Grown Ass Men

"Dan Crocker's Grown Ass Men is a collection of stories about characters falling apart. Full of Crocker's exquisite gallows humor, brilliantly rendered details, and vibrant characters, this collection of stories sings with the gruff voices of the broken, grown ass men at its core. Like one of Springsteen's stark acoustic albums, these stories cut through nerve and bone in search of something real." -James Brubaker, author of The Taxidermist's Daughter. "Daniel Crocker's characters all wait for the next paycheck, which is always a little too far away. And they spend their waiting time wishing for a well-lit piece of luck. Crocker knows the world of packed dive bars and nearly empty apartments. He writes about parking lot fights and road trips, about friends who are like family and about sisters who can't help falling down. His stories have the same precision, empathy, and visceral energy as his poems. Like the late Raymond Carver, he is a beer seasoned storyteller in his poetry and a blue collar poet in his prose." -Mike James, author of Jumping Drawbridges in Technicolor "In Grown Ass Men, Daniel Crocker welcomes us into his world full of weary men and women who keep going even when they've given up. Spouses come and go and the alcohol flows and stops, but never for long; dogs are run over and efficiently buried, the blood left on the shirts of the living. His prose is spare and unflinching and true, and I will revisit these characters to keep me company when I'm wondering how the hell I'll make it through another day." -Mary Miller, author of Biloxi