Writing Queer Community: Tim Dlugos at Burns Library

In a kind of minimalist “zine” on colored construction paper, Tim Dlugos cut out a quote from a newspaper that reads “. . . The spark, the dynamo, the driving force / the podium . . . the crowd roars approval.” Dlugos named his zine “Notes on Proust,” in reference to the famously long-winded French writer Marcel Proust, and it now resides among the Terence Winch papers at Burns Library. Both Proust and Dlugos wrote prolifically, and translated their queer experiences into their work in a variety of ways. But while Proust enjoys an enshrined place in the canon of English literature, Dlugos’s own work has enjoyed a relatively small readership. His poems, however, narrate a critical moment in the queer literary movement of late twentieth century America.

Dlugos was born in Massachusetts in 1950, and originally joined the Christian Brotherhood before leaving to pursue writing in Washington D.C. While in D.C., Dlugos became part of the “Mass Transit” literary group, who founded a magazine and sported members such as Terence Winch. It was here that Winch and Dlugos struck up a lifelong friendship, and how, in Terence Winch’s papers, we see the growth of Dlugos’s poetic talents. He eventually moved to New York City and began writing among other prominent poetic figures of the 1970s and 80s.

Dlugos, Tim, correspondence, Box 22, Folder 6, Terence Winch papers, MS-2017-005, John J. Burns Library, Boston College

While in New York City, Dlugos wrote extensively, and continued to send Winch his work as well as personal correspondence. In 1976, Dlugos sent a manuscript to Winch called “Outlines for 3 Works,” with the note “Terry– Never forget the wonderful times we spent in the wonderful spaces. Love, Tim 28 Jan’76” These works approach the humorous and often explicit side of the queer community in Washington D.C. Dlugos writes that he imagines a tour of the capital where “I wear [a] blue tour guide’s hat. The bus will visit each building in the District of Columbia in which I have ever had sex . . . questions from the audience are encouraged.” Dlugos reimagines a D.C. tourism that chronicles his adventures in the capital as a young man. 

Dlugos wrote vividly about his observations of life in New York, sending Winch his manuscript for a collection of poems titled “Strong Place.” His poems speak to the emotional weight of life’s stages, and sometimes to a yearning for childhood and its sense of wonderment. In the poem “Close,” Dlugos writes that “It used to make me blue / to think of it, but now it makes me love / great days like this one with a giddy new / intensity. It is completely new, / this light, this five-year-old with his fat close-/ mothed nurse, that roof of petals three long stories / above my head, where you are.” These poems often chronicle the heady, alluring experience of living in New York, as well as Dlugos’s own complicated relationship with his identity.

Dlugos, Tim, correspondence, Box 22, Folder 6, Terence Winch papers, MS-2017-005, John J. Burns Library, Boston College

In the late 80s, Dlugos and the queer community became victims of the AIDS epidemic, and Dlugos himself was diagnosed with HIV in 1988. In 1989, he wrote to Winch about some new poems, but was slowed in his writing progress: “I’m still trying to recover from this drawn-out case of pneumonia– no hospitalization and I am making progress, but also slow, which drives me crazy.” Dlugos recounts several bouts of illness to Winch, but also speaks to the support of his partner and friends as he navigated these years of turmoil. While in the hospital, Dlugos wrote his most famous work, “G-9.” This poem, named after the G-9 ward in Roosevelt Hospital, recounts humorous anecdotes, philosophical musings, and the complicated experience of dying in front of one’s community. Dlugos recovered from this bout of illness and enrolled at the Yale Divinity School. He died, however, in December 1990, before he could begin his education. Dlugos was 40 years old.

Winch kept Dlugos’s correspondence up to his last days, and collected memorial essays and tributes to his friend. Winch and Dlugos’s partner Christopher Wiss helped collect donations for the Tim Dlugos Memorial Fund. Winch’s careful preservation of Dlugos’s letters, and his efforts to memorialize his friend, demonstrate the impact of this oft-overlooked American poet. His poetry speaks not only to the queer American experience of the 1980s and 90s, but also to his personal faith, his stirring observations of the American city, and his startling humor.

Dlugos, Tim, correspondence, Box 22, Folder 6, Terence Winch papers, MS-2017-005, John J. Burns Library, Boston College

-Kelley Glasgow, Burns Library Reading Room Assistant & PhD student in the English Department.

Works Cited:

• “Tim Dlugos.” Poets.Org, Academy of American Poets, 27 Nov. 2023, poets.org/poet/tim-dlugos.
• Cory, Jim. “Tim Dlugos 1950-1990.” The James White Review 10.2 (1993): 18-9.