Grave For The Past:
A Review of Stephen J. Golds'
Shadows Slow Dancing In Derelict Rooms
By Justin Lee
When I think of Stephen J. Golds, I think of punk rock. No, it's not because he is the editor of Punk Noir Magazine. It's because of the sheer honesty and simplicity of his work. The blazenness of it. His short fiction and poetry has appeared everywhere. Rock and a Hard Place, Bristol Noir, and Shotgun Honey to name a few. But, they never read like anyone else's words. One thing that is and will always be true is that genre fiction can become formulaic to a fault. Luckily for us all, there are writers out there bucking that structure. Golds is there at the forefront and Shadows Slow Dancing In Derelict Rooms is just another testament of that.
Shadows Slow Dancing In Derelict Rooms follows Vincent and the ramifications of the death of his love Amelie. Vincent has his demons. He suffers from severe depression and has attempted suicide numerous times. Amelie has her own issues and together they have one of the wildest loves I can think of in fiction. I was reminded of Raymond Carver's What We Talk About When We Talk About Love throughout this book. Carver's story speaks to the messiness of love. Of life. Golds takes that messiness and shows it to us starkly. Amelie and Vincent love each other without a doubt. The emotion leaks off the page. They just can't hold it together though. Not for themselves, not for each other. It's like what I imagine watching the brightest star imaginable implode is like.
Vincent spends the duration of this book trying to fix in his mind, in his memories, the things that were broken. This line could be a thesis statement: “Look, all right, the mistakes don’t matter now. I don’t want to argue about the past anymore, I want to change it".
Golds' writing style matches the franticness of the story he is telling, but it is beautiful. Golds is a poet and this book could be read as one long poem. There are lines that sing, and some that sting. There are numerous instances of repetition that at first glance could throw off a reader. But, that's the beauty of it. It's all character based. That repetition goes hand in hand with Vincent's inability to move on from a moment, from a person, from a time he'll never get back.
Golds isn't a household name, which is a crying shame. Like Bukowski and Carver, I think we are dealing with a cult status writer. People in the know love his work, and the others don't know what they are missing. Golds is one of the leading lights of dirty realism.
Interview with the Author
JL: Would you mind giving an introduction to the people who may be unfamiliar with you and your work?
SG: I’m a writer and poet living in Japan. Lived in Japan for over 16 years and have been writing since the Fall of 2019. I write mostly in what the majority of people would call the crime genre but try to merge the lines between most genres dealing in the darker sides of life. I’ve published an interconnected trilogy of noir novels — Say Goodbye When I’m Gone, Always the Dead and I’ll Pray When I’m Dying. These novels collectively span the 1920’s to the 1960’s and are set in Japan, Hawaii, Boston, New York and Los Angeles. Sadly, they’re going out of print soon due to the demise of my beloved publisher Red Dog Press, but they should be available again sometime in early 2024, so watch this space for some pretty big news.
I also have a twisted and fucked up love story about borderline personality disorder and time travel — Shadows Slow Dancing in Derelict Rooms — available from the awesome OUTCAST PRESS, along with my newest poetry collection — Half-Empty Doorways and Other Injuries.
JL: Who are some of your biggest influences?
SG: Too many to mention, but the main ones have been — Richard Brautigan, John Fante, Billy Childish, Charles Bukowski, Sarah Kane, James M. Cain, Jim Thompson, Tim O’Brien, Graham Greene, Tobias Wolff, Raymond Carver, S. Craig Zahler, Richard Yates, Arthur Nersesian, Dominic Nolan, Anthony Neil Smith and Will Carver.
JL: Do you have a desert island book?
SG: That’s a tough one, but I think it's got to be Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski. It’s raw and beautifully written and taught me that you can write about ugly things in a beautiful way and beautiful things in an ugly way.
JL: Dirty Realism. What about that genre speaks to you and influences your writing? Does it play a role in how you read as well?
SG: As a reader I’m drawn to anything that’s genuine or shamelessly honest and as a writer I believe that’s the only way to write. I think it's extremely important to write with your heart on your sleeve, no matter what genre you’re writing in.
JL: Crime fiction at large can be guilty of being too polished. By that, I mean a story, despite its entertainment value, can almost seem mechanical in style. Your stuff never comes across that way. I've read your short story collection, “Love Like Bleeding Out with an Empty Gun in Your Hand,” and there were numerous times that the emotion and rawness of your stories hit me
pretty hard. Do you think your experience as a poet has helped set you apart from so many others?
