Nickolas Butler was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania, raised in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and was educated at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (BA, Honors English – 2002) and the University of Iowa Writers Workshop (MFA, Fiction – 2012). He is the recipient of the 2010 Roark Prize in Poetry, the 2007 Davis Demitasse Poetry Award, and a runner-up in the 2009 Wisconsin People & Ideas Poetry Contest. He has also been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in: the Progressive, The Christian Science Monitor, Ploughshares, Narrative, The Kenyon Review Online, Isthmus, Roast, Wisconsin State Journal, Madison Magazine, New Verse News, PANK, Volume One, Wisconsin People & Ideas, Sixth Finch, terrain.org, The Lumberyard, and Fresh Cup. His first novel, Shotgun Lovesongs, will be published in March of 2014 by Thomas Dunne/St. Martin’s Press. Along the way he has worked as: a telemarketer, a coffee roaster, a meatpacker, an innkeeper (twice), a liquor store clerk, an office manager, a hot dog vendor, and an author escort. He lives on 16 acres of land in rural Wisconsin. His next door neighbors are about 30 buffalo.
Light Travels Faster Downhill is part diary, part jukebox, part almanac, and also a locus for discussions regarding books, poetry, and writing in general.
Love the blog….I look forward to reading it often.
Love,
Aunt Jan
Frankly Nick, I like the blog myself.
It sounds like you did a better job of ringing in the new year than I did myself, but then I don’t have much stomach left for disapproving stares at the early hours of an emerging year.
I’d attack that Olive Branch from the coffee man and see about getting back into that world… seems like a good place.
I enjoy your writing Nick — look forward to reading more!
I think the writing is ok but what I’m really interested in, is the obsessive pursuit of trying to procure all memoribilia associated with King Kong Bundy. It’s admirable
I will buy one (or two)!
Hi Nickolas,
I couldn’t find your email on your site, so I guess I’m leaving a public comment!
I had a few questions about the Iowa program and found your blog while googling. Would you drop me an email if you have a chance so I can ask away?
Thanks in advance,
Jen Epting 🙂
Dear Nickolas,
I hope you’ll forgive my rather unconventional way of reaching out, but I read your story “Apples” in Ploughshares and admired it so I had to seek you out. I’m writing from the agency Lippincott Massie McQuilkin (www.lmqlit.com). We represent authors such as Anne Carson, Tom Perrotta, Roy Kesey, Michael Thomas, Natasha Trethewey and others, and I’d love to read the novel you’re working on, if you are interested (and do not yet have, of course) representation and are willing to share! Feel free to email me at christina@lmqlit.com and again, apologies for my method of contacting you but know that I am a fan and look forwarding to reading your work, both in prose and poetry, as your career continues. Many thanks,
Christina
Nickolas,
I stumbled across your story, “Apples,” recently, and I was very moved, not only by the story, but by your distinctive voice. Your writing reminds me, in a way, of Wendell Berry. Maybe this isn’t a very good comparison, but when you wrote about the simple pleasures of time spent in the apple orchard, it reminded me of him. And I was particularly fond of your metaphor “slept like two warm embers.” Great stuff!
Elliot
Congrats, Nick! I look forward to reading the novel. You’ve also inspired this old writer — 55 years old and still striving! All best!
WONDERFUL book, your “Shotgun Lovesongs”, young man, Mr. Butler.
good blessings .]
a.
[…] This week’s review: SHOTGUN LOVESONGS by Nickolas Butler […]
I just finished Shotgun Lovesongs and I must say I really loved it. I didn’t want it to end. We are discussing it for our book club next week and I look forward to the discussions it will generate.
We want to invite you to be a featured speaker at our Washington Island Literary Festival Oct. 2 – 5. Please get in touch and I can share with you the other authors who are participating and more details.