Andrew Demcak
Author of Ghost Songs
About the Author
Image credit: photo by Jamie Deetz
Series
Works by Andrew Demcak
Associated Works
Scream When You Burn: A Pound of Sacred Flesh from the Lap of Coffee Culture (1998) — Contributor, some editions — 22 copies, 1 review
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Demcak, Andrew
- Birthdate
- 1968-09-23
- Gender
- male
- Education
- San Jose State University, (MLIS), Saint Mary's College, Moraga, CA, (MFA)
- Occupations
- librarian
- Awards and honors
- Three Candles Press Open Book Award (2006), Featured Author at The Best American Poetry (2009), Winner Goodreads Newletter Poetry Contest (03/2009)
- Agent
- Carolyn French, Fifi Oscard Inc. NY
- Short biography
- Andrew Demcak* is an American poet and novelist, the author of four poetry collections and four Young Adult novels. His books have been featured by The American Library Association, Verse Daily, The Lambda Literary Foundation, The Best American Poetry, The Nervous Breakdown, and Poets/Artists. He was a *FINALIST* for the 2017 Gloria E. Anzaldúa Poetry Prize and the 2016 Louise Bogan Award for Artistic Merit and Excellence in Poetry. About his latest Teen GLBTQ Sci-Fi Coming-Out novel, A Little Bit Langston, Kirkus Reviews raved "This book really ... takes its place in the marginalized-will-lead-us genre, as popularized by The Matrix and the X-Men franchises." His first Young Adult (YA) novel, Ghost Songs, was published March 13, 2014. His first literary novel, If There's A Heaven Above, was published January 5, 2013 by JMS Books, and was nominated by The American Library Association as an "Outstanding" novel for older Teens (17+). His first play, The Inevitable Crunch Factor, won the Cal Arts' New Playwrights Series and was cast and produced in a multi-week run. His fourth book of poetry, Night Chant, was published by Lethe Press. His other poetry books are: A Single Hurt Color, GOSS 183::Casa Menendez Press, 2010, Zero Summer, BlazeVOX [Books], NY, 2009 and his first poetry book, Catching Tigers in Red Weather, three candles press, 2007, which was selected by Joan Larkin to win the Three Candles Press Open Book Award.
He was a 2010 Finalist for The Crazyhorse Poetry Award. His work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Lambda Award, Thom Gunn Poetry Award, both the California and Northern California Book Awards, Best of the Web, and others. He has an M. F. A. in English/Creative Writing from St. Mary's College in Moraga, CA , where he studied with Robert Hass, Brenda Hillman, Michael Palmer, Carol Snow, Frank Bidart, Gary Snyder, Charles Wright, and Sharon Olds. Andrew is also a member of the Squaw Valley Community of Writers, where he studied with Galway Kinnell, Richard Howard, and Lucille Clifton. His poems, including Young Man With iPod (Poetry Midwest, #13), are taught at Ohio State University as part of both its English 110.02 class, "The Genius and the Madman," and in its "American Poetry Since 1945" class. At the age of 23, Andrew published his first chapbook, The Psalms (Big 23 Press), which was favorably reviewed by Dr. Clifton Snider in the Small Press Review (issue 226, vol. 23, no. 11.)
*"Andrew Demcak." Contemporary Authors, Gale, 2017. Literature Resource Center, go.galegroup.com. Accessed 27 May 2017.
OCLC WorldCat Author Identities:
https://www.worldcat.org/wcidentities/...
