Showing posts sorted by date for query Pushcart. Sort by relevance Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by date for query Pushcart. Sort by relevance Show all posts

Tuesday, April 15, 2025

PRESS RELEASE: Shadows of the Seen, from publicist, Lisa Bell, (also named finalist for Rose Warner Prize for Prose)

    


                     

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Press Inquiries:

Lisa Bell  

Lisa Bell Public Relations for Author Timothy Gager

lisabellpublicrelations@gmail.com

617-304-3836 





Acclaimed Author Timothy Gager to Release 20th Published Work, 

The Shadows of the Seen, on May 14, 2025


Massachusetts-based Gager’s latest thrilling novel is a darkly riveting tapestry 

of characters caught at the intersection of politics, violence, and personal demons; a story 

wrapped in a subtle “whodunit”


Waltham, Mass. –April 14, 2025 – Renowned author Timothy Gager is set to release his latest novel, The Shadows of the Seen, on May 14, 2025, in hardcover, followed by a paperback release in June 2025, through Pierian Springs Press. This marks Gager’s 20th published work, solidifying his position as a prolific voice in contemporary fiction and poetry. Told through a nonlinear narrative brimming with raw emotion and incisive dark humor, Gager’s The Shadows of the Seen is a provocative exploration of how one navigates power, personal trauma, and the murky line between right and wrong.


“As my 20th book, The Shadows of the Seen holds special meaning for me,” said Gager. “It’s a novel that explores the blurred lines between what we believe we see and what truly exists beneath the surface. I can’t wait to share it with readers, particularly at this time in our nation’s history and with what our communities are facing in their day-to-day lives when it comes to mental health, gun violence, addiction, and the news of the day.”

 


Through four interlocking storylines, centered on the ambitious politician Candace, the tormented Peter, the luck-driven but troubled Lucky, and the opportunistic Bobby-Joe, Gager delves into the heart of contemporary American struggles, from gun control and mental health to personal responsibility and redemption. Candace’s drive for power collides with her conscience after a tragic school shooting, forcing her to confront her closely guarded past and shifting ideals. Peter battles anxiety and blackouts, lurking on the edge of violence as he grapples with hidden rage. Lucky’s seemingly good fortune cracks under addiction, brain lesions, and an ideology that his life is no longer worth living.  Meanwhile, Bobby-Joe seizes every opportunity to amplify his political standing, revealing a chilling disconnect between ambition and morality.


The Shadows of the Seen is poised to captivate both longtime fans and new readers alike, offering an intricate and thought-provoking journey into the hidden dimensions of human experience. “With topics and challenges in the novel reflecting reality in some cases, the following Meet the Author events this spring will be sure to captivate and excite loyal fans and new readers of my works,” added Gager. 


To celebrate the release of The Shadows of the Seen, Timothy Gager will host a Book Reading and Q&A at Brewer’s Tap & Table, 256 Moody Street in Waltham, Mass. 02453 on Saturday, May 10th from 2-4pm. The event will offer refreshments, networking, and a brief but gripping reading from Gager. Special guests and fellow Writers Michael Ansara, DeMisty Bellinger plus Poet and Former State Representative Denise Provost will be in attendance. The Shadows of the Seen will be on sale at the event as well as works from the special guests.


Pre-sale orders for The Shadows of the Seen can be made here: https://timothygager.blogspot.com/2025/04/shadows-of-seen-now-available-for-pre.html



More about the Author

Timothy Gager has been a prominent figure in the literary world, having published 20 books of fiction and poetry, as well as supporting and promoting writers both locally and nationally.. He hosted the acclaimed Dire Literary Series in Cambridge, MA, from 2001 to 2018 and launched a weekly virtual reading series in 2020. His work has been featured in over 1,000 literary publications, earning 18 Pushcart Prize nominations. Additionally, Gager has received nominations for the Massachusetts Book Award, Best of the Web, and The Best Small Fictions Anthology, and his writing has been showcased on National Public Radio.


