Somewhere along a back road.
Tom Poland is the author of fourteen books and more than 2,000 magazine features and columns.
Tom writes about the South, its people, culture, land, natural wealth, and beautiful detritus—ruins and abandoned places. He travels back roads looking for forgotten places, captivating people, and vestiges of bygone times. Much of that work finds its way into books, columns, essays, and features.
Writing that evokes a sense of place and fluid, lean prose appeal to him. Favorite writers are James Salter, Cormac McCarthy, Pat Conroy, and James Dickey.
Once upon a time playing football meant the world to him. Come an autumn day in Athens, Georgia, you’ll find him in Sanford Stadium watching the Dawgs play.
Bronze Winner — PBS Television
- Title
- By The River – Tom Poland & Robert Clark
- By The River Episode has won a Bronze Telly Award in the Television – Nature/Wildlife category
- Entrants
- University of South Carolina Beaufort/SCETV
- Year
- 2022
- Producer/ Associate Professor
- Caroline Sawyer, South Carolina ETV/ UofSC Beaufort
- Executive Producer
- Donald Godish, South Carolina ETV
- Host
- Holly Jackson, South Carolina ETV
Tom Poland : A Southern Writer 
Looking forward to reading some of your books.
Really enjoyed “Granddad’s Cow-Charming ’65 Chevy”. Very moving.
Did you teach media arts at Columbia college waaayyyy back when???
Yes, I did.
Dear Mr. Poland,
I just got a copy of your recent book entitled “Carolina Bays.” What a beautiful publication!
You might be interested to know that some 2018-2020 U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) studies have interpreted the Carolina Bays as relict features that developed episodically during the last glaciation. Specifically, they are interpreted as relict thermokarst lakes, which develop as a result of thawing of frozen ground, with subsequent reworking by wind and waves. See: https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2018SE/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/310370
A full-length research paper on the Carolina Bays was recently published in a book entitled “Inland Dunes of North America” (published by Springer).
https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783030404970
If you would like for me to send you a pdf copy of this paper, then please send a note to my USGS email address.
Sincerely yours,
Dr. Christopher Swezey
Research Geologist
U.S. Geological Survey
Reston, VA
Tom is a great friend of mine even though I haven’t known him for no more in four years I feel like I have known him all my life what a great yard to party with and read with and Athens on Saturdays and fall we share a lot together we love the dogs and we love nature what a great friend
Clifford, my great friend! Go Dawgs!!!
Go Dawgs! Thank you, Clifford!
Hello, I enjoyed your article about Angostura bitters, particularly all the content about Ernest Hemingway. I would like to think you would enjoy my book To Have and Have Another: A Hemingway Cocktail Companion. It’s full of great materials such as what you used in your article. https://www.amazon.com/Have-Another-Revised-Hemingway-Companion/dp/0399174907
Thank you, so much. Yes I would. I’ll order it right away.
I’m proud to say that I’m the one who “discovered” the Vermouth Panache that you mentioned in the article. So, I can only conclude that wherever you found the Panache was someone who has my book.
And don’t be afraid to try it, it’s lovely! Also, the drink that you referred to Tom Hudson as enjoying in Islands in the Stream, it’s not called “Death In the Stream,” it’s called the Green Isaac’s Special, or the Tomini. I think you’re confusing this drink with another drink in my book called the Death in the Gulfstream, which is a different drink (made with Holland gin). If you enjoy To Have and Have Another, check out A Drinkable Feast: A Cocktail Companion to 1920s Paris. Cheers!
Thank you. Being one who enjoys a drink or three, I will get it. Thanks again for the info! —Tom
I was researching the meaning of Whiter shade of pale randomly and read your summer of 67 piece. I immediately thought “ I hope this man is an author cause I’m all in for that” If you weren’t I was going to contact you and urge you to consider writing😁
Turns out well…of course you are. I can’t wait to start reading.
I felt I was there. You paint perfect pictures in words. Humbly, a new fan. Paul.
Thank you, Paul.
Hi, We recently met while waiting for respective Dr’s Appts in Irmo and had an enjoyable chat regarding your adventures through SC. I just read with enjoyment your article on the Curryton Magnolia over in Edgefield Co in the latest SC Wildlife magazine. Sounds like a great road trip before the temps get too high! Thanks for sharing.
Scott Johnson
Wandering Man
(Tom Poland)
By Clotile Sanford-Hunt
There is a man who wanders from here to there looking for the forgotten places.
Places that only the wind remembers their name.
Buildings that the wildflowers tell stories about when the moon is full.
Traveling down paths that lead to what used to be.
Crossroads lost in time.
Walking along the river’s edge looking for signs of a lost wooden bridge.
Sitting on the banks of a slow-moving brook at sunset.
Whispers filling the air near the old swimming hole.
Laughter of days never to come again.
Discovering roads that lead to nowhere.
Exploring the remnants of the past.
Always searching for what was lost or abandoned.