G.R. TOMAINI
Poet, Philosopher, Artist, Editor, Scholar, & Playwright
G.R. Tomaini is a First-Generation LGBTQ Federal McNair Scholar and author of ten books who recently graduated from Union Theological Seminary in Manhattan; thus far, seven works of his have been published across six volumes. He has written seven books of Poetry and one Philosophical Encyclopedia that functions as a Critique of the Western Philosophical Canon. His Encyclopedia of American Idealism: Toward a Novel Method and System of Philosophy arguably contains within its pages the United States's first Philosophical System ever written on the continent, in the style of the Western Tradition. Additionally, his Master's Thesis, the Tractatus Perfectio-Philosophicus: Or, Discourses On The Dharma of Civilization And Its Odyssey Toward International Harmony is forthcoming from Manticore Press in Australia; his fifth book of poetry, The Psalms of Babylon: Or, 112 Flowers Of Malaise was published by Indigo Dragon Press in Australia.
Photo of Dr. Cornel West reading from his Preface to G.R. Tomaini's Encyclopedia of American Idealism.
April 3rd, 2023.
Excerpt from the Preface of the Encyclopedia of American Idealism: Toward a Novel Method and System of Philosophy
"G.R. Tomaini is a highly ambitious poet-philosopher obsessed with encyclopedic scope yet mindful of how contingency and incongruity undercuts any grand system in philosophy."
Dr. Cornel West
Dietrich Bonhoeffer Chair
Union Theological Seminary
The Psalms of Babylon: Or, 112 Flowers of Malaise
Enter the dark and twisted world of G.R. Tomaini, a contemporary Poet, Philosopher, Systematic Theologian, and author of ten books who explores the depths of human depravity, despair, and decadence. In The Psalms of Babylon, you will find 112 Flowers of Malaise that will shock, disturb, and fascinate you. You will encounter seductive sirens, hungry hogs, unholy grins, and laughing gas. You will visit opium dens, woodchippers, bathtubs, and tombs. You will witness sin, surf, seance, and soliloquy. You will experience asphyxiation, jouissance, Ragnarok, and metanoia.
If you love Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Baudelaire, Franz Kafka, Sylvia Plath, or Allen Ginsberg, then you will love The Psalms of Babylon. If you want something new, original, and daring, then you will love The Psalms of Babylon. Lastly, If you are ready to embark on a journey into Oblivion itself, you will love The Psalms of Babylon.
Reviews
"These poems are criminally energetic in their ecstasy and despair. What we have is a mash-up of Christianity and The Flowers of Evil. Jesus makes his cameo appearances, but Baudelaire is always around. The poems move fast! Because G.R. Tomaini has a wide-ranging intellect, he can stand at his own personal pinball table with forty balls in play at the same time among the crazy flippers of sin, grace, failure, sex, death, bitterness, and love. No matter where they end up, the balls all bounce off the boards of Malaise and Joy. The poems, many of them haikus, look to heaven as they channel the great, syphilitic French transgressor but also point to Emily Dickinson in their frantic departures from regular syntax and punctuation. G.R. Tomaini's collection is startling, strange, passionate, and unpredictable. He is a poet to watch in the years ahead." - John Foy, Morningside Poetry Series Coordinator, New York City
"These sharp poems can be read as psycho-philosophical lessons, for the practice of change." - Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, translator of Songs for Kali
"In the enigmatic realm of contemporary verse, G.R. Tomaini stands as an American Goethe, weaving the tapestry of modern life with poetic finesse." - Cody Sexton, Managing Editor at A Thin Slice of Anxiety and founder of Anxiety Press
THE RAINBOW CANTOS: TWO ATTEMPTS AT QUEERING THE CANON
Review:
"G.R. Tomaini's The Rainbow Cantos is a wild and exuberant romp through the annals of literature from the distant to the recent past, where characters and stories from classics are brought out of the shadows of history and queered in the light of this new sun."
Christopher Barzak,
author of the Stonewall Honor winning novel, Wonders of the Invisible World