###



Also, this happened today


Well, hello. 

Congratulations from the editors of the Freshwater Review!


Your piece "Cats" has been selected as a finalist for the Rose Warner Prize for prose. This recognition is a testament to the strength of your work, and we are thrilled to celebrate your achievement.

Winners will be announced by the end of the month, and we’ll be in touch with more details then. In the meantime, thank you for sharing your work with us! We’re excited to include it in this year’s issue of the Freshwater Review.

Best Regards,
The Editorial Team of the Freshwater Review

Thursday, November 28, 2024

Companion piece for reading along with Almost Bluing for X-tra Whiteness (easter eggs noted)

 After I talked with Eliz McKim about my new poetry book Almost Bluing for X-tra Whiteness she was amused at some of the references, but most of them were obscure Easter Eggs, so allow me to fill in some of the blanks. Below is the Table of Contents and a comment, video or link for each one. When you read the book, read the part of the blog before each of the poems.

 So let's start with poem 1, page 9

I Didn’t want to call the 988 Operator Using the movie Don't Look Up as metaphor. There is even a line in the poem about the broteroc mentioned in the trailer below. 

I wished myself extinct / like that bronteroc,







Dependents 

What Cannot Be Fixed 

 After You Go 

 Dogged Years 

These  four are poems about my late MOTHER and FATHER



The next eight (8) are poems about a relationship ending. Comments withheld. 

Labor Day at the Border Cafe 

I Look For You 

Three New Year’s 

Mostly, there are nightmares 

1/1 

reply to someone who no longer replies

 A Little Madness or Not at All

You Should Know



It Sunk : (the Titan submarine implosion)  

https://news.northeastern.edu/2023/06/23/oceangate-titan-submersible-implosion/



 Remember That Smile:  I remember, when I was a child, driving with my family while the trees on the side of the highway were ablaze. For years after that area looked like this, an image still stuck in my head



 







A Place Familiar 









The following lines can be recalled from the opening poem (page 9)

weeks later, at the farm/ we stayed at in Maryland,/ that was one of the good/  things from the year.

A Place Familiar describes the place. 



after David Berman II. Jeopardy question: Who is David Berman? A poet, musician and victim of a disease.  https://www.dallasobserver.com/music/the-world-lost-a-genius-2-years-ago-when-it-became-too-much-for-david-berman-12185442









Reflections: A 17 year-old Drug Addict Forty Years Later  Years https://www.oprah.com/spirit/confessions-of-a-shoplifter-reasons-people-steal/all Click the link and read why I might shoplift ginger root.


How to Extinguish a Raging Fire   Interested in this one? Go back in early November posts in this blog for the last 14 years about my recovery. This is a recovery poem. 


 reply to someone who said, “there’s a lot of selfish going around here.”  I write a lot of "reply" poems. There is one earlier in this book. In this one I don't remember who I might have been replying to. 


Tennessee Songbirds: True story about real birds and musicians in Nashville 



 






Not Just the Willows Weep https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/north-shore-communities-recovering-after-storm/3246270/


 Found in a Basement in Dorchester: Here's the obituary for my friend Sean. The obit left out a few things. Also, I found out about this too late to attend the funeral. 2022 was a rough year.  https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/name/sean-whelan-obituary?id=36927109

 











The Definition of Abuse is all about power dynamics in our culture. 



 






Poetry Found on Twitter These are exact twitter posts from the accounts of: 

1) Lauren Boebert—On Another Shooting. 2) Michelle Obama—On Knitting. 3) Melania Trump—On Christmas Ornaments being NFTs. 4) Marjorie Taylor Greene—Saying Stupid as Fuck Things 5) Amanda Knox—On Losing Control 6) Margaret Atwood—On New Year’s Day

There are some good guys and bad guys in this poem .


 Rainy Days and Every Day Always Get… My mom used to listen to this. Side note from video: I don't think he's playing the harmonica---he's playing his f-ing hand. 



