Product Description
by Danny Shot (Author), Michele McDannold (Editor)
The stories in Night Bird Flying (fiction and nonfiction) deal with coming of age in the New Jersey/New York Metropolitan area, as well as ruminations on the importance of family ties, friendship, and mortality. These stories also traverse the literary world of New York's Lower East Side as well as the reality of being a career public high school teacher in the largest city in the United States.
"An elemental reason for reading a book is if you like the voice and it seems like someone you want to spend time with. A good reason for owning and rereading it. Night Bird Flying is one of those. A masterful memoir of a real man, meaning a fella who takes care of business. Dan Shot is a solid citizen of the cosmos, teenage waste product, significant high school teacher, bohemian royalty, family man and always a relentless writer. These stories are a rueful, rollicking consideration of his own biography. He certainly has needs, he hilariously has quirks, and he'll carry you on a fascinating tour of the checkpoints of his time on earth. I'm scattered through the book, we surfed these waves together, yet there's plenty that's new to me. It's nice to spend time with friends here and gone. Laugh and weep about the wackos we loved."-the dirty poet, author of Emergency Room Wrestling
"I love this book! Danny Shot's boldly honest prose kept me turning the page even while it was punching me in the gut. From 1970s New Jersey to Manhattan's Beat Poetry Scene to the present day, this book grabs you by the wrist and yanks you into its world."-Chavisa Woods, author of Things To Do When You're Goth in the Country and 100 Times
"Like its namesake the Hendrix song Night Bird Flying, this collection of stories builds and builds until you think it's hit a plateau. Then it builds upon itself again. Danny Shot leaves a lot of blood on the page. From memoir to creative writing all these separate pieces complement each other until we have the essence of a man's life, his youth, and the world of Beat Poetry he's been a part of since the 70s. What I like most about Danny Shot's writing is that it hits the sweet spot where things can be both funny and sad at the same time. Life is just fucked-up, but good story-telling keeps us from feeling that way."-Westley Heine, author of Busking Blues: Recollections of a Chicago Street Musician & Squatter
