“The Stuntman” Book Discussion | Oakland

Submitted by the Event Organizer

DIESEL, A Bookstore in Oakland welcomes Brian Laidlaw to the store to discuss and sign The Stuntman: Poems on Thursday, September 24th at 6:30pm, (there may even be a song or two).

The Stuntman is a debut collection of poems by Brian Laidlaw inspired by Bob Dylan and inhabits the Minnesota mining country of Dylan’s birth.

“THE EARTH BROKE OPEN CAUSE [sic] WE BROKE IT OPEN,” blares the first line of this enrapturing debut collection mapping the myth of Narcissus and Echo and the Iron Range roots of Bob Dylan onto a world growing increasingly self-obsessed. Against the backdrop of the mining town of Hibbing, Minnesota, Brian Laidlaw examines the ways narcissism has flooded culture. Much like a “hawk has a horizontal sweet spot on its retina / for spotting prey on the prairie,” the speaker of these poems “has a narcissus / shaped sweet spot / all the better to spot himself.” The volume comes combined with a brand new LP from Laidlaw produced by Brett Bullion, co-arranged by Hibbing native Danny Vitali, and featuring members of The Pines and Halloween, Alaska. Expanding on the themes addressed in Narcissus the Stuntman, the album provides listeners an innovative multimedia experience

Brian Laidlaw is a poet, songwriter and educator from San Francisco, currently living in Minneapolis. He studied Creative Writing as an undergraduate at Stanford University, where he first began setting his poems to music. His poems have now been published in journals including New American Writing, The Iowa Review, Handsome, Volt, Quarter After Eight and many others.

Disclaimer: Please double check event information with the event organizer as events can be canceled, details can change after they are added to our calendar, and errors do occur.