{"product_id":"without-saints-9781625570420","title":"Without Saints","description":"\u003cp\u003eWITHOUT SAINTS is a breathtaking journey to rediscover hope between the ruins: Poet Christopher Locke was baptized by Pentecostals, absolved by punk rock, and nearly consumed by narcotics. Like Denis Johnson's propulsive \u003cem\u003eJesus' Son\u003c\/em\u003e, Without Saints is a brief, muscular ride into the heart of American desolation, and the love one finds waiting for them instead.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis slim volume of essays packs a dense punch, propelled, like a carnival ride, through Locke's Pentecostal upbringing to his years as a drug-experimenting teen punk, to his teaching career, family, and intermittent struggles with substance abuse. Every scene is taut, like a highwire, the only steady presence Locke's lyrical, quiet prose. Locke knows how to make the ordinary feel fantastical and the fantastical ordinary.--Jen Michalski, author of \u003cem\u003eThe Tide King\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eThe Summer She Was Under Water\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHaunting and understated, Christopher Locke chronicles the secrets that bedevil every extended family.--David L . Marcus, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and author of \u003cem\u003eWhat it Takes to Pull Me Through\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChristopher Locke's WITHOUT SAINTS is an intimate and lyrical book of essays that begins with vivid and wondrous memories of childhood, into early adulthood's ambivalence around a worrying drug use, into the intimacies of being a husband and a father. And finally, into two of the book's knockouts: a beautiful remembrance of the poet and writer, Donald Hall, and a probing look at what it's like to teach a creative writing workshop inside the walls of a federal prison. Locke's writing is up close and personal and brave--always revealing, always acknowledging the tenderness and melancholy of living out loud.--Michael Klein, author of \u003cem\u003eTrack Conditions\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLiterary Nonfiction. Essays.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Black Lawrence Press, Inc.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 10\/15\/2022\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781625570420\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 101\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.31lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.24d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e 07\/11\/2022\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Christopher Locke","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42342687178933,"sku":"9781625570420","price":18.66,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_803d8bf5-9f59-41c8-9ec1-97ac0ac372c5.jpg?v=1661262690","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/without-saints-9781625570420","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}