Published by Vagabondage Press, EXPERIENCED: Rock Music Tales of Fact & Fiction explores the topsy-turvy world of rock 'n' roll as only fine literature can. Its 16 compelling narratives relate the lives of touring musicians and touring fans, label signings gone awry, the evolution of life as a roadie, or (in one case) a DJ with a serial killer for a caller. While the stories are unique to each writer, you’ll discover within them an experience that is universal. Some are fiction and some non-fiction, but they’re all true.

Contributors

JIM DEROGATIS was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, the year the Beatles arrived in America, and began voicing his opinions about rock ’n’ roll shortly thereafter. He a full-time lecturer in the English Department at Columbia College Chicago, writes the “PopNStuff” music and culture blog for WBEZ.org, and co-hosts Sound Opinions, “the world’s only rock ’n’ roll talk show,” with Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune. He has written nine books, most of them about popular music, including Let It Blurt: The Life and Times of Lester Bangs, America's Greatest Rock Critic.

FRED de VRIES (1959) is a Dutch writer/journalist, who moved to South Africa in 2003 to write a biography of Beat poet Sinclair Beiles. Earlier he wrote Respect! (with Toine Heijmans), a book about hiphop in Europe. In 2006 he published Club Risiko, a close and personal look at 80s underground, including chapters on Sonic Youth and Einstürzende Neubauten. Recently he published a collection of his South African interviews: The Fred de Vries Interviews; From Abdullah to Zille.

SEAN ENNIS is a Philadelphia, PA native now living in Water Valley, MS where he teaches writing and literature for the University of Mississippi and the Gotham Writers' Workshop. His work has appeared in Tin House, The Greensboro Review, The Mississippi Review and The Best New American Voices anthology, among others. He was also the singer for the garage band, The Clocks, from 1997 to 2001.

LAUREL GILBERT lives in Ohio where she teaches composition, literature and creative writing. Her fiction has appeared in Iron Horse Literary Review and The Gettysburg Review, She is the co-author of SurferGrrrls: Look Ethel, An Internet Guide for Us! (Seal Press, 1996), and her essays have appeared in various anthologies. Laurel was a 2009 Tennessee Williams Scholar at Sewanee Writers Conference, and is a graduate of The Ohio State University's MFA program.

BRIAN GOETZ never became a Rock and Roll star, however, he still produces music for his record label, chunkabillymusic.com, and plays around the Seacoast of New Hampshire area with his band, the Sidewalk Boys. He is most pleased with the fact that they all play acoustic instruments and that all of the gear can fit into the back of his Ford Taurus wagon.

JAMES GREER is a novelist and screenwriter. He used to play in a band called Guided by Voices. Artificial Light (put out by Dennis Cooper's Little House on the Bowery imprint) won a California Book Award for best debut novel. His new novel, The Failure, has just been published by Akashic Books. He used to be Senior Editor/Writer for Spin magazine. He lives some of the time in Los Angeles.

ED HAMILTON is the author of Legends of the Chelsea Hotel: Living with the Artists and Outlaws of New York’s Rebel Mecca (DeCapo Press). His work has appeared in various small journals, including Limestone Review, Riverwalk Journal, SoMa Literary Review, and Modern Drunkard. His short story collection, The End of Sonny’s Bar, will soon be available as an Amazon e-book.

HAROLD JAFFE is the author of 17 books of fiction, "docufiction" and non-fiction, including Straight Razor, Sex for the Millennium, False Positive, 15 Serial Killers, Jesus Coyote, Anti-Twitter: 150 50-Word Stories, and Paris 60. Jaffe is the editor of Fiction International.

BRAD KAVA is a columnist, author and harmonica player in Santa Cruz, California. A former critic with the San Jose Mercury News, he now writes for Examiner.com. He is part owner of Northern California's best continuously running blues festival, the Santa Cruz Blues Festival, which brings the best acts in blues to this beach town every Memorial Day weekend.

DAVID MENCONI is the music critic at The News & Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina. He has written for Spin, The New York Times, Billboard, No Depression and a host of other publications (many of which no longer exist). He also wishes he could play drums like Keith Moon.

COREY MESLER has published in numerous journals and anthologies. He has published four novels, Talk: A Novel in Dialogue (2002), We Are Billion-Year-Old Carbon (2006), The Ballad of the Two Tom Mores (2010) and Following Richard Brautigan (2010), a full length poetry collection, Some Identity Problems (2008), and a book of short stories, Listen: 29 Short Conversations (2009). He has also published a dozen chapbooks of both poetry and prose. He has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize numerous times, and two of his poems have been chosen for Garrison Keillor’s Writer’s Almanac. He also claims to have written, “Dang Me.” With his wife, he runs Burke’s Book Store, one of the country’s oldest (1875) and best independent bookstores. He can be found at www.coreymesler.com.

ADAM MOORAD’s writing has widely appeared in print and online. He is the author of Prayerbook (wft pwm, 2010), I Went To the Desert (Thunderclap Press, 2010), Oikos (nonpress, 2010), and Book of Revelations (Artistically Declined Press, 2011). He lives in Brooklyn. Visit him here: adamadamadamadamadam.blogspot.com.

SCOTT NICHOLSON is the bestselling author of 12 thrillers, including Disintegration, Speed Dating with the Dead, The Skull Ring, and The Red Church. He's also written the YA paranormal series October Girls and, with J.R. Rain, the suspense novel Cursed! Nicholson has also created the comics series DIRT and Grave Conditions and has written six screenplays. His website is www.hauntedcomputer.com.

CARL PEEL is a native of Los Angeles, California. He works as a music producer/executive and in his spare time he writes fiction for which he’s been the recipient of a PEN USA Emerging Voices Fellowship, and a Ragdale Fellowhip. He’s currently working on a novel which was shortlisted for the James Jones First Novel Award and the Virginia Festival of the Book Great American Novel Award.

J. T. TOWNLEY’s fiction and essays have appeared in Harvard Review, Prairie Schooner, The Red Anthology, and other places. He has done editorial work for Zoetrope: All-Story and currently teaches at The University of Virginia. His virtual rock band The Real Enchiladas can be heard at www.myspace.com/therealenchiladasrock.

TIM WEED’s short fiction has appeared in Colorado Review, Gulf Coast, Boston Fiction Annual Review, and elsewhere. He's penned nonfiction magazine articles on topics as diverse as travel, cross-country and backcountry skiing, fly-fishing, UFO’s, and national parks. His current home is rural Vermont, where he designs and administers international educational programs for National Geographic Student Expeditions.