Biography
Daniel Thomas Moran was born
in New York City on March 9, 1957. In 1962 his family moved to Massapequa on
Long Island where he attended school, graduating from Alfred G. Berner High
School in 1975. It was during this time that he began to express himself with
poetry. He earned an A.S. from Nassau Community College in Garden City, New York
in 1975 and went on to The State University of New York at Stony Brook where he
completed a B.S. in Biological Sciences in 1979. That autumn he entered Howard
University’s College of Dentistry in Washington, D.C. In 1983 he graduated with
a Doctorate in Dental Surgery. His writing had largely been on hold, but he
helped deal with the pressures of his education by continuing to write
sporadically. He returned to Long Island where his first child Lindsay was born
in 1984. His life now settling down, he began to write with more fervor,
exposing himself more and more to the world of poetry. In 1987 he purchased a
Dental practice on New York’s Shelter Island where he moved and at year’s end
his second child Ashley was born.
In 1988 he gave his first public reading at the famed Canio’s Books in Sag
Harbor, NY along with a poet who would become one of his greatest influences,
the late Dan Murray. Living in the area known as The Hamptons, Moran was exposed
to many thoughtful and creative minds many of who were very supportive of his
writing efforts. People such as Allen Planz, Philip Appleman, Kurt Vonnegut,
August Mosca, Bob Markell, Alan Shields, Harold Schonberg, Leon Uris, Dorothy
Uhnak, and David Ignatow all were a source of artistic support and inspiration.
In 1990 his son Gregory was born and the following year he published his first
collection, “Dancing For Victoria”. Two years later he published, “Gone To
Innisfree” followed by “Sheltered By Islands” in 1995. In 1998 he realized a
dream when he went to Ireland for the first time, giving readings in Ballina,
Co.Mayo, Limerick, Kilkenny, and at the famed Waterstone’s Books in Dublin with
the Irish poet Catherine Phil McCarthy. In 1999 Canio’s Editions of Sag Harbor
published his fourth collection, “In Praise of August”. In 2000 he made a return
trip to Ireland where he read again at Waterstones’ Books, in Limerick and as
special guest at The Kilmallock Arts Festival.
In 2002 Street Press of Sound Beach, NY published his fifth collection, “From
HiLo to Willow Pond”. In 2006, his sixth collection, “Looking for The Uncertain
Past” was published by Poetry Salzburg at the University of Salzburg In the last
several years, Dan has given more than two hundred readings at such prestigious
places as Columbia University, Nassau College, Long Island University, Adelphi
University, Dowling College, Molloy College, Suffolk Community College, Stony
Brook University and St. Joseph’s College, He has read at The New York Public
Library branches at Jefferson Market, Mid-Manhattan, 96th Street, and St. Agnes.
He has appeared at The Barnes and Noble at Chelsea and Union Square .In Europe
he has read at The University of Rome, The University of Salzburg, The
University of Graz, and The University of Vienna. He has read at The United
Nations. In 2007 he will read at The Library of Congress and The Goethe
Institute in Washington, D.C.
He has shared the stage with Samuel Menashe, David Ignatow, Allen Planz, Philip
Appleman, Fran Castan, Greg Delanty, Marie Ponsot, Meena Alexander, Dan Giancola,
Daniel Gioseffi, Hal Sirowitz, Julie Sheehan, Grace Schulman, Graham Everett,
Louis Simpson, Siv Cedering, Lila Zemborain, Virginia Walker, and Diana Chang
among others. His work has appeared in many fine journals including Commonweal,
The Recorder, Mobius, Nassau Review, Confrontation, Sulfur River, National
Forum, Oxford, Mojo Risin’, Parnassus, Pannus Index, Rattapallax, Art Times,
Iconoclast, Lungfull, Hawaii Pacific, Long Island Quarterly, American Atheist,
The Journal of The American Medical Association, and The Norton Critical Review
on Darwin. From 1990 through 2000 he was Literary Correspondent to Long Island
Public Radio where he hosted the Long Island Radio Magazine and Poet’s Corner.
Since 1997, Dr. Moran has been a Trustee to The Walt Whitman Birthplace
Association in West Hills, NY where he founded The Long Island School of Poetry
Series, and served as The Birthplace’s Vice-President. In 1993, he co-wrote the
play, “My Life As a Human” with James Genovese. He has collaborated with artists
Alan Shields, Sigrid Owen, and William Barksdale.
His work has received awards from Suffolk College, Prairie Poetry and from The
Westhampton Writer’s Festival. He has received nominations for a Pushcart Prize
on five occasions. In addition to his literary endeavors he served on The Board
of Directors of Gardiner’s Bay Country Club, The Wildlife Rescues Center of The Hamptons, The Shelter Island Chapter of The American Red Cross, The Ludwig
Vogelstein Foundation, The Dean’s Council of The Frank Melville Library at Stony
Brook University and The Honorary Board of The Wildlife Rescue Center of The
Hamptons. He has been a teacher on poetry and on Walt Whitman. His
accomplishments have earned him inclusion in Who’s Who in America, The Directory
of American Poets and Fiction Writers, and The International Who’s Who in
Poetry. He was appointed Poet Laureate by The Legislature of Suffolk County, New
York in 2005 for a two year term. During that term he Edited, “The Light of City
and Sea, An Anthology of Suffolk Poetry 2006” which was published by Street
Press. His collected papers are being archived by his alma mater, Stony Brook
University. He also plays harmonica, piano and drums and is a practicing Doctor
of Dentistry on Shelter Island, where he lives with his wife Karen.