SG: Yeah, I think writing poetry really helped my prose writing a lot, because with poetry you only have so many lines to reach the reader and put your point across. Only so many words to deliver that sucker punch to the gut or that kiss on the lips. I think it's important to keep the emotion in the words and refining and redrafting can definitely dilute that sometimes. I try to write like I’m boxing. Each word should be a jab to the head. I like to mix it up between poetry and prose a lot too. For example, Shadows Slow Dancing in Derelict Rooms is really my attempt at a 70,000-word prose poem.
JL: One of the people you dedicated Shadows Slow Dancing in Derelict Rooms to is Sarah Kane. If I'm being honest, I was not familiar with her work until I read that dedication. Since then, I've read her play/poem 4.48 Psychosis. It's obvious she was a huge influence on you with this book. Care to talk about what she means to you and how her work spoke to you so profoundly?
SG: Yeah, Sarah Kane has always been a massive influence on my writing because she was the one writer that truly taught me that honesty is the most important tool that the author or poet has at their disposal. Without honesty, you have nothing. She had so much soul and so much love in her writing even though a lot of it can be pretty shocking or horrific in its truth. She wasn’t so much a writer and poet as she was an artist that painted with words. Unfortunately, as with most brilliant artists and writers, she took her own life, and her career was ended way too soon. I always try to shout about her work, because I want more people to read her and know her and respect her. Keep her memory and writing alive.
JL: You're also an editor at Punk Noir Magazine. I'm always interested in hearing what editors say about the realities of working on a lit mag while also putting in work on their own writing. Has the experience been beneficial to you?
SG: I love being an editor because it gives me the chance to showcase other writers and emerging talents. I know the joy of getting an acceptance to a magazine you dig and hope I can give back to the writing community in ways that editors have done for me in the past. The writing community has giving me a lot and I’m always thinking of ways to try and help others, whether that be retweeting writers whose work I dig or editing my own anthology, as I did with the GONE Crime Anthology. It’s important to try and give as much as you take.
JL: What's next for Stephen J. Golds?
SG: The last year has been a pretty rough one, however I’m currently putting the finishing touches on novels 5 and 6 and will probably try and release another collection of short stories soon.
As a writer, no one is ever sure of the future, you just got to hang in there and keep punching away at the keyboard. All life ebbs and flows, the writing life isn’t any different. Love what you do, do what you love. Corny as hell, but true.
A Review of Stephen J. Golds'
Shadows Slow Dancing In Derelict Rooms
By Justin Lee
When I think of Stephen J. Golds, I think of punk rock. No, it's not because he is the editor of Punk Noir Magazine. It's because of the sheer honesty and simplicity of his work. The blazenness of it. His short fiction and poetry has appeared everywhere. Rock and a Hard Place, Bristol Noir, and Shotgun Honey to name a few. But, they never read like anyone else's words. One thing that is and will always be true is that genre fiction can become formulaic to a fault. Luckily for us all, there are writers out there bucking that structure. Golds is there at the forefront and Shadows Slow Dancing In Derelict Rooms is just another testament of that.
Shadows Slow Dancing In Derelict Rooms follows Vincent and the ramifications of the death of his love Amelie. Vincent has his demons. He suffers from severe depression and has attempted suicide numerous times. Amelie has her own issues and together they have one of the wildest loves I can think of in fiction. I was reminded of Raymond Carver's What We Talk About When We Talk About Love throughout this book. Carver's story speaks to the messiness of love. Of life. Golds takes that messiness and shows it to us starkly. Amelie and Vincent love each other without a doubt. The emotion leaks off the page. They just can't hold it together though. Not for themselves, not for each other. It's like what I imagine watching the brightest star imaginable implode is like.
Vincent spends the duration of this book trying to fix in his mind, in his memories, the things that were broken. This line could be a thesis statement: “Look, all right, the mistakes don’t matter now. I don’t want to argue about the past anymore, I want to change it".
Golds' writing style matches the franticness of the story he is telling, but it is beautiful. Golds is a poet and this book could be read as one long poem. There are lines that sing, and some that sting. There are numerous instances of repetition that at first glance could throw off a reader. But, that's the beauty of it. It's all character based. That repetition goes hand in hand with Vincent's inability to move on from a moment, from a person, from a time he'll never get back.
