|
Here
are, or were, the champions, my friends.
Advance 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 and God Save My Queen II.
Some of these are links to the reviews online, and others
will open reprint versions in new windows.
These two books are absolutely fantastic ... raises the profile
of obsessive record collectors from nerd to artiste while simultaneously
creating a genre of poetry where a new word for ultra-nerd needs to be
created to describe the authorship. The first volume features one short
poem for every track on every major Queen LP. As the book explores sexuality,
humanity and vulnerability the lyrical text confusingly shifts from Nester’s
personal biography to the exploits of Mercury and May in a haze of poetics
where it doesn’t matter what or who he’s talking about. ...
To bring this point home the second volume is a track by track series
of poems covering obscure Queen albums, solo work and hidden CD tracks,
thus, even the fellow fans who were able to recall every Queen track and
perhaps relate them to the poems in book one is left headscratching by
this volume. These books are as beautiful as fat bottomed girls on bicycles.—Roctober
"Nester's method considers a serious fan's bliss impeccably ... Nester's
best poems consider the homosexual allure of the band's late singer, Freddie
Mercury, describing Mercury's gestures, phrasing and lifestyle with aplomb...vainglorious
pomposity..."—Ken Tucker, The New York Times Book Review
Sean Thomas Dougherty, American Book Review [new
window]
David Barringer, Word
Riot
Gabriel Welsch, small
spiral notebook
Roundtable discussion in Bookninja
with Bookninja's Peter Darbyshire and George Murray along with The Pursuit
of Happiness's Moe Berg
Peter Conners, Double
Room
Tom Nissley, The
Stranger, Seattle
Whitey Houston, Vue
Weekly, Edmonton, Canada
Janine Arman, Clamor [new
window]
Ross Martin, Crossroads: The Journal of the Poetry Society of America [new
window]
Henry Yu, MAXIMUMROCKNROLL [new
window]
J. Thomas Burch, Esq., Slugmag, Salt Lake City [new
window]
Michael Basinski, The
Hold
Gustavo Zapico, Espacio3, Spain [new
window]
Other press and mentions.
Maple Shade Progress, my hometown newspaper. [new
window]
Alli Marshall, "Tales from the cryptic," Mountain Xpress,
Asheville, NC [new
window]
"Nobody writes rock geek poetry like Daniel Nester."—Jessa
Crispin, Bookslut
"[A] very funny blend of music biography and
personal reflection which demonstrates that, if explained coherently and
in sufficient detail, a fanatical obsession with a rock band can seem
almost rational. Almost."—Jesse Delaney, Philadelphia City
Paper
Matthew Webster, "Queen aficionado, poet ready to rock HUB,"
The Daily Collegian, Penn State University [pdf
file]
"Note to those Readers who still want to believe in devotional verse;
for those who seek a cure for a spirit sunk under undifferentiated elegance:
Take [Daniel] Nester’s God Save My Queen and God Save
My Queen II and Reader, write me in the morning."—Ray
McDaniel, Constant Critic
"[A] very funny blend of music biography and personal reflection
which demonstrates that, if explained coherently and in sufficient detail,
a fanatical obsession with a rock band can seem almost rational. Almost."—Jesse
Delaney, Philadelphia City Paper
Listing in the Chicago Reader [new
window]
Listing in "Voice Choices," Village Voice [new
window]
Interviews. And
stuff.
Jamie Schwartz, CLMP Literary Magazine and Press Directory,
2005 [new
window]
Didi Menendez, MiPoesias,
2004
Ryan Robert Mullen, Word
Riot, 2004. The 'well-kept hockey mullet' interview
Chris Gage, Gothamist,
2004
Talking About, Queens Public Television, 2004; real
audio stream
Sound Affects,
VH1 series, Ondi Timoner director, aired 2003
Ross Martin, Nerve, 2003 [for adults only] [new
window]
Kenan Herbert, Gigantic,
2003
|