 Valentine’s Poem written in the style of Eliz McKim. She picked  up that the poem sounded like a heartbeat. 



 Picturing One Great Love  Kind of like the guy pictured below, but sometimes you get to finish the work, and sometimes you don't. 



 








Flashbulb of a Lightning Storm. About making love in the middle of a lightning storm. It happened. 


 Into the Silent Sea: This was written about the same time as It Sunk. Processing sea-creatures and hopelessness. 




 









Amends I Owed You Step Nine in recovery https://sober.com/step-9-tips/ and using music as metaphor


Love – 0 When an electric tennis racket bug zapper is a swing and a miss



 










Addendum is and addendum to Amends I Owed You, but more punny and awkward (like some ammends)  than serious. 


 Acceptance Poem The Acceptance Prayer helps me a great deal







Fluid behind the Ear Poem dedicated to Lisa Haley (oh, the other Lisa)


 Animals Which Don’t Sleep Grief and sleep problems the following line within Instead of saying goodbye you said, /“I’m sorry,” and refuse to lie down



 Standing Wave  and

 Star Island, Night One, 2024 

These next two were written for and about Star Island. The second was nominated for a Pushcart. Star inspires as these didn't need much revision.




The final section of the book is lighter, perhaps funnier poems

Abecedarius  This is a form poem, the form being 26 words in the poem, using all 26 letters in alphabetical order. 


 Out and In the Void for Jeremy Hilary Boob Google Jeremy Hilary Boob and then the lyrics to that song the search points to. The poem is all synonyms to each/most words of those lyrics.


 Almost Famous Massachusetts has the record for total number of Roast Beef joints that are famous but in name only. 













 Literary Action Figures Imagine if famous authors had action figures like star athletes or GI Joe. Wait...maybe?



 














On Dodo Oh My God. Want to go on a heartwarming trip? Of course, you do. Careful, you may get sucked into The Dodo rabbit hole for half the day. So this poem looks at Dodo and how it differs from those other feelings in real life. 


 Poem About Jon Wesick, written in the style of Jon Wesick; During the pandemic, writer Jon Wesick was on nearly every zoom reading and open mic. He had a series writing in the style of some of the other poets. I decided to do one on him. 


 Recipe Dumb-Ass Men Cook to Feed Women : A misandry poem from a man noting how men are obvious and stupid in their manipulations. 


 Poem Stolen from Other Poets at Dinner Yes...it's a found poem staring the dialog of many of my friends. 


 Found poem within the rules of the board game Mystery Date : It pretty much uses the game rules verbatim. It was written for the game night event for the Improbable Places Poetry Tour.













 Petition to Remove the Word Burble from our language Such a harsh sounding word.

 

Things You Find in Miami Beach (Poetry Form: 25,000 Pyramid) So I've invented a form. The poem reads like the clues given in the bonus round of the 25,000 Pyramid game show. 





Thursday, October 10, 2024

Lo Galluccio reviews "Almost Bluing for X-Tra Whiteness" for BSPPS and The Somerville Times (unabridged with the F word)

 Grateful to Lo Galluccio, Poet Populist of Cambridge, who wrote a wonderful review. Also, grateful to Doug Holder, poet, and Poetry Czar for publishing it in the Somerville Times and The Boston Area Small Press and Poetry Scene.. The Times is one of the area's leading print town newspapers, and Doug has been an editor there for over 25 years. Nice of him to sneak the F word into a local paper. The links above will bring you there, or just scroll on down to read it!


            Is the title ironic? Is it meant to mimic a toothpaste or detergent commercial? X-tra Whiteness suggests not race in this book, but some kind of gleam. Or maybe Gager is playing on the theme of whiteness, and even including race. After several readings, I’m still not sure but the title, it’s pop and its ambiguity, drew me to this collection, without a doubt.

