Demons of Eminence (Artist's Edition)
by Joshua Escobar
#16 in the Fellow Travelers Series, Special Artist's Edition designed by the author
For the regular (Jank) edition of Demons of Eminence, click here.
The debut novel of poet Joshua Escobar (aka DJ Ashtrae + Little Piñata), winner of The Bo Huston Prize 2023.
In Demons of Eminence a young travel nurse and self-described "cumdump" observes and sanctifies the friendship between an aging gay porn star and a goth chola dropout half his age, one that leads to them throwing endless parties in the industrial scrublands of SoCal's Inland Empire at the height of the pandemic.
Joshua Escobar is author of the chapbooks Califorkya Voltage (No, Dear/Small Anchor) and xxox fm (Doublecross Press), and a full-length collection of poems, Bareback Nightfall (Noemi Press and Letras Latinas) that was a finalist for the 2021 California Book Award. He won The Bo Huston Prize 2023. He lives in West Hollywood, CA.
"Hail the sad-boys, demon twinks, puppy punks, burly cholos, gurlie goths, marijuanos, gay tweekers, DL dudes, plaid vaqueros, circuit fairies, trans otters, lesbian-poet-theorists, and leathered manwhores who people Joshua Escobar’s inspired and lovingly rendered universe. Suspended between COVID stay-at-home orders and the strained capacity of a hospital’s ICU, a glitter-spangled affirmation blazes through suffering, loss, and loneliness in a euphoria of sex-parties and drug-fueled raves around Southern California’s Inland Empire. In hard-edged prose with an ear for the feverish poetry of gay banter and elective joto affinities, Escobar expertly captures the intergenerational 'crossfire of pain and ambition' as the festival of youth begins to fade into the night horizon between Fontana and Los Angeles."
—Roberto Tejada
The author has created a 3-hour-long playlist for the book on Spotify, here.
