[4][5] Beginning in January 1979, Carver and Gallagher lived together in El Paso, Texas, in a borrowed cabin near Port Angeles, Washington, and in Tucson, Arizona.
Tess Gallagher spends part of her time living in a cottage in County Sligo, Ireland, and has a long-time Irish partner.
[8][1][9] Distant Rain, published in 2006, is a conversation between Tess and Jakucho Setouchi, a Buddhist nun from Kyoto, that happened in Japan in 1990.
The collaboration started when Alfredo Arreguin, Tess Gallagher's friend, gave her poetry by Lawrence Matsuda's about World War II and Japanese who were imprisoned in camp Minidoka located in the western United States.
Tess Gallagher helped Lawrence Matsuda to find a publisher for the poetry about Minidoka and this was how their literary friendship began.