Welcome back to the July gathering of the Gumbo Bottoms Single Pot Still Poetry Society! This month, we are hosting a man who directly contributed to our name! Full of history and wistful misty mornings, Jude MacAllen Tatman brings us the fruits of his MFA journey as we celebrate together.
Jude MacAllen Tatman was born in Hannibal, Missouri and raised in the village of Saverton, Ralls County, on the west bank of the Mississippi River.
He is a graduate of the Hannibal Public School system and received his Bachelor of Arts from Northwest Missouri State University, majoring in History— which is never far from the subject in many of his poems —
along with minoring in English, concentrating in literature and creative writing. (Grammar has always eluded him for some odd reason).
Among a varied line of occupations, MacAllen has worked as an Ironworker’s hand, Mississippi River Towboat Deckhand, Pizza Delivery Driver, Bartender, Farmhand, Fraternity Housefather, Professional Voice Artist, Archivist, Tour Guide, Historian for Missouri State Parks with the State Historic Preservation Program. and most recently as an Irish publican, alongside his wife Marilee, the two having owned and operated Paddy Malone’s Irish Pub in Jefferson City, Missouri for the past 25 years.
MacAllen recently completed his thesis and final course work for an MFA in Creative Writing: Poetry with the University of Nebraska at Omaha Writers’ Workshop, and will be awarded his degree in July 2025.
MacAllen’s first collection, the chapbook Echoes: selected poems & stories 1984-2024, was published this Spring.
He and Marilee live with a brace of Wirehaired Pointing Griffons on a bluff overlooking the Missouri River in a bungalow that belongs to a pair of sometimes ornery cats.
Also check out other Arts events in Jefferson City, Literary Art events in Jefferson City.
