Not So Fast Robespierre

In Not so Fast Robespierre, Buffalo's Johnny Appleseed of publishing lays out a public and private map of Buffalo's (and his personal) community. With his selected Western New York School and personal support system in place, he moves onto "The Book of Life", which, as always, proceeds disaster as Gatza battles through—rightly or wrongly—the "Cataclysm 535". Kevin Thurston, Performance Artist & Poet; author of I’am By placing equal stress on the pleasures and duties of friendship and the threat of natural catastrophe, Not So Fast, Robespierre rescues intimacy from self-involvement and affection from affectation, reinvigorating the confessional poem. Frank O'Hara once created convivial letters out of a collaged New York City life; today, in his labyrinth of lyric, email exchanges, notes, memoir, conspiracy and history, Geoffrey Gatza has achieved the poetry of the search engine and I.M. Evan Willner, author of homemade traps for new world Brians, nominated for a Pushcart Prize How can Geoffrey Gatza fit so much love between two cardboard covers? Not So Fast Robespierre snakes us through a world of poets, neighbors, teachers and muses, all with a raw devotion we would do well to wear on our own coat sleeves. This series of remembrances does not discriminate in spreading out for us equal measures of admiration and lessons learned because, in the end, "Everyone gets a gold star and cake in the friendly garden." Amy King, author of I’m the Man Who Loves You, twice nominated for the Lambda Award and Pushcart Nominee.