I was lucky enough this past Thursday to read with poet James Jay at a book tour stop for him and old-friend Mike Faloon in Brooklyn. James read a few pieces from his new collection, The Journeymen, which is out now from Gorsky Press and won the show. More narrative in nature, the poems where gritty tales of northern Arizona (James hails from Flagstaff) and rundown bars. A few favorites were “Freddy Arizona and the Trains” and what I at first thought was called “V.W. Jesus,” but later discovered was titled “Sympathy for Jesus.” Below are the first few stanza’s from the latter. Right off the bat, Jason delivers this rich character and brings you hip deep into the poem’s story. Great stuff and I can’t recommend The Journeymen enough.
At the wheel of the V.W. bug,
Jesus, short-legged, pot-bellied,
he rounds up the kids from the trailers
of Kingman, of Birdland, of Butler.He sticks his hands out the window
Into the scorching summer air
as the V.W. takes slow, wide turns
all on its own. “The hands of Godnow have the wheel!
You better believe!”
the Jesus of the V.W. hollers.
We children scream and hoot. How can this be?
The Blacksmiths for Literary Progress will have our own table at the 
It was a hell of a time on March 22nd. A nice crowd of people and the rest of the Blacksmiths For Literary Progress joined me at 
What more could you ask for: booze, used books, and four bastardos a-readin’. I’ll be celebrating the release of my new short story collection, 
Another grand time at 
You can get Go Metric at any magazine shop worth its salt, or you can order online at any of these places:
Two Big Events Coming Up In November:
A great time was had by all who showed up at 
Been a long while since I posted anything, but for once I actually have some news to report.
On January 14th, I’ll be joining a bunch of fellow contributors at the Go Metric reading to celebrate the release of issue #20.