One of our six Pushcart nominations, Ocean Vuong’s “Self-Portrait with Exit Wounds,” has won a Pushcart Prize and will be featured in the next Pushcart anthology. The poem first appeared in ASSARACUS ISSUE 08. Congratulations, Ocean!
DIRTY SOCKS AND PINE NEEDLES
“…something resembling a heirloom quilt –
torn, ragged, stained and deeply loved…”
Dirty Socks and Pine Needles
An SRP Digital-Exclusive eBook Single
ISBN: 978-1-937420-22-2
$2.99
Featuring Cover Photograph by Disha Hisham
Now Available!
Buy from the SRP Store
Buy from Amazon’s Kindle Store
The eBook. We do not choose our family. We love them or want to love them. We embrace them or run from them. We leave them or become them. Through it all, we are linked by the commonality of a shared blood, and in Dirty Socks and Pine Needles, a sweet and funny eBook single from Sibling Rivalry Press, Tyler Gillespie explores that link by way of the intricate relationships between parent and child, grandmother and grandson, grandfather and grandson, nephew and uncle, and older and younger brother. The resulting vignettes paint a portrait of a family and the tender-hearted boy at its center, whose first images of himself come from the reflections of those around him.
Jason Cook of The Ampersand says: ”Dirty Socks and Pine Needles marks the emergence of a powerful voice. Tyler Gillespie’s writing is confident and vulnerable, his narrator as honest in his own failings as those of everyone else. His spare eloquence paints complex pictures with just a few words, creating stories that are jewel-like in their tiny, multi-faceted clarity.”
_____
READ A REVIEW in the WINDY CITY TIMES.
_____
Reader Reaction.
From Chuck Willman:
Dirty Socks and Pine Needles takes the reader on a remarkable trip guided by a young man with an old soul. Mr. Gillespie’s imagery is so crystal clear I felt as though I had been with him for every single moment of each ‘story.’ His writing is crisp and sharp, yet almost soothing. But most importantly, his work has a truth to it that is both rare and refreshing, leaving you begging for more.
From Franki Elliot:
In Dirty Socks and Pine Needles, Tyler Gillespie elegantly uses his storytelling to weave his strange, off-kilter childhood memories into a collection of melancholic beauty. Gillespie’s stories are brave, honest, and seamlessly told with an innocence that has the ability to unlock the dark memories most have buried in their consciousness. There is no better talent than turning heartache into beauty.
From Matthew Loney:
Deeply personal and unabashedly confessional, Dirty Socks and Pine Needles deftly stitches the fractals of memory into something resembling a heirloom quilt – torn, ragged, stained and deeply loved.
The Author. Tyler Gillespie graduated from the University of Central Florida with a B.A. in English Literature and a B.S.B.A. in General Business Administration. He was a Junior Editor at Ampersand Books, an independent publishing house. Along with copy-editing and acquisitions duties, he was responsible for marketing, using traditional methods along with various social media platforms. He has been published in places such as Creative Loafing, Yahoo!, The Ampersand Review, Thought Catalog, Windy City Times, and Writer’s Digest, among others. Tyler lives in Chicago.
Comments
Trackbacks & Pingbacks