Something Written, Something Thought, by John Andrew Fredrick

Poetry, chapbook, 36 pages, from Bottlecap Features.

At once traditional and experimental, Something Written, Something Thought limns a Sixties American suburban world in all its bygone tropes of harmony and discovery. With extraordinary compassion—as well as bursts of great humor—Fredrick’s poems here smack of the singularly painterly (which comes as no surprise, given that aside from his music and novels he’s an accomplished abstract painter).

The verse here subverts the lyrical genre’s proclivity for sentimentality and nostalgia; instead, it probes the possibilities and trickiness of memory, of hope, little glories, and the ways in which the past is never over. Fans of Philip Larkin, Lewis Carroll, T.S. Eliot (in his more whimsical modes), and, yes, Dean Young will find much to admire here.

John Andrew Fredrick has published five comedic novels and one book on the early films of Wes Anderson. He is the principal songwriter of an indie rock band called the black watch that has released twenty-five albums to considerable acclaim from such publications as Rolling Stone, Magnet, Mojo, Shindig!, and many others. His poems have appeared in The Los Angeles Review, Artillery, Santa Barbara Magazine, Spectrum, and elsewhere. He taught English Literature for many years at USC, UCSB, LMU, and Santa Monica College. He teaches tennis for kids and lives in Angeleno Heights. This is his first collection.