Vita

Education

  • Holland Patent High School, Holland Patent, New York, 1977.
    • Honors, NYS Regent’s Scholarship
  • University of Dallas, Irving, Texas, BA Literature, 1981.
  • North Texas State University/University of North Texas, Denton, Texas
    • MA Interdisciplinary Studies (English, Philosophy, Film Studies), 1987.
    • Teaching Fellowship, English. Twice won University Writing Award.
    • MA Thesis: The Life of Ben and Other Poems
    • Note: My time at UNT predates the school’s MFA program and Interdisciplinary Studies was the degree that allowed a creative thesis.
  • Texas Woman’s University, Denton, Texas, MLS 1989.
    • Fellowship, and Phi Beta Mu induction.

Work Experience

  • TSPS Operator ( 0 operator) Ma Bell, Dallas, Texas, 1981-1983.
  • Teaching Fellow, English Department, UNT 1984-1987.
  • Library Fellow, TWU, Satellite Campus, Dallas, Texas,1989.
  • Reference Librarian, North Adams State College, North Adams, Massachusetts, 1989-1991.
  • Circulation/Reference Librarian, McLennan Community College, 1991-1997.  Helped create the first college creative writing journal  and hosted open mic.
  • Reference Librarian, Del Mar College, Corpus Christi, Texas, 1997-2023.
    • Created a reading series that started in 2004 and ended the year of the pandemic. Readers included local, regional and nationally known poets, including: Larry Thomas, Barabara Crooker, Angela Alimo O’Donnell, Naomi Nye, BH Fairchild, George Bilgere, José Araguz, and Rebecca Balcarcel.
    • Hosted a monthly open mic for students and community writers. The community that formed helped in the creation of the Corpus Christi People’s Poetry Festival.

Workshops Taken

  • Poets I have studied under in multiday workshops include Mark Jarman (West Chester PA) Scott Cairns, (Ouray CO and Marfa TX), Bridget Peegan Kelly (Marfa, TX) BH Fairchild (West Chester, PA).

Writer Residencies

  • Art Saltzman Visiting Writer at Missouri Southern State University,  Joplin, Missouri, 2019. 
    • gave a reading and held a workshop for creative writing students.
  • Oswald Distinguished Writers Series residence, University of South Carolina-Aiken, 2023.
    • gave a featured reading and spoke to English and Creative Writing Classes.

Readings, International

  •  I read at the PEN poetry festival in Lithuania in 2010. We read at several events in Vilnius and in Duskininkai.
  • Read at the Writer’s Union of Lithuania in 2022. Read at several sites and cities around the country and at the nationally televised grand finale in Vilnius.

Domesting Readings

I love doing readings and being with other poets. However, as a librarian I never got much credit for doing readings so I didn’t keep track of them. For example, at some point, a state conference of speech teachers in Texas was meeting in Corpus Christi, and they got stiffed at the last second by their feature author, and, somehow, I was asked to fill in. I know it was just before my first book came out, but I don’t remember much except I was terrified to be reading in front of hundreds of speech teachers and that I got a standing ovation, first and only.

Here are some other hazy recollections; I presented several times at The Windhover/New Texas  Festival at the University of Mary Hardin Baylor in Belton ,Texas and The Elmer Kelton Festival at Angelo State University, The Langdon Review Festival in Granbury, sponsored by Tarleton State University, The Woody Guthrie Poets Festival in Okemah and Tulsa, Oklahoma, The Scissortail Literary Festival at East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma (annually for the last 20 years) was featured one year with cellist Suzanne Sturman. Read three times at the Chikaskia Festival in Enid, Oklahoma. I was the featured reader at Rose College’s Poetry at Rose in Midwest City, Oklahoma. I’ve read four times at Chatter in Albuquerque, and Sante Fe, New Mexico. Annually for the AAUW in Corpus Christi for a dozen years or so until the pandemic. Was the featured reader at UNT for the launch of my Trilobite Press Chapbook. I did a featured reading for the library at UMHB in Belton, Texas. I was featured at a reading at Del Mar College in 2023. I’ve read annually for CCPL Neyland branch since the pandemic. TACW at TCU, and this year in Granbury. Twice at the Association of American Studies Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Recently I have read at the Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson Birthday Celebrations in Conroe, Texas. I’ve read at The Texas Association of American Studies Festival at Baylor University, was featured by Poetry in the Park in Albany, New York. Featured at the Georgetown Poetry Festival, in Georgetown, Texas. I’ve read at several events at All Saints Episcopal Church in Corpus Christi, read twice each at the UU Church in Corpus and in Santa Fe. Did a reading for the La Retama Club in Corpus. I read at the launch of Saint Peter’s B-List at Fordham University’s Manhattan campus. I’ve been featured at open mics in Shawnee, Oklahoma, several times and in Oklahoma City, Austin, and Durant, Oklahoma. I once read with Steven Schroeder and Wendy Barker at the Twig in San Antonio. I’m sure there are others, but that’s what I can recall.

