Under the Influence of Nothingness

Dan Provost is a keen observer, jotting down his thoughts in his little notebook, documenting the failures of humanity, wanting nothing more than to be proven wrong. More importantly, he looks inward, exploring loneliness, depression, self-loathing, and all the truths that most people don’t want to confront. He is not afraid of showing his darkest sides, which allows you to trust his narrative and empathize with his plight. I have always admired Dan’s matter-a-fact style and the way that hidden in the rough landscape of his words, you find images to marvel over.

-Rebecca Schumejda, author of Something Like Forgiveness

Dan calls his poetry confessions of loneliness, and many of the poems lay bare the depression of modern drudgery and hopelessness, but it’s the poems themselves that rise up through the grime, the empty bottles, the murky waters, and they create a footpath. This path is slightly different for each of us, and Dan’s poems lead him out of the darkness and into the dark, ever onward. He may call that a struggle, but I see strength. I see endurance. I see a man who cannot be broken any further–the ultimate excuse to keep going, to keep writing. And for us to keep reading his work.

– James Duncan, author of We Are All Terminal But This Exit Is Mine

Dan Provost and I go back a long way and I’ve been fortunate enough to see him get to where he is now. I think he would be the first to tell you that his earlier work was deeply influenced by Charles Bukowski, and while this latest collection has a similar dark edge, I’ll say this work is Provost influenced by Provost, painful, personal, the poems here no longer walk a mile in another man’s shoes, but move forward to create their own path for readers to connect with.

–John Dorsey