The book’s divided into four sections, the first “Blue” contains poems most of which are elegiac poems to loss: the loss of a pure, true love, the death of his beloved father, its blue meaning bereft, blue as in the blues, to be blue, sad, as Nick Cave mentions in his lecture on love songs like the Portuguese word saudade. Here is tangible sorrow, even desolation, a sense that the world has broken apart into a void. In “Dependents” Gager posits that rescue when it comes, comes too late to save anybody. “Listen/smother me with a pillow/Don’t worry, no one will come/…/and when they finally come…it’ll be too late.” p. 11. In “After You Go” he writes: “we send to the sky our grief/when writing letters/to the deceased.” p 13. This affirms both the sense of futility and awe that accompanies a close relative or friend’s passing. Certainly, a testament to mortality and our inability to stop death. And later, “No one makes/our longings/into a song.” There seems no compensation, no silver lining to this black cloud. There is a nostalgic poem to three past New Year’s Eves with the lost partner, now gone: 2020, 2021 and 2022, where in a Cape Cod Airbnb it begins to drizzle, “right before the sky fell down.” p 17. Gager deftly deals in worldly concrete specifics, often juxtaposed with more abstract forces, nature, the sky. In 1/1 he insists that his love is “one of one” and that since they no longer converse, “…I no longer recite.” p 19. A sense of mute longing that is however, undercut by the playful, imaginative language with which Gager crafts these “blue” poems. They are, as he writes in “It Sunk” “…my best pieces, /wreckage after implosion.” p 23.

Part 2, is a shorter section entitled “X-tra-White.” It begins with a poem called, “Reflections: A 17 Year old Drug Addict 40 Years Later,” a meditation on getting clean and losing bad habits of addiction, a little shoplifting, badmouthing others which amount to an “empty echo of lunacy –” and the harsh violence or violated foundation “struck, strike, striking,/of permanence.” The addict recovers through an act of faith as God is summoned and gives one more chance, so the addict “started to clean.” p 29. This is an ode to recovery without going into the painful steps sobriety requires. In contrast, in a combative mood, there is indulgent excess that is a “reply to someone who said, there’s a lot of selfish going around here.” In response to this reprimand, the narrator licks sweet syrup and heaps on bacon, “sticking my tongue directly on/the sizzle of a steak.” When something is stolen from us sometimes our impulse is to steal more from the world, in a desperate and seemingly justifiable greed, “I’m waiting to eat more/of what the world owes me.” He wants, “More/Bring it/Some more.” p. 31. Dunno, is Gager suggesting that X-tra whiteness in\our society means, addiction/recovery/country music/abuse/death…some of the themes in this section. He ends this part with a “found” poem that takes excerpts from Twitter, In Their Own Words on NYE, 2022, drawing upon the tweets of female public personas that range from Michelle Obama (On Knitting) to Marjorie Taylor Greene (Saying Stupid as Fuck Things) to Margaret Atwood (On New Year’s Day)-- the kind of piece that gives us verifiable documentation of the way social media voices can scream at us for good or ill.

In Part 3, “Re(a)d” Gager moves into a more redemptive sequence of poems on matters of the heart. The first, title poem plays with the homophones, “red” and “read” and suggests that we read or interpret that bold valentine of love in a hypnotic, playful way. There is rhythmic music to it: “heart/red red/heart/red red/heart/red/heart/red.” p 44. Here is something almost primal about how fragile and trancelike a beating heart is. In “Picturing One Great Love” the poet pines to paint a portrait of the beloved and ends with the plea, “Can I finish one drawing/Please…just one?” p. 45 Longing can trick us with its endless myriad tugs, no matter how clearly we see and want the vanished love object to materialize. And there is also a coming to terms with the reality of not possessing-- the sanity of it-- by acknowledging our lack of control. In “Acceptance Poem” he pens an ode to serenity, a concept familiar to many recovered addicts (or members of 12 step programs of all kinds.) As he puts it: “A goal is to have no expectations/Please accept this distance/a gift, where serenity lives/as prospects crucified us.” p 51 Same as prey he suggests we survive with grace like birds, “hummingbirds, bluejays, sparrows and finches.” There is poignant beauty in the poem “Into the Silent Sea” where “the moon was not full today;/it was shaped like a heart,/seen from the bottom, light diffracted,/in a way that made you nauseous…/ that sickness that a state of isolation brings as he still feels “like an incredible ship/sunken and abandoned.” p 47. This section ends with a poem for which Gager was nominated for a Pushcart prize, a narrative poem about a visit to Star Island in 2024 that juxtaposes the calm beauty of a “white gull, blue water/the calmness of the completed” with the brutal excavation for a grave back home. The piece ends with a moment of seemingly perfect harmony though, a bird joining the choir by the sea, and the poet’s astonishment that “a piece of congruence, /swiftly the flash of/” could be real. “Damn, it can be,” he asserts.

