Tracy Rice Weber is a poet and writing coach for Second Helping Studio who lives in Coastal VA with her husband, sons, two cats, and a dog. She received an MFA in Creative Writing from Old Dominion University in 2021, has a full-length collection of poetry out with St. Julian’s Press [TOOLS & ORNAMENTS, 2023] and a chapbook with Finishing Line Press [ALL THAT KEEPS ME, 2021]. Rice Weber currently holds an adjunct position in the English Department at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, VA where she also facilitates a poetry workshop with their LifeLong Learning Society.
PRAISE:
In The Regulars, Tracy Rice Weber recounts memories and moments of a bartender in a local Norfolk, Virginia bar. Here, an uneaten slice of pizza or the dregs of coffee at the end of the day become vessels for a greater compassion, a way of acknowledging both the people and the pain around us. Through “these conversations with ghosts”, we bear witness to the magic of the ordinary—a wobbly barstool in its usual place, live music on a Saturday night, the thick froth on a well-poured beer. In these poems, Rice Weber crafts an ode to memory—not only through the veil of a dimly lit bar, but also in what remains when the lights come up.
—Courtney Tala, author of Myths From Which We Got Our Name
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Like few writing ekphrastic poems, Tracy Rice Weber’s poems both capture and exceed—really—the evocative visuals that inform them. This poet’s analogues of tired frustration, kindness, and love for the arts of “the regulars” give to them tough sympathy, and imbue them with light. A period piece and a communion; deftly proportioned, and one wants more. Superb!
—Tom Yuill, author of Medicine Show (University of Chicago Press)
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“I watch for a sign to justify/letting plates and glasses/take up their dusty stories/in some other sucker’s corner cabinet,” Tracy Rice Weber writes, “these keeping places, the conversations with ghosts.” In The Regulars: A barmaid’s tale, Rice Weber’s poems and photographs guide the reader to shadows left behind, still and ever haunting. An invitation to attend to the necessary stickiness of the iconic neighborhood bar and its patrons on the corner of town. Like the poet, Jan Beatty, the speaker is honest, surprising, and tender in her descriptions and implications. “Heroes know when a man needs rescuing.” Tracy Rice Weber is an historian of culture. These alluring poems and accompanying photographs present a brilliant meditation on remembering, a releasing of the past.
—Elaine Fletcher Chapman, author of Hunger for Salt and Reservoir.
Kelsey (verified owner) –
I am such a fan of this poet’s work and I’m so excited to read this!