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!
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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. |
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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. |
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Collections and anthologies.
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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.
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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. |
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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. |
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The Morning News
Annual 2008. Edited by Rosecrans Baldwin and Andrew
Womack. The Morning News, 2008. "Takin' Care of Jesus"
appears in this anthology. |
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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. |
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The
Best Creative Nonfiction, Vol. 1.
Edited by Lee Gutkind. W.W. Norton, 2007. The essay
"Notes on Frey" is included here. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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The Portable Literature.
Edited by Laurie G. Kirsner and Stephen
R. Mandell. Heinle, 2003. "Pay-Per-View Etude" is included
in this literature text. |
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Limited-edition collections.
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Fragmentia.
Chapbook from Rock Heals Press--number
rhp005 in their "big package tiny chap series." |
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Tales from Johnsonia, Big
Game Books, 2006. Tinyside #8. |
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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. |
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Readings
@ The Contemporary, 2004-2005, No. 2 in Observable
series, 2006. |
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The
Aubergine Anthology. Edited
by Joshua Corey. Ithaca:
2004. Out of print. |
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