The final section, “Blu-ing, as distinct from the first section, “Blue,” is where the poet takes on other themes, objects, even humor. It’s as if “Blu-ing” were the poet’s ability to compensate for or distract from the underlying grief by looking at the world with some jauntiness and resilience. It begins with “Abecedarius,” in compressed form, a poem whose lines copy the sequence of the alphabet. Only this one is just seven lines, that run from letters A to X, a lovely mysterious piece that lives “under voracious waters,/xeric, your zone.” Someone, and I forget who, said that a few poems should contain exotic or unfamiliar words, so I looked up “xeric,” and it means arid. With the big currents turned back, the poet is dwelling in a paradoxically safe, dry space, under a deluge. The poems “Almost Famous” and “Literary Action Figures” give us some comical relief; the first about how Boston’s so called famous eating joints are actually not known outside of the locale and the second is a look back to childhood toys and a sibling spat about a Barbie whose hair is pulled out, and a “Bukowski doll” and the favorite, a Kurt Vonnegut figure, who defies his sick sister’s destructive tendencies. Real or fictional it gives some insight into the writer’s psychic literary pantheon. In “Recipe Dumb-Ass Men Use to Cook Women” Gager catalogues the obnoxious ways men can turn off women in their ego-centric stupidity, including lying and “proclaiming distaste toward/ the dirty bourgeoise./ p. 69. A simple fave of mine is the closing poem, a list poem called, “Things You Find in Miami Beach,” that includes “a hairless cat” and “Hot as fuck/white/sand.” In the end, he leaves us with a slice of the world, an ode to escape on a popular Florida beach.

This is a marvelously composed collection that includes both the sacred and the profane. It’s about love, loss, mortality, addiction, recovery and survival and it’s both a good time read and enlightening literature about the state of our humanity. From the particle of deep loss to a wider field of understanding and acceptance, Gager takes us on a carefully executed poetic journey that leaves us wiser and well sated. I’ve frankly missed out on a lot of Tim’s fiction work, but I’m very happy to have found this, his latest offering. I feel both alive and awakened by it.

Friday, September 27, 2024

Pushcart Nomination from my publisher Big Table Publishing

 

   It's always nice to get a nomination, and to get it from my publisher who 
believes in me. It is my 19th Pushcart nomination. Robin Stratton and Big Table are always on my side, and I'm very happy they published Almost Bluing for X-Tra Whiteness,  and nominating the poem Star Island, Night One, 2024. This is a poem I wrote on Star, and read in the chapel.  Also, kudos to Niles Reddick, Paul Beckman, and Zvi Sesling. 







Wednesday, October 25, 2023

A 2023 Pushcart Nomination!

      Always such an honor to be nominated. Thank you Robin Stratton and Big Table Publishing for the nomination, and for publishing many of my books. Although I Never Called You Beautiful does not appear on-line. It is within the pages Best of Timothy Gager: Poems, Essays, and Stories, 2002-2022. It also appears in another secret book, whish is sort of like a secret menu  item---and only one of those exists in the world. So, there's that. So very grateful to be nominated for the 18th time.


                                           Maybe #18 will be the charm?





