Buy books directly. Use PayPal buttons below and get it sent to you signed by me. I'll also send you extra goodies. You can also mouse-over the covers to buy from Amazon. Prices below include.

The History of My World Tonight (BlazeVox Books 2006)

My first book of poems culls from many of the different modes and styles I've used over the years: narrative, confessional, list-making, pop culture rants, and ars poeticae.

Buy directly here for $10

Blazevox Books 2006

Praise for The History of My World Tonight.

With the publication of The History of My World Tonight, Daniel Nester has proven that he’s an absolute master of what he does; and what he does is dazzle us repeatedly with his elegant, prickly, and wickedly penetrating poems. Reading him is not unlike the greatness of discovering an eagle in a gift bag on your way home from a party: it’s not just great, it’s super freaky great.—Todd Colby

In The History of My World Tonight, Daniel Nester re-envisions The Beach Boys, The Brady Bunch, and the Bible. He takes on the Munchkins, Montale, Monet, and masturbation. But that’s just the beginning. In these intimate confessional and experimental poems, Nester delivers a complex psyche along with deadpan social commentary. This is an engagingly funny and tender book.—Denise Duhamel

We have in Daniel Nester a poet who speaks the language of the common man and woman—well, that is, assuming the common man and woman were gifted with an uncommonly over-the-top sense of humor and an entirely personal sense of what Being a Poet Means to Me. Nester’s working it out here, and it’s a good thing too. Somebody, in this Age of Various Pretentious Schools of Poetry, needs to cut through the shit and clarify why anyone would want to read or write poems at this point in history. And Nester, with his well-documented pop culture leanings and his not-so-well-documented soul-searching, is just the man for the job.—Jonah Winter

God Save My Queen: A Tribute (Soft Skull Press 2003) Buy directly here for $10

God Save My Queen II: The Show Must Go On (Soft Skull Press 2005) Buy directly here for $10

My first two books are collections of lyrical essay, memoir, prose poem, and music history on my life-long obsession with the rock band Queen. Throughout these two volumes, I write one piece, or riff, to coincide with every song ever released by the band, plus selected solo work. These books, published by the super awesome Soft Skull Press, were reviewed widely in publications both large and tiny.

For reviews and other clips, go to the Press page; for old set lists from previous tours, go to the Readings page.

Or buy all three--both God Save My Queens and The History of My World Tonight--for $20

Collections and anthologies.


The Best Creative Nonfiction, Vol. 1. Edited by Lee Gutkind. W.W. Norton, 2007.


Third Rail: The Poetry of Rock and Roll. Edited by Jonathan Wells, foreword by Bono. New York: MTV Books, 2007.


PP/FF: An Anthology. Edited by Peter Conners. Buffalo: Starcherone Books, 2006.

Isn't It Romantic? 100 Love Poems by Younger American Poets. Edited by Brett Fletcher Lauer and Aimee Kelley. Verse Press, 2003.



Gamers: Writers, Artists, and Programmers on the Pleasure of the Pixels. Edited by Shanna Compton. Soft Skull Press, 2004.



The Best American Poetry 2003. Edited by Yusef Komunyakaa, Series Editor David Lehman. Scribner 2004.



The Portable Literature. Edited by Laurie G. Kirsner and Stephen R. Mandell. Heinle, 2003.


Limited-edition collections.


Fragmentia. Chapbook from Rock Heals Press--number rhp005 in their "big package tiny chap series."


Tales from Johnsonia, Big Game Books, 2006. Tinyside #8.


Percapella, an ongoing collaboratation with Christopher Connelly. Open this new window to hear the "Skanky Tots" song poem, learn about the Half Empty/Half Full chapbook, the free facsimile edition, and other stuff.

Limited-edition anthologies.


Readings @ The Contemporary, 2004-2005, No. 2 in Observable series, 2006.


The Aubergine Anthology. Edited by Joshua Corey. Ithaca: 2004. Out of print.