Periodicals and webzines publications

A list of the journals and webzines Berecka is published in include the following: American Literary Review, The Christian Century, The Concho River Review, The Red River Review, The Blue Rock Review, Windhover, The Windward Review, The Switchgrass Review, The Texas Review, New Texas, Presence: A Journal of Catholic Poetry, The Green Fuse, The San Antonio Express, Spitball, The Main Street Rag, Front Range: A Review of Literature and Art, The Langdon Review of the Arts In Texas, Slow Trains, The New Formalist, Ruminate, Adanna: Women and Spirituality, Ardent, Ruminate, MO: Writings from the River, The Penwood Review, The Enigmatist, Voices de la Luna, and recently he’s been a regular contributor to The Texas Poetry Assignment. Note: A computer virus ate his submission log years back, so this is not meant to be an exhaustive list.

Anthologies

  • Sincerely Elvis: An Anthology of Original Poems About Elvis Aaron Presley. Hot Biscuit  Productions, Memphis, TN, 2005
  • two southwests, Virtual Artist Collective, Chicago, 2008.  (This was a collection of poems written by poets in the Southwest USA and Southwest China. All poems appeared in both languages.
  • travelin’ music: A Poetic Tribute to Woody Guthrie. Village Books Press, Cheyenne, Ok, 2010.
  • Agave: A Celebration of Tequila. Ink Brush Press, Dallas, 2011.
  • Oklahoma Poems: and Their Poets, Mezcalita Press, Norman OK, 2014.
  • Saint Peter’s B-List: Contemporary Poems Inspired by the Saints, Ave Maria Press, Notre Dame, IN, 2014.
  • The Great American Wise Ass Poetry Anthology, Lamar University Literary Press, Beaumont,  2016.
  • Ain’t Gonna Be Treated This Way; Celebrating Woody Guthrie Poems of Protest and Resistance, Village Books Press, Cheyenne, OK, 2017.
  • Southern Voices: Fifty Contemporary Poets. Lamar University Literary Press, Beaumont, 2024.

Anthologies Edited

  • Stone Renga, Tail Feathers Press, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2017. Co-edited with Tom Murphy.

Chapbooks

  • Each Man Has One Life, Trilobite Press, Denton, Texas, 2004.
  • Beacons, Oil Hill Press, Wichita, Kansas, 2007.
  • The Fall of the Leaf, El Grito del Lobo Press, Fulton, Missouri, 2017.

Books

  • The Comic Flaw, NeoNuma Press, Houston, Texas, 2009.
  • Remembering the Body, Mongrel Empire Press, Norman, Oklahoma, 2011 (Honorable Mention in the Hoffer Awards).
  • With Our Baggage, Lamar University Press, Beaumont, Texas, 2013.
  • The Hamlet of Stittville, Tail Feather Press, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2017 (This was a collaboration with noted cartoonist John Klossner, a childhood friend).
  • A Living is not a Life: A Working Title, Black Spruce Press, Brooklyn, New York, 2021
  • Atlas Sighs: Selected and New Poems, Turning Plow Press, Ringwood, Oklahoma, 2024.
  • Why Matter Might Matter, Turning Plow Press, Ringwood, Oklahoma, forthcoming 2027.