The People Are Like Wolves to Me - Softcover

Taylor Jr., William

Softcover

ISBN 13: 9798992500998

Publisher: Roadside Press, 2025

Synopsis

This collection offers readers a powerful and honest exploration of the human experience in contemporary life, grappling with themes of fear, profound loneliness, existential challenges, and the persistent search for moments of beauty and meaning amidst difficult circumstances.

William Taylor Jr. lives and writes in San Francisco. He is the author of numerous books of poetry, and a volume of fiction. His work has been published widely in literary journals, including Rattle, The New York Quarterly, and The Chiron Review. He was a recipient of the 2013 Kathy Acker Award, and edited Cocky Moon: Selected Poems of Jack Micheline (Zeitgeist Press, 2014).

“In The People Are Like Wolves To Me, William Taylor Jr. again takes the poetry community to task by showing what true poetic craftsmanship is. Each line, every word brings forth a clear story and clean emotion, even if the stories and emotions themselves are dirty and desolate. The quality of his writing keeps us always hungry for his next poem. William taps into a keg of our collective fears of loneliness. Our seven-drinks-in wondering desperation of does this life matter? Do I matter? And the, just-one-more-for-the-road kind of saving-grace wisdom, that, sometimes it is best to just sit and pay acute attention to what is right in front of you. You may not immediately pick up the twisted redemption that runs through this book, but it is there throughout if you simply sit down, grab a drink and pay attention.”—Todd Cirillo, author of Disposable Darlings

“William Taylor Jr, the poet laureate of Melancholy Country, returns with a collection sure to break your heart and reinforce that nagging feeling in the back of your soul that nothing we do ever really matters in the grand scheme of empty things. The People Are Like Wolves to Me is a collection of the most beautiful poetry you're likely to read this year, laced with bone deep sadness without a splinter of levity to cut the existential bite, yet, somehow, despite our collective nullity vaguely forming on the horizon, there remains notes of hope and grace for the writer and the reader.”—Karl Koweski, author of Thrift Store Jackets and others

“The latest offerings from William Taylor Jr. don Bacall’s silk stockings, then wander into a Hopper painting and order a Negroni. These poems smell like Gene Kelly’s trench coat in a midnight rain, and leave an aftertaste of dreams that may have died in a seedy alley, but my god, the joy they sparked on their way out is something to remember. Taylor’s voice is persistent, weary, and timeless. Come for the sharp observations; stay for the shy optimism that permeates his work. The collection will take a seat in your mind and linger long after the drinks settle in.”—Sedona Finzer

Edition details

• Publisher: Roadside Press
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 13: 9798992500998
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 90
• Editor: McDannold Michele