“Magic Fingers”, Finalist, Rick DeMarinis Short Story Award, Cutthroat, Fall 2015
“Wild Places” Finalist, Glimmer Train Family Matters Fall Contest 2014
“People Skills”, January 2014: A Year in Stories
“White Rabbit”, February 2014: A Year in Stories
“Another Man”, March 2014: A Year in Stories
“Patience”, April 2014: A Year in Stories
“Generosity”, May 2014: A Year in Stories
Flying Solo”, “June 2014: A Year in Stories
“Quelle Suprise!”, July 2014: A Year in Stories
“Working on Jokes”, August 2014: A Year in Stories
“Looking Up”, September 2014: A Year in Stories
“Your Trash”, October 2014: A Year in Stories
“Neighbor Relations”, November 2014: A Year in Stories
“Noel”, December 2014: A Year in Stories
“Plonk, with apologies to Jamaica Kincaid”, Barcode Anthology, July 2013
“Where Are You, Really?”, Northwind Magazine, March 2013
“A Visitation”, OBIT Anthology, March 2013
“Save Me”, Best New Writing 2012, Finalist Eric Hoffer Award
“Where Are You, Really?”, Top Ten finalist, Narrative Journal, 2012 Spring Fiction Contest
“Assisted Living” Honorable Mention: New Millennium Writing Short-Short Fiction Award, 2012
“Save Me” Best New Writing 2012 Finalist: Eric Hoffer Award
“Tree Forts and Cords”, Semi-Finalist: Raymond Carver Short Story Award, 2011
“Lilies”, Stones Throw Magazine, 2009
“Old Jimmy”. Flashquake, Spring 2008, Editor’s Pick
“Blog of the Week”, RedRoom for Writers, 2009
“Dream Boy”, The Storyteller Magazine, 2009
“Wake”, Thin Air Journal, May 2008
“Winter”, SoMa Literary Review, March 2007
“Fear of Falling”, Peregrine Journal, 2007
“Let Down”, Literary Mama, Fall 2005
“Oh, Baby”, Berkeley Fiction Review, Spring 2005
“Borderline”, Lynx Eye, Volume XI, No. 1, Winter 2004
“Butterfly”, August Highland’s The Mag; Featured Writer, Summer 2004
“Finger Food”, Lynx Eye, Volume IX, No. 4, Fall 2002
Nonfiction
Essay: “Oh, Brother”, Love Anthology, 2021
Essay: “Fairy Dust”, Growing Up Lifespan Vol. 2, Pure Slush Books, April 2021
Essay: “Donald Trump, Thank you?”, Dr. T. J. Eckleburg Review 2018
Book Review: He Wants by Alison Moore in Bookslut, May 2016
“The Culture Trip. Art in Oakland”, December 2016
Interview: Dani Shapiro in Zyzzyva, December 2013
Interview: Karen Joy Fowler in Bookslut, October 2013
Interview: Said Sayrafiezadeh Glimmer Train Press, Writers Ask, 2013
Interview: Ruth Ozeki in Bookslut, May 2013
Interview: Dani Shapiro in Shambhala Sun, March 2010 (Now called The Lion’s Roar)
Interview: Bruce Marchart in Bookslut, October 2010
Interview: Dani Shapiro in Literary Mama, October 2010
“Blog of the Week,” RedRoom for Writers, 2009
Interview: Hannah Tinti in Bookslut, April 2009
Interview: Sophia Raday Literary Mama, 2009
Interview: Caroline Leavitt Mary Journal, Spring 2004
Awards
Teresa’s work has been recognized in many literary contests:
“Conflagration”, 2023 (Gemini Magazine Short Story Contest, First Prize)
“Conflagration” Disquiet International Literary Prize 2023—Longlist (I was 45th out of 1200—that and $5 will net me a big cup of coffee!!)
Semi-Finalist: “In Training”, Wild Women Story Contest, May 15, 2023
Semi-Finalist: “Honorable Mention”: “Man Side of the Bed”, Tulip Tree Publishing Literary Contest 2022
Winner: 52nd New Millennium Writings Award for Fiction 2022
Finalist: Next Tribe Short Story Contest, 2021
Writer’s Digest, Honorable Mention for Nonfiction: “Donald Trump, Thank you?” published in Dr. T. J. Eckleburg Review 2019
Finalist: Writer’s Digest, 2019
Finalist: “Hold Off the Night”, Orison Book Prize, 2019
Finalist: “Lilies”, New Millennium Writing Award, 2018
Finalist: Black Lawrence Press 2018 Hudson Prize for Fiction
Finalist: New Letters Prize for Fiction, 2018
Finalist: New Millennium Writings 43rd Fiction Contest, May 2017
Notable Story, Gemini Magazine Story Contest, “Refugees,” 2016
Finalist: “Visiting Hours”, Glimmer Train Press, June 2016
Honorable Mention: “Pi”, New Millennium Writing Short-Short Fiction Award, 2016
Semi-Finalist: Iowa Fiction Workshop, Short Fiction Award 2016
Finalist: Dogwood: A Journal of Poetry and Prose, Spring 2016
Finalist: Rick DeMarinis Short Story Prize, Cutthroat Magazine, December 2015
Finalist: Tupelo Quarterly, Fall 2015
Honorable Mention: “War Paint”, Glimmer Train Family Matters Contest, March 2014
Finalist: “Freaks”, Glimmer Train Family Matters, Fall Contest 2014
Finalist: Glimmer Train Press Family Matters Contest Fall 2014
Finalist: Glimmer Train Press Family Matters Contest Spring, 2014
Third Place Winner: Northwind Magazine, 2012 Fiction Contest
Top Ten Finalist: Narrative Journal, Winter 2012
Finalist: Eric Hoffer Award For Prose, 2012
Best New Writing 2012
Semifinalist: 2011 Raymond Carver Short Story Contest
Honorable Mention: New Millennium Writings 32nd Short-Short Fiction Contest
Editor’s Pick: Flashquake Spring 2010
Blog of the Week, RedRoom for Writers, 2009
Honorable Mention: Pen and Brush, Inc 2007 Fiction Contest
Finalist: Pheobe Journal Winter 2004 Fiction Contest
Affiliations
Anthology Work
Stories That Need to Be Told 2022
Growing Up Lifespan Vol. 2
Featuring poems, stories and essays by numerous authors.
Teresa understands what it takes to write with courage. She helps writers in all stages of development celebrate their unique voices. I’ve found her feedback to be extremely supportive and up lifting. She’s helped me grow comfortable even with my messy drafts, and to stay focused on steering toward the vision