Circle of Sawdust

Winner, 2025 London Book Festival

Gold, Nonfiction, 2024 Literary Titan Book Award

Kirkus Reviews' Best Indie Books of 2024

First Prize, Creative Nonfiction, 2024 North Street Book Prize

Circle of Sawdust is a uniquely personal story of the wild characters, fascinating personalities, remarkable histories, and behind-the-scenes world of traditional traveling circuses.

Here is a true-life tale about a boy's impulse to run off and join the circus and then-through doubt, failure, loss, and tragedy-pursue the implausible vision of starting his own circus! With humor and passion, founder of Circus Smirkus Rob Mermin writes about the precarious life of a creative artist, the ups and downs of taking risks, and the idealistic struggle to hold onto a dream.

Rob Mermin ran off to join the circus in 1969 and studied the art of mime with Marcel Marceau. An accomplished performer, entrepreneur, author, lecturer, playwright, and director, Rob founded the award-winning international touring company Circus Smirkus in Greensboro, Vermont.