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AFTER HOURS Poems by Jason Roush Published by Windstorm Creative in November 2005 (ISBN 978-1-59092-239-2) In his mesmerizing debut poetry collection, AFTER HOURS, Jason Roush interweaves the worlds of personal nostalgia and urban nightlife—Boston, New York, London, Paris, Rome—to arrive at a quietly exhilarating fusion of atmosphere and sensibility. Dreams and waking life, memory and desire, sprawling cityscapes and Ohio countrysides: all conspire under a veil of darkness that comforts and unsettles at once. Lucid yet intricate, this tightly knit sequence of twenty-two poems offers a bold, introspective view of people and places spellbound by the night. AFTER HOURS is available at Amazon.com and via the publisher's website: CLICK HERE TO ORDER Cover Image: Piccadilly Circus at Dusk (Photo by Jason Roush, 1997) "Fasten your seatbelt. Jason Roush, at the wheel of a 2004 Constellation, is about to take you there. This maker of pyrotechnic nocturnes pricks out patterns of imagery and sound with the combined skills of the jeweler and folk-rock star, showing us how to be wise and fresh in the same breath. Ohio, which seems to be the Poetry State, adds a new brilliant to the crown that already boasts Hart Crane, James Wright, Richard Howard, and Rita Dove." —Alfred Corn "There's something exceptionally clean about these poems. Though emotional they aren't messy, though full of regular young stuff, they're more fairytale than worldly. Jason's not at all like Rilke, but he's writing on a very light edge that kind of twinkles—nearly sad about being alive, yet consumed with taking a picture." —Eileen Myles "Meticulous, candid, poised, this outstanding first book has the passion and cool of art. Jason Roush is a striking, genuine new talent and AFTER HOURS is a wonderful read." —Robert Pinsky Jason Roush teaches writing, literature, and cultural studies at Emerson College, where he is Faculty Assistant to the Director of the Honors Program. His poems, criticism, and other writings have appeared in Bay Windows, Brooklyn Review, Cimarron Review, The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide, The James White Review, Lambda Book Report, Out Magazine, Provincetown Magazine, 236, Verse Daily. and the anthology This New Breed: Gents, Bad Boys and Barbarians 2 (published by Windstorm Creative). His second book of poems, BREEZEWAY, was released in September 2007. He can be reached via e-mail at: ProfRoush@aol.com (Web text and images protected under copyright, 2007) (Author Photo by Paul Rivenberg, 2003)