This poem is not published on-line

Wednesday, May 11, 2022

First Outside Review of Joe the Salamander (due out July 2022) from the Mid West Book Review

 


Established in 1976, the Midwest Book Review is an organization committed to promoting literacy, library usage, and small press publishing. 


 Here's what they had to say:

Critique: With its inherent message promoting the value of appreciating diverse abilities, disabilities, and circumstances, and although "Joe The Salamander" is a work of fiction, author Timothy Gager's novel is solidly and soundly based on real-life conditions as experienced by thousands of children throughout the United States today. Entertaining, thoughtful and thought-provoking, "Joe The Salamander" is an especially and unreservedly recommended addition to community library Contemporary Diversity Fiction collections. 
 
Editorial Note: Timothy Gager has published 16 books of fiction and poetry (including 17 of which were nominated for Pushcart Prizes). His work has been nominated for a Massachusetts Book Award, The Best of the Web, and The Best Small Fictions Anthology.

Monday, March 7, 2022

PRESS RELEASE: Joe the Salamander, from publisher, Golden Antelope Press

As of July 4, you can BUY IT

Perhaps you can read it....you may be able to click on it.




Fine. You can't read it, but I swear it's tight. Here's what it says:



 


Joe the Salamander
by Timothy Gager

Golden Antelope Press

ISBN 978-1-952232-69-5 pb; 239 pp.; $19.95   

ISBN 978-1-952232-70-1 ebook;  $8.95

Release date July 1, 2022

Diversity Fiction, Magical Realism

 

Synopsis:

            Joe the Salamander, tells the story of Joe Gamut, a brilliant boy whose infatuation with Superman helps him through his struggles in the neurotypical world. Timothy Gager creates charmingly wise and foolish support characters, captures quirky 1990s nostalgia, and tells a poignant story about life with or on the spectrum.

            The book is divided into seven parts, each detailing a section of  the Gamuts’ life. In a prologue, Joe’s father, Adrian, describes his own uncomfortable youth in foster care, and his finding solace and stability in young Millie Englander, now Millie Gamut.  In part one Millie gives birth to Joe while Adrian, overwhelmed, hands out candy cigarettes to pedestrians on the street. Like his father, Joe rides a different rainbow.  As a newborn, he tries to please those around him by refusing to cry; when he realizes they want him to cry, he complies, nonstop, for days. He’s preternaturally sensitive, but balance is hard.  As toddler and pre-schooler, he finds comfort in all things Superman—tv, cape and t-shirt—and in his cure-all word: “Yes.” 

            When Joe begins school, he excels in writing but speaks only his “Yes.”  As teachers try to implement flawed Individual Learning plans, Millie practices patience and incremental repetition, balancing Adrian’s hyper-focus and fears.  An engaging young nurse, Laura Wellin, befriends the family, giving readers yet another lens through which to appreciate Joe’s world—and her own.  Shades Creek, a pet store owner whose energy creates a city-wide Salamander Festival—he understands Joe instinctively.  It’s the “normalcy” of grandparents and psychiatrists who wish to control one another that gets ironic treatment from our author.   

            By part six, after a popular kid has saved him from high school bullying, Joe finds himself accepted by his peers. Then, just as things are looking up, his life is upended, leaving him more unsupported than he’s ever been.  After a long gap of time, Joe’s struggles in the neurotypical world end surprisingly, and, we think, well.

            Timothy Gager’s Joe the Salamander draws good-humored yet serious attention to the importance of accepting diversity, reminding readers that no matter our differences, our abilities, our disabilities, or our circumstances, we are never fully alone. 

 

Author Biography:

            Timothy Gager has published 16 books of fiction and poetry. He hosted the Dire Literary Series of author interviews in Cambridge, MA from 2001 to 2018, and spun off a virtual series starting in 2020. Gager co-founded The Somerville News Writers Festival and has had over 1,000 pieces of fiction, micro-fiction, and poetry published—including 17 nominated for Pushcart Prizes. His work has also been nominated for a Massachusetts Book Award, The Best of the Web, The Best Small Fictions Anthology, and has been read on NPR. Joe the Salamander is his third novel.  He lives in Dedham, Massachusetts with some fish and a rabbit, and is employed as a social worker.

