Books by the Author of this website, as well as collections and anthologies.
For reviews, press, and the mostly nice things people say about the Author's work, go to the Press page; for old set lists from previous tours, go to the Readings page.

Coming in Fall 2009 from Soft Skull Press: How to Be Inappropriate.

Dry, offbeat, and mostly profane, this debut collection of humorous nonfiction glorifies all things inappropriate and TMI. Arguments, lists, barstool rants, queries, pedantic footnotes, play scripts, commonplace miscellany, profiles, and overly revealing memoirettes, How to Be Inappropriate adds up to the portrait of a twenty-something-become-thirty-something, bachelor-become husband, boy-man-about-town who bumbles through life obsessed with one thing: extreme impropriety.

In How to Be Inappropriate, Daniel Nester determines the boundary of acceptable behavior--mostly by disregarding it. As a here-to-cut-a-hipster-swathe-through-the-city man, he looks for love with a Williamsburg abstract painter who has had her feet licked for money. As a teacher, he tries out curse words with Chinese students in ESL classes. Along the way, Nester provides a short cultural history of mooning and attempts to cast a spell on a neighbor who fails to curb his dog. He befriends exiled video-game king Todd Rogers, and reimagines Terry Gross’s Fresh Air conversation with--and invents a robot version of--Kiss bassist Gene Simmons.

No matter which misadventure catches your eye, How to Be Inappropriate will make you appreciate that someone else has experienced these embarrassing sides of life so that you won’t have to.

Available on Powells.com, Amazon.com, from your local BookSense store, and bookstores everywhere!



  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. Go to this new window to listen to Gene Cawley's three incredible song poem settings of selections from The History of My World Tonight.

      God Save My Queen: A Tribute and God Save My Queen II: The Show Must Go On (Soft Skull Press 2003, 2005). 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.
     

Collections and anthologies.

  Queen: The Ultimate Illustrated History of the Crown Kings of Rock. Phil Sutcliffe. Voyageur Press, 2009. Review articles on Queen's The Miracle album as well as Queen + Paul Rodgers' The Cosmos Rocks.
 
       
  Lost and Found: Stories from New York. Edited by Thomas Beller. Mr. Beller's Neighborhood/W.W. Norton, 2009. Two pieces, "The Difference Between Chicken and Goats" and "Revising the Footlicker Story," appear in this anthology.  
       
  Now Write! Nonfiction Writing Exercises from Today's Best Writers and Teachers. Edited by Sherry Ellis. Tarcher/Pengiun, 2010. An exercise called "Writer Your Own White Album" is included.  
       
  The Morning News Annual 2008. Edited by Rosecrans Baldwin and Andrew Womack. The Morning News, 2008. "Takin' Care of Jesus" appears in this anthology.  
 
 
  The World is a Text: Writing, Reading and Thinking About Visual and Popular Culture, 3rd Edition. Edited by Jonathan Silverman and Dean Rader. Prentice-Hall, 2009. Two pieces from God Save My Queen, "Another One Bites The Dust" and "We Are The Champions," appear in this writing guide.  
       
  The Best Creative Nonfiction, Vol. 1. Edited by Lee Gutkind. W.W. Norton, 2007. The essay "Notes on Frey" is included here.  
       
  Third Rail: The Poetry of Rock and Roll. Edited by Jonathan Wells, foreword by Bono. New York: MTV Books, 2007. Two pieces from God Save My Queen, "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "The Prophet's Song," are included in this anthology.  
       
  PP/FF: An Anthology. Edited by Peter Conners. Buffalo: Starcherone Books, 2006. A piece from God Save My Queen, "Bohemian Rhapsody," is included in this anthology.  
       
  Isn't It Romantic? 100 Love Poems by Younger American Poets. Edited by Brett Fletcher Lauer and Aimee Kelley. Verse Press, 2003. "Third Maisie Poem" appears in this anthology.  
       
  Gamers: Writers, Artists, and Programmers on the Pleasure of the Pixels. Edited by Shanna Compton. Soft Skull Press, 2004. "Are You Hot Enough to Play With Journey? Todd Rogers Is" is included in this anthology.  
       
  The Best American Poetry 2003. Edited by Yusef Komunyakaa, Series Editor David Lehman. Scribner, 2004. "Poem for the Novelist Whom I Forced to Write a Poem" was selected for this anthology.  
       
  The Portable Literature. Edited by Laurie G. Kirsner and Stephen R. Mandell. Heinle, 2003. "Pay-Per-View Etude" is included in this literature text.  

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.  
       
  Readings @ The Contemporary, 2004-2005, No. 2 in Observable series, 2006.  
       
  The Aubergine Anthology. Edited by Joshua Corey. Ithaca: 2004. Out of print.