The History of My World Tonight by Daniel Nester

With the publication of The History of My World Tonight, Daniel Nester has proven that he’s an absolute master of what he does; and what he does is dazzle us repeatedly with his elegant, prickly, and wickedly penetrating poems. Reading him is not unlike the greatness of discovering an eagle in a gift bag on your way home from a party: it’s not just great, it’s super freaky great.

—Todd Colby

In The History of My World Tonight, Daniel Nester re-envisions The Beach Boys, The Brady Bunch, and the Bible. He takes on the Munchkins, Montale, Monet, and masturbation. But that’s just the beginning. In these intimate confessional and experimental poems, Nester delivers a complex psyche along with deadpan social commentary. This is an engagingly funny and tender book.

—Denise Duhamel

We have in Daniel Nester a poet who speaks the language of the common man and woman—well, that is, assuming the common man and woman were gifted with an uncommonly over-the-top sense of humor and an entirely personal sense of what Being a Poet Means to Me. Nester’s working it out here, and it’s a good thing too. Somebody, in this Age of Various Pretentious Schools of Poetry, needs to cut through the shit and clarify why anyone would want to read or write poems at this point in history. And Nester, with his well-documented pop culture leanings and his not-so-well-documented soul-searching, is just the man for the job.

—Jonah Winter

Praise for God Save My Queen 

and God Save My Queen II:

“[O]ne of the more interesting personas I’ve seen emerge in recent prose”—Sean Thomas Doherty, American Book Review

“[C]onsiders a serious fan’s bliss impeccably”—Ken Tucker, The New York Times Book Review

“This book is touching, highly literate, thought-provoking and very funny, in every way as over-the-top as Queen ever was”
—Henry Yu, MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL

“Note to those Readers who still want to believe in devotional verse; for those who seek a cure for a spirit sunk under undifferentiated elegance: Take [Daniel] Nester’s God Save My Queen and God Save My Queen II and Reader, write me in the morning.”
—Ray McDaniel, Constant Critic

“Nobody writes rock geek poetry like Daniel Nester.”
—Jessa Crispin, Bookslut

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Daniel Nester is the author of God Save My Queen (Soft Skull Press, 2003) and God Save My Queen II (2004), both collections on his obsession with the rock band Queen. He edits the online journal Unpleasant Event Schedule and is Assistant Web Editor for Sestinas for McSweeney’s. He is an assistant professor of English at The College of Saint Rose in Albany, NY.

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