Golden Antelope Press

715 E McPherson St., Kirksville, MO 63501  ; PO Box 906, Crestone CO 81131

www.goldenantelope.com  660-349-9832; 665-229-2997

     bdelmoni@truman.edu   ndelmonico@sbcglobal.net

-----------------------------------------

     Meanwhile I have a PROOF copy (See? There it is on my dining room table). I have approve it, then the process of Golden Antelope sending it out for review begins....then Advanced Reading Team, and finally release date, hence the delay






Monday, October 5, 2020

What happens when you've been nominated for 16 Pushcart Prizes (without winning)?

                                   

     You are extremely grateful when Muddy River Poetry Review nominates you for your 17th. The poem When You Have this Connection  (published April 2020) was given the honor by Editor Zvi Sesling. The great thing about Pushcart nominations is that there are no "do me a favor and vote on-line for me" moments.  The poem can be found HERE

     Fingers crossed, as one can never assume there will be an 18th. 

     Congratulations to the other poets for being Muddy River Poetry Review’s Pushcart Prize nominees. I hope you win:

     Eileen R. Tabios — Cigar Puffs

     Marge Piercy — How I Bury

     Taylor Graham — The Alpha Fire

     bg Thurston — Lineage

     Gloria Mindock — Deeply


      Oh, and,  by the way, besides 17 nominations, 17 is a pretty cool number. Look at all the 17 things  shown below...Thanks Google!


     



                  


There have been 16 others, and I've posted about some of them.  

Here's One

Here's Another

A Third post


There are no posts or links about actually winning a Pushcart. 




Friday, July 10, 2020

Assiduous Dust Podcast Interview by Josh Corwin, where I talk about a whole lot of things.

I met Joshua Corwin at my Virtual Dire Literary Series, and am grateful to be invited on his podcast.  Link on Spotify below. My part of the podcast starts at around the 63 minute mark. I talk about writing, what I was like as a 12 year old, The Dire Series, and my novel, Joe the Salamander where the protagonist, Joe is a neurodiverse individual--- which probably is the reason, Josh Corwin and I connected.  


Some quotes: "12 year old Timmy would not know what the fuck that poem was about"


"Writers need to wear their bruises and their trauma like pride"


"When I"m writing my inner editor is screaming at me, "YOU SUCK" and I need to be like, "screw you." and when I'm done, "Shut up!"


“What I like about the indy bookstore is that it’s a comfortable little meeting place, and each store has a certain character to it. Each indy bookstore is different in different ways. Indies are also friendly to indy writers.”


Below is the show and description, taken directly from joshuacorwin.com. 

-----------------------------------------

Assiduous Dust #8:
Marc Olmsted + Timothy Gager

July 10, 2020
Host Joshua Corwin interviews award-winning poets Marc Olmsted and Timothy Gager. Olmsted shares about sex with Allen Ginsberg & meditation with Rinpoche Chögyam Trungpa; Gager gives us a sneak peek at his new autism novel. Listen to them share their latest work and create on-the-spot poems with your host.

Los Angeles native Joshua Corwin is a neurodiverse, Pushcart-nominated poet with a B.A. in mathematics and a minor in philosophy from Pitzer College ('19). His debut poetry collection, Becoming Vulnerable, details his experience with autism, addiction, sobriety and spirituality (Baxter Daniels Ink Press/International Word Bank). Corwin hosts the poetry podcast “Assiduous Dust,” home of the on-the-spot collaborative poem (OTSCP). He teaches self-exploration through poetry to neurodiverse addicts in recovery at The Miracle Project, an autism nonprofit, held at The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, California. He writes to honor his grandpa, Mert, whose last words to him were “Don’t ever stop writing.”