Join us for an evening with poets

Daryl Gussin & James Norman

to discuss their latest collections

Shake Hands with the Man in My Hand

&

How to Set Yourself on Fire and Call It Art

with poet Linz Smyers

to be held at Solid State Books on H St. NE

Tickets are available here!

Join us for an evening with poets Daryl Gussin and James Norman to celebrate their new collections, Shake Hands with the Man in My Hand and How to Set Yourself on Fire and Call It Art.

"Daryl Gussin seamlessly tackles the social, political, and personal in a way that perfectly blurs the lines between the three, leaving the reader with an understanding that these lines don't really exist."
-Buddah, Razorcake #152

How to Set Yourself on Fire and Call It Art, the fifth collection by James Norman focuses on his relationship with activism. Don’t worry, no billboards were harmed in the making of this book.

With a passion, Daryl Gussin has been awkwardly standing around at punk shows for the last twenty-something years. Thankfully at some point in his late teens he decided to become a little more productive, and has been working on zines, setting up shows, and playing in bands since then. In 2006, he became integrally involved in Razorcake fanzine where he is currently the managing editor. His writing revolves around the honest, bittersweet, and ultimately triumphant aspects of counterculture and its flavorful inhabitants. The heartbreaks, the implosions, and the defiant victories. Community over commercialism, create and destroy.

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James Norman is a carpenter, ditch digger, bartender, farmer, billboard alteration enthusiast, train hitchhiker, photographer, and he writes poems the way his more successful peers write grant applications. You can find him traveling the countryside in his van, which has no air conditioning. He is a real road warrior, even if the road is winning, mostly. It's still a fun ride. So throw a thumb, he'll pick you up. Then, you can break down together...

Linz Smyers (they/she/he) is an artist and swamp gremlin residing near Washington DC. This bardic inspired human experiments with a variety of skills ranging from growing herbal teas and food, to sewing and shoemaking, to spinning and weaving foraged fibers. In his sanctuary, needles and threads are wielded like magic, as she breathes life into fabrics, stitching stories of raw self expression. A lover of growth and creation, Linz spends time in the woods, their garden, and in connection with friends and family, whispering secrets of renewal. 

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