Category Archives: Shader

April 6, 2016 · 11:45 am

Shader nominated as 2016 Firecracker Award Finalist!

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Got some good news en route to AWP last week and am only getting around to announcing it here: Shader has been nominated for a Firecracker Award!

The Firecrackers have been around for more than 20 years and they promote indie publishers and small presses that put out books. I remember when Soft Skull used to get a couple Firecrackers, back when it was an indie press–this is almost 15 years ago–and it was a big deal for them. Well, it’s a big deal for me now as well.

Check out the list of nominees here.There are a lot of great fellow nominees in the Creative Nonfiction finalists, so actually winning the thing is another matter altogether. Like the people at the Academy Awards say, it’s just great to be nominated.

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January 20, 2016 · 11:13 am

Just up on Critical Mass: Second Thoughts on The Good Bad Boy.

f29409334c30ba2bb045b08df794The National Book Critics Circle has this great website called Critical Mass, and I’m thrilled to have an essay published there are part of their “Second Thoughts” series, where authors “write about books they’ve had reason to reassess over the years.”

My essay is adapted from a chapter in Shader on The Good Bad Boy, a book by a priest and published by a Catholic press, which I remember loving. I had a much different reaction to it, however, when I bought a copy 30-odd years later for research purposes. Read the whole thing here.

One semi-interesting sidenote: for a hot minute, I was going to call my book The Good Bad Boy, as sort of an homage. But after telling a couple people at a reading said they didn’t like it, and one of heckled me while I read, shouting things like “That’s a terrible title!” and “I do branding for [name of energy drink here], so I know!” I decided against it.

 

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January 11, 2016 · 10:12 am

Shader #2 on Small Press Distribution Bestseller List!

SPDBestsellerList

Check it out! Shader lands at #2 for Small Press Distribution’s bestseller list for October-December 2015. And that’s only after being released on November 15. Thanks to everyone for supporting, reading, and buying the book! You’ve made this a great 2015, and 2016 is looking pretty good as well.

 

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January 9, 2016 · 8:14 am

I’m reading Sunday, January 10 at Erv’s in Brooklyn!

SundaysatErvs5

Sundays at Erv’s is a nifty newish series in Brooklyn, my old home, and I am happy to take part in this event. So if you’re around, and you like words, cocktails, or both, please come. More info here.

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December 3, 2015 · 10:11 pm

“The Handgun’s in the Mail”: an interview at The Fanzine.

FanzineInterviewPhilly poet Chris McCreary asked me some questions over at The Fanzine.

FANZINE: This book clearly had a long gestation period. At what point did you know that these various “notes” were becoming a single book as opposed to separate stand-alone essays, for instance, about your childhood and coming of age?

DANIEL NESTER: When my wife was pregnant with our first daughter, there was a sense of urgency to talk to my parents and ask them about my childhood, before I became a parent myself. Our oldest daughter was conceived through IVF, which was a long and strenuous process, especially for my wife. It worked, and there was this crazy nine-month period that I kept myself busy interviewing my mom, since I was anxious I might, you know, turn into my father. It makes no sense as I type this out to you, but I thought some genetic imprint would kick in once I got to be a dad, and I’d suddenly desert my kids like my dad eventually did with my sister and me. I compiled hours of recordings of my mom and me talking about growing up in Maple Shade, Catholic school, and whatever was going on with my dad. I regarded it as research, but I didn’t know why I was doing it for a very long time.

Read the whole interview here.

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