Author
Terri is a talented poet whose two collections, Over Exposed (JB Stillwater, 2013) and Godspine (3: A Taos Press, 2020) have garnered wide acclaim. Her work has appeared in dozens of journals, magazines, and anthologies, and she has taught writing workshops at a variety of colleges, conferences, and community centers.
Praise for Godspine:
In the beginning there was the word, and the word in Terri Muuss’s poems is so powerful—the images and moments so raw and sensual, so frightful and beautiful and painfully true—they shake us out of our culturally inflicted stupors and induce awe. Terri Muuss is a wonder and an inspiration. — Beverly Donofrio, Riding in Cars with Boys
godspine details one woman’s journey away from her own unmaking. In this rattling collection, Muuss guides the reader through the unimaginable, revealing an extraordinary but simple truth: trauma survival is an act of will. With images of “a thousand fists in my mouth,” Muuss goads the mind’s unrelenting sabotage, proclaiming, “I had to exist.” The reader can neither shed nor look away from these poems because we, too, exist and resurrect amid these pages. “Nothing is left,” she reminds us, “but to begin it all / again.” A remarkable testament to why we have named this survival. — Jeanann Verlee, author of prey, Said the Manic to the Muse, and Racing Hummingbirds
In godspine, Terri Muuss takes the reader on a journey of survival: the rubbing world of men. What does it look like to make a life after horrors are inflicted upon the body? What does it look like to not only exist but also live? What is it to be a woman in this world, one-in-three of us? In this second collection, Muuss does not mince words: rape is the business, but beyond that, there is a clear and deep industry in love. Muuss tells us that time is not poetry, but in the pages of this collection time offers us the endurance to become gifts, to become who we are meant to be. It is a prime collection, a salve for those in need. — Yesenia Montilla, Author of The Pink Box
In godspine, words hit hard, hit deep, sewn together to make beauty, discomfort and unease and, more than that, to make us brave. Words to make us brave. Poem Written While Listening to Brett Kavanaugh will stay in you, through you. This is the power of Terri, whether it's "She grips a gun" or "our moans hold the line of truth," Terri Muuss is a force of nature. Grab hold of her. I did, and I am so grateful, so hugely grateful. — Amy Ferris, Author of Marrying George Clooney: Confessions of a Midlife Crisis
Praise for Over Exposed:
“Muuss brings us close to what we might describe as the secret war, the intimate war, which resides in closed rooms, in seemingly ordinary homes. Yet these poems are written with such delicacy, such concern for image, for pause, and purpose—for, in fact, beauty. Yes, these poems and prose pieces turn on the beauty of poetry, of what art can accomplish. I bid you open the book. It is a miracle.” — Veronica Golos, author of Vocabulary of Silence and 2011 New Mexico Book Award winner
“Terri Muuss never misses a beat--she has created poetry that straddles the terrible gulf between personal horror and the fictionalizing process that makes dealing with personal horror possible. This is poetry that demands to be read. It lives between myth and the monsters which make myth-making necessary. You will admire her fearlessness; you will admire even more the theatrical finesse with which she reveals just enough and no more, leaving it to your imagination to fill in the gap. A captivating collection that will rattle your cage and takes no prisoners.” — George Wallace, Long Island Suffolk County Poet Laureate
