This is Joshua (they/them). Residing in Boulder, they spend most of their time writing. To Joshua, writing is like breathing. It helps keep them grounded, it provides stability and contentedness. Their first book “This Way to Exit, Millennialism & New Poems” feels like a “wonky book” to them. A collection of disparate poems, self-published in 2015, with unorganized promotion. Joshua hopes to remedy that with their next publication. Now they have the confidence to ask organizers to be featured after shows, to make cold calls to bookstores, and just generally be more open to what the world has to offer when you put your vulnerable self out there. A major bummer: Amazon now basically owns the book if they wanted to use it for anything due to the self-pub service being bought.
The writing style Joshua employs is of the Allen Ginsberg school: “first thought best thought.” They use structure sparingly but they find it can help with creativity.
Like all of us, Joshua can have difficulty caring for themselves. An interesting irony of their life is that after facing houselessness, and facing the challenges of bipolar disorder, they are now assistant manager of houseware at McGuckins Hardware. Joshua talked about living in Chicago, and how they enjoyed the forthrightness of everything there. They feel Coloradans avoid direct conflict. Love that.
For their second book, they hope to find a local press, and it will be a full collection of free verse poetry (as opposed to the 20% of form poems in the first collection). They view it as an ode to America, while also being a critique of it. Whitmanesque. One book I am excited about is their memoir about homelessness, and their plan is interesting too: they will shop it out to 20 agents and if all of them reject it they will self-publish it. I hope it gets picked up. The biggest takeaway Joshua wants us to get is that they have overcome some major obstacles in life through facing homelessness, and through the power of family, friends, and God, and the pure force of will and determination they have come through the other end alright. Adapt and overcome! Another fine friend of The People of the Front Range.