teague bohlen, writer
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Writing
- The Pull of the Earth
Winner of the 2007 Colorado Book Award.
The Denver Post reviewed the novel in its December 24th edition: Bohlen's exploration of a family's dark past is a deceptively rich tale of contrast and continuity that jumps between two narrative voices and time periods with an elegant yet muscular brand of straightforward prose. Reece comes of age during the Depression and battles with the obligations of family against an uncertain moral code. And years later his son and namesake is yanked from a life over which he's had little recent control and forced to deal with the ghosts of his family's past. Read the entire review here.
The Backcover Blurb: A family's dark secrets are at the root of this rich novel set in rural Illinois. Alternating between the mysterious past and the unsettled present day, a father and son contend—individually—with complicated loyalties to parents, friends, lovers, and the land itself. What can a young man do? This is the central question of a complex story about love and obligation.
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Praise :: The Mix Tape :: On Moweaqua
Praise for Pull of the Earth
Melissa Prichard, author of Late Bloomer One of the "Best Books of 2004"
In The Pull of the Earth, honor and shame, infidelity and loyalty, violence and tenderness are both seed and harvest of two generations of a Midwestern farm family. With prose as supple and rhythmic as a moving scythe, von Bohlen raises the dead who lie beneath the earth, introducing them to those still living, haunted and restless above. In the quiet farming community of Moweaqua, Illinois, generations and memories, hidden loves and wrenching crimes blur and disseminate into newer tales of hidden love, guilt, and earthly loss. There is, in this powerful first novel, the tie of blood relation and the bond of bad relation. The Pull of the Earth, that cyclical pull toward cultivation, planting, harvest, burial, and rebirth is a masterful, haunting tale of friendship, family, and the once proud tradition of farming the earth, reaping its bounty, obedient to its seasons, before surrendering to its long descent, its eternal pull homeward.
Ron Carlson, author of A Kind of Flying
In this powerful big book Teague von Bohlen works the great American farm. His understanding of the pull of rural life is profound, and the two woven stories in the novel - then and now - create a real world, dangerous and compelling. In this richly imagined saga, the men and women here struggle with the clear knowledge that ultimately, just as the earth reclaims an old barn, the land calls us back.
Tom Noel, author of Colorado: A History of the Centennial State
The Pull of the Earth gives us the best of the past and the present. These worlds interconnect in this terrific novel in ways so nuanced and delicate that we are brought to understand the connection intuitively. This is smart writing: affecting and true. And a supremely satisfying read.
The Mix Tape
When I was developing The Pull of the Earth, I put together a soundtrack of sorts for the book itself. Okay, yeah, I was avoiding work a bit, but really, the music helped me in a lot of places here. And it's a great list. I've listed the songs that connect specifically to parts of the book, and then a general list of songs that were on the list in earlier stages. All of them are great music.
- No Hard Times – Jimmie Rodgers
Chapter 1, working the fields - That Lucky Old Sun – Ray Charles
Chapter 1, as the chapter closes - After All – Dar Williams
Chapter 2, on the drive to Moweaqua - Wildwood Flower – The Carter Family
Chapter 3, when Reese sees Glorrie and meets Clara - Old Home Place – The Dillards (Phish version on iTunes)
Chapter 4, entering town - Funeral Food – Kate Campbell
Chapter 4, as the hams arrive - Feels Like Home – Bonnie Raitt (the iTunes mix says Randy Newman, but it's Bonnie)
Chapter 5, Reese and Clara courting - This Old Town – Nanci Griffith
Chapter 6, Reese Jr. and Clara walking to Wendell's - Home – Sheryl Crow
Chapter 7, in a pastiche of Glorrie and Tom - Lovin' You Goodbye – Edith Frost (I prefer her demo mix--the one on iTunes is faster and more upbeat. I got the demo off Craig Bonnell's great site songsillinoismp3.blogspot.com.)
