In 2001, after a forty two year career as a symphonic musician in the studios and concert halls of New York City, Thomas Lisenbee decided to set aside his trumpet and scratch another itch: writing. Winner of the 2009 Richard Bausch Short Story Prize, short listed for the 2006 Raymond Carver Short Story Prize, his fiction has been published by Wilmintonblues, Carvezine, TajMahal, Highwatermark Sal(o)on and Our Stories.

His poetry has appeared in The Literary Gazette of the River Reporter, Poetz.com, Roguescholars.com, Liberatedmuse.com, Chromograph and Jerseyworks.com. He has published two books of poetry: Dogwalking (Wild Pines Press) and, in collaboration with two other posts: Three from Osage Street (Author House). A short story of his appears in Volume One of The Best of Our Stories. He is presently working on a novel.

His music credits include seventeen years as First Trumpet of the New York City Opera, Frist Trumpet for the Mostly Mozart Festival, the Bach Aria Groupd, the Caramore Festival and the New Hampshire Music Festival. Before he relocated to New York City, he played First Trumpet in Amsterdam with Het Concertgebouworkest, in Tel-Aviv with the Israel Philharmonic, in Dublin with the Radio-Telefis Eirsann Symphony Orchestra. Born is Kansas, he now resides in Brooklyn NY and Lackawaxen PA and is a member of the Upper Delaware Writer’s Collective and the Mulberry Poets.

When Tom does public readings of his work he is often asked: Do you still play the trumpet? The answer is no. Question: Not even for fun? The answer is still no. But, why? It takes at least two hours daily practice for a trumpet player to stay in good enough shape to enjoy himself. Not by coincidence, those two hours (and more, to his wife’s sorrow) he now spends daily writing. Consequently, the “honey-do” list, like the National Debt grows ever larger. But that’s the way it is when the days you have before you will never be days enough.