Library of Congress Author Authority file:
http://viaf.org/viaf/88547073/ - Nationality
- USA
- Places of residence
- Oakland, California, USA
- Associated Place (for map)
- California, USA
Members
Reviews
The prolific Andrew Demcak returns in his third poetry collection, a single hurt color, with his pithy and succinct lyrics, full of agile turns and that crisp music we have come to know and appreciate from him. This time around Demcak organizes his work into three sections that explore our daily grammatical relationships to the world. Indeed, taking a cue from Gertrude Stein with the collection’s title, grammar is the thing that connects us, to the world and to each other. And so you will show more find Demcak’s consciousness starting broad, touching, holding, studying the objects and things and people of the third person, then narrowing to the more intimate “you” as a myriad of second persons are addressed, ending with the very immediate and singular first person “I” and the stories that make up that identity. While the list of objects and persons, living and dead, that people these poems are too numerous to list, each is chosen carefully for you to consider. You will read and re-read these poems as if it is the first time you’ve encountered the world as the world is refracted back to you through the hue of a “single hurt color,” that lens of a wine-blushed kaleidoscope. show less
The poems in A Single Hurt Color take us on winding, asymmetrical paths of loss, love, and grace. Demcak knows when language must be talky and when it must be tight, and, as a result, these poems unfold in an expansive “pageant of tongues.” He revels in sound, in rhythm, in all that makes the world simultaneously wobbly and secure. The present moment comes alive in the residue of the past, whether Demcak is quarreling with Freud on the beach, elegizing Versace, or serenading literary show more influences such as Zbigniew Herbert, Wallace Stevens, and, of course, Gertrude Stein.
--Tony Trigilio, author, The Lama’s English Lesson show less
--Tony Trigilio, author, The Lama’s English Lesson show less
An early review: "I freaking LOVED this story. Really and truly. Every so often a really beautiful story like Ghost Songs comes along that is primarily about a gay young man but still does total justice to the other people in his life, especially women.
I once read a blog post that mentioned that fleshed-out female characters can exist in M/M novels but not be a primary focus of the book, and I feel like you just turned that right on its head. I’ve been waiting so long for something like show more this, I can’t even tell you. I LOVED how you wrote Jennifer and Todd’s relationship, how important it was to both of their development into adults and as fully fledged characters. Neither of them was primarily defined by a romantic interest and instead helped one another grow and come of age. The same can be said of Todd’s relationship with his mother, Eddie, which was both heartbreaking and moving. I was so touched by Eddie’s process of recovery and how she and her son came to understand each other by the end of the book. There was no stereotyping in this book at all, especially not of the female characters, and I appreciated that on such a fundamental level.
Thank you so much for letting me read this wonderful manuscript! I truly couldn’t put it down and was so excited by how believable and human your characters were. Just lovely. Congratulations on having written such a great book, and I sincerely look forward to reading more from you in future! - Nan" show less
I once read a blog post that mentioned that fleshed-out female characters can exist in M/M novels but not be a primary focus of the book, and I feel like you just turned that right on its head. I’ve been waiting so long for something like show more this, I can’t even tell you. I LOVED how you wrote Jennifer and Todd’s relationship, how important it was to both of their development into adults and as fully fledged characters. Neither of them was primarily defined by a romantic interest and instead helped one another grow and come of age. The same can be said of Todd’s relationship with his mother, Eddie, which was both heartbreaking and moving. I was so touched by Eddie’s process of recovery and how she and her son came to understand each other by the end of the book. There was no stereotyping in this book at all, especially not of the female characters, and I appreciated that on such a fundamental level.
Thank you so much for letting me read this wonderful manuscript! I truly couldn’t put it down and was so excited by how believable and human your characters were. Just lovely. Congratulations on having written such a great book, and I sincerely look forward to reading more from you in future! - Nan" show less
"If There's A Heaven Above" takes the reader on a tour of the Southern California demi-monde goth scene of the mid-1980s, as seen through the eyes of club-kid, Matt. Andrew Demcak combines innocence with experience, sex and drugs, Love and Rockets, with just the right touch of poetry. It is a thrilling ride along the freeways and turntables of that era: when AIDS was new, Reagan was King, and hope was a wounded kitten, cared for by the creatures of the night. - Eric Norris, author of show more Nocturnal Omissions: A Tale of Two Poets (Sibling Rivalry Press) show less
Awards
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 14
- Also by
- 2
- Members
- 73
- Popularity
- #240,525
- Rating
- 4.6
- Reviews
- 7
- ISBNs
- 20
- Favorited
- 1
