About Brian
“Brian writes with a particular vividness, in a voice that is flexible and carries with it a range of expression. There is a wonderful surface texture to all his poetry. It is not the kind of poetry you read and ask ‘what does that mean?’ You understand it, but at the same time it has depth. So if you are willing you can sink down into the poem and see what is at the bottom of his mind; and, what is at the bottom of your mind, too.”
​
-- Richard Modiano, Executive Director, Beyond Baroque Literary Center
Brian Michael Tracy was born, raised and educated in Boston, Massachusetts. He received his BA from Stonehill College and his Master’s Degree from the Harvard University School of Design. His poems have appeared in The Wallace Stevens Journal, Plainsongs, California Quarterly, Depth Insights, Yogi Times, and on spoken word radio programs throughout the United States and Canada including stations KPFK in Los Angeles and CIUT in Toronto. His songs are available on Apple Music, iTunes, Pandora, Spotify, You Tube and other major music platforms.
​
Brian is the author of three books of poetry: Driving With Dante (Conflux Press 2007), The Distance Between Shores (Conflux Press 2009), and Opaque Traveler: A Dream Sequence in Verse (Tebot Bach 2012). He has also released three critically acclaimed CD’s of music and poetry, Midnight Tea (2007), Blackbird Ballads (2009), and The Mystical Prism of Being (2016).
In February 2021 Brian released an album of original songs entitled Drinking My Tomorrows. Veteran music journalist Bruce Fessier writes about the album "Brian Michael Tracy, a poet-singer-songwriter from Idyllwild, Calif., has penned an excellent batch of Gram Parsons-influenced country narratives packaged into a clean, austere sound …The songs at their core could be added to the canon of recent recordings by the likes of Chris Stapleton, Sturgill Simpson, and Hayes Caryll.”
​Brian has performed his poetry and music at a variety of venues throughout California including the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, Beyond Baroque, the Ruskin Art Club, the Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara and the West Hollywood Book Fair. He served on the Board of Directors and was a member of the Executive Committee for Tebot Bach, a non-profit poetry foundation based in Southern California from 2009 through 2011.
Brian is currently working on his fourth collection of poetry exploring the themes of narcissism in modern society.
He presently lives in the beautiful mountain hamlet of Idyllwild, CA with his wife Kathleen.