Chapter 8, in the visitation line, especially with Amy - Skylark – The Glenn Miller Orchestra
Chapter 9, on the steps of the Hotel Drew - October Road – James Taylor
Chapter 10, driving to Mud Run - I Still Miss Someone – Johnny Cash
Chapter 10, at Sweet's - Someday You'll Call My Name – Hank Williams
Chapter 10, with Clara at chapter's end - Sweet Old World – Emmylou Harris (Lucinda Williams on iTunes)
Chapter 11, as Glorrie and Reese talk in the barn - Capsized – Sarah Harmer
Chapter 12, as Reese looks at the pictures in Glorrie's bedroom - Don't Think Twice – Bob Dylan
Chapter 12, as Amy drives away
Additional Songs (with comments)
- Delia's Gone – Johnny Cash
A great, dark song…it got replaced in the mix by the more appropriate "I Still Miss Someone", but this one was there from the beginning. - Fields of Gold – Eva Cassidy
Originally for the opening scene, I went with something more period-specific instead. - Last Date – Floyd Cramer
Man, I wanted this to fit somewhere…this song makes me think of the country radio of my youth more than any other song, for some reason. - The Hideout – Sarah Harmer
Didn't make the cut because I didn't want to repeat artists on the main list. - Almost Persuaded – David Houston
A classic song, but too directly related to what's going on in the scene, so it sounded forced. - Please Help Me, I'm Fallin' – Hank Locklin
Ditto. - I Don't Believe You've Met My Baby – The Louvin Brothers
Lovely old song, but I cut the scene that made it fit. So out it went, sadly. - Paradise – John Prine
This one is about Kentucky more than Illinois, but the spirit is right. - Souvenirs – John Prine and Steve Goodman
Another Prine song, this one about the loss of memories—again, just couldn't place it well. - Daddy and Home - Jimmie Rodgers
Another wonderful old song that didn't make it into the mix just because it was too thematic. A great old sound though. - Letter in the Mail – James Taylor
I've loved this song for a long time now—some great lines here, as in much of Taylor's work. - Weary Blues from Waitin' – Hank Williams
I wanted far too much Hank Williams in this mix, so something had to go. - Birds – Neil Young
Originally the final song in the mix, but got pushed here because I wanted to end on Dylan.
If you would like to see Moweaqua—the real deal
- Couches and Murders
Pindeldyboz — Short story, October 2006
Walt Blythe lets the hammer swing, and for a moment, he's exhilarated by the way the leg cracks as it bends inward and splinters. But then Walt remembers turning this same leg on his homemade lathe downstairs, the one he jury-rigged with a hand-drill and a wood frame, and the joy of the blow scatters like spooked birds. But he is committed now, and strikes again, and then a third time, until the leg breaks off and clatters uselessly to the floor. The deconstruction of his couch has finally begun....
About Pindeldyboz
Pindeldyboz is an operation run by a small but valiant group of people. They publish creative works both on their website and in the pages of a print volume released once a year.
- Nu-Life
At the Laundromat — Fiction anthology, in press
Thrasher is an earlier rendition of the first chapter of The Pull of the Earth and was anthologized in Please Stay on the Trail, edited by Matt Hudson, Black Ocean Press, 2006.
A Colorado resident himself, Hudson compiled 10 stories from 10 of the state's most invigorating contemporary voices. Known for years as a haven for writers and intellectuals, Colorado boasts a great mixture of talent and perspective. This book was designed to showcase the rich writing talent located in the state, and the selected stories highlight a variety of short fiction formats. Other anthologized authors include Denver Poet Laureate Chris Ransick, winner of the 2005 Colorado Authors League Award for Fiction and 2003 Colorado Book Award for Poetry; and Ghost Road authors such as Nate Liederbach and Andrew Rooney.
Click the book cover to purchase this from Amazon.
Reviews
The Durango Herald,
By Mike Clark, July 21, 2006,
... other standouts are a traditionally structured story of Depression-era wheat harvest season by writing instructor and editor Teague Bohlen, and a more unconventional piece by Denverite Mary Domenico.
Bohlen's story, "Thrashing," is full of period detail and sharp images of a crew of working men who barely know each other and who experience petty conflict, a disrupted rhythm and freakish, violent death. His story is long on action and short on dialogue, but Bohlen's spare speech snaps with vividly realized patterns and the finality of lives suffered and lost.
Colorado Matters (First broadcast April 24, 2006.)
Matt Hudson speaks with Ryan Warner about his book, Please Stay on the Trail: A Collection of Colorado Fiction.
Listen (you may have to scroll to find the broadcast in the archives)
A Notre Dame pick of the week.
- Breathe it In
Terrain.org, Short story, Volume 16, Spring/Summer 2005
- Jesus Wants Me to Refinance
Ghoti Magazine, Short story, April 2007
- Tell You More
Ghoti Magazine, Short story, April 2007
- Whalesong
Ghoti Magazine, Short story, April 2007
- In the Cut Grass
Six sentences, Short, short story, April 2007
