JASON IRWIN: 2013

Monday, December 23, 2013

poem in The Buffalo News

http://www.buffalonews.com/life-arts/poem-of-the-week/poem-of-the-week-by-jason-irwin-20131220

Sunday, December 22, 2013

2 poems in The New Yinzer, Fall, 2013

http://www.newyinzer.com/invisible_cities/ic1.html

Sunday, December 8, 2013

Book Release Party for Scott Silsbe

https://www.facebook.com/events/256511647832523/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular

Saturday, November 16, 2013

"Trajectory" in Slipstream #33

http://www.slipstreampress.org/issue33.html

Sunday, September 1, 2013

"Checkpoint" @ Willits Shakespeare Theatre

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MiSQE-6ASQ&feature=youtu.be

Saturday, August 10, 2013

Review of "Civilization" by Terry Shea

The second half delves into weightier territory with the Kate Lester-directed Civilization, written by Jason Irwin. A slightly longer effort than the rest, Civilization attempts to pack hours of treatise into a small package and mostly succeeds. It’s a Mad Max world where Samuel Beckett reinterprets Pink Floyd’s Animals and throws three archetypes of the Western paradigm into a wasteland on the way to an elusive, and possibly illusory, paradise in the desert. Us and Them, the circular logic of history, the subjective nature of safety, love and conflict … it’s a lot to cover in a short tale, but Blanche Case, Alex Duckworth and John Carpenter grasp this slightly overwritten material with gusto and Lester’s direction keeps the tension high. Civilization is one of those works that seems custom-built for a post-show talkback and will play well in academic settings, but almost swallows its own tongue in this particular package.http://motifri.com/a-second-wave-of-one-act-plays-at-the-artists-exchange/

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

CIVILIZATION @Artists' Exchange One Act Festival 8/4/13

Saturday, July 13, 2013

"Civilization" @ Artist's Exchange 8th Annual One Act Festival

http://www.artists-exchange.org/oneactfest.html

Saturday, June 29, 2013

poetry & music on the radio 88.3 fm @ CMU

http://www.sendspace.com/file/4atl2g

Saturday, June 15, 2013

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

I just found this review of Watering the Dead by C.L. Bledsoe. It was originally posted 6/21/12

http://clbledsoe.blogspot.com/2012/06/reviews.html

Watering the Dead, poems by Jason Irwin. Ohio: Pavement Saw Press, 2007.

I’ve been meaning to get to this one for a while, but I had a baby, so…but I finally had a chance to read this collection and I loved it. Jason Irwin first came to my attention with his phenomenal chapbook Some Days It’s a Love Story, which I reviewed here. Pretty much what I said about the chapbook is true for the full length collection. He's done exactly what he should've done; expanded the solid chap. into a really good collection.

Irwin dealt with working class life, hard times in the rust belt. His language was clean and powerful. I was excited to see such a profoundly talented new voice. In Watering the Dead, Irwin continues with these themes. He's incorporated several poems from the chapbook into this debut collection, so it's got a solid core. Here's a link to the website with several of the better poems.

Several of Irwin's poems deal with growing up in a working class neighborhood. There are portraits of abuse, desperation, fathers who've wasted their lives for the profits of others, and young men who can already see their deaths on the horizon. Irwin writes like a Bruce Springsteen song. These poems depict hard lives -- but Irwin isn't pouring it on; he's simply chronicling the America we so rarely see in university literary journals.

The book is available here.