Golds isn't a household name, which is a crying shame. Like Bukowski and Carver, I think we are dealing with a cult status writer. People in the know love his work, and the others don't know what they are missing. Golds is one of the leading lights of dirty realism.
Interview with the Author
JL: Would you mind giving an introduction to the people who may be unfamiliar with you and your work?
SG: I’m a writer and poet living in Japan. Lived in Japan for over 16 years and have been writing since the Fall of 2019. I write mostly in what the majority of people would call the crime genre but try to merge the lines between most genres dealing in the darker sides of life. I’ve published an interconnected trilogy of noir novels — Say Goodbye When I’m Gone, Always the Dead and I’ll Pray When I’m Dying. These novels collectively span the 1920’s to the 1960’s and are set in Japan, Hawaii, Boston, New York and Los Angeles. Sadly, they’re going out of print soon due to the demise of my beloved publisher Red Dog Press, but they should be available again sometime in early 2024, so watch this space for some pretty big news.
I also have a twisted and fucked up love story about borderline personality disorder and time travel — Shadows Slow Dancing in Derelict Rooms — available from the awesome OUTCAST PRESS, along with my newest poetry collection — Half-Empty Doorways and Other Injuries.
JL: Who are some of your biggest influences?
SG: Too many to mention, but the main ones have been — Richard Brautigan, John Fante, Billy Childish, Charles Bukowski, Sarah Kane, James M. Cain, Jim Thompson, Tim O’Brien, Graham Greene, Tobias Wolff, Raymond Carver, S. Craig Zahler, Richard Yates, Arthur Nersesian, Dominic Nolan, Anthony Neil Smith and Will Carver.
JL: Do you have a desert island book?
SG: That’s a tough one, but I think it's got to be Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski. It’s raw and beautifully written and taught me that you can write about ugly things in a beautiful way and beautiful things in an ugly way.
JL: Dirty Realism. What about that genre speaks to you and influences your writing? Does it play a role in how you read as well?
SG: As a reader I’m drawn to anything that’s genuine or shamelessly honest and as a writer I believe that’s the only way to write. I think it's extremely important to write with your heart on your sleeve, no matter what genre you’re writing in.
JL: Crime fiction at large can be guilty of being too polished. By that, I mean a story, despite its entertainment value, can almost seem mechanical in style. Your stuff never comes across that way. I've read your short story collection, “Love Like Bleeding Out with an Empty Gun in Your Hand,” and there were numerous times that the emotion and rawness of your stories hit me
pretty hard. Do you think your experience as a poet has helped set you apart from so many others?
SG: Yeah, I think writing poetry really helped my prose writing a lot, because with poetry you only have so many lines to reach the reader and put your point across. Only so many words to deliver that sucker punch to the gut or that kiss on the lips. I think it's important to keep the emotion in the words and refining and redrafting can definitely dilute that sometimes. I try to write like I’m boxing. Each word should be a jab to the head. I like to mix it up between poetry and prose a lot too. For example, Shadows Slow Dancing in Derelict Rooms is really my attempt at a 70,000-word prose poem.
JL: One of the people you dedicated Shadows Slow Dancing in Derelict Rooms to is Sarah Kane. If I'm being honest, I was not familiar with her work until I read that dedication. Since then, I've read her play/poem 4.48 Psychosis. It's obvious she was a huge influence on you with this book. Care to talk about what she means to you and how her work spoke to you so profoundly?
SG: Yeah, Sarah Kane has always been a massive influence on my writing because she was the one writer that truly taught me that honesty is the most important tool that the author or poet has at their disposal. Without honesty, you have nothing. She had so much soul and so much love in her writing even though a lot of it can be pretty shocking or horrific in its truth. She wasn’t so much a writer and poet as she was an artist that painted with words. Unfortunately, as with most brilliant artists and writers, she took her own life, and her career was ended way too soon. I always try to shout about her work, because I want more people to read her and know her and respect her. Keep her memory and writing alive.
JL: You're also an editor at Punk Noir Magazine. I'm always interested in hearing what editors say about the realities of working on a lit mag while also putting in work on their own writing. Has the experience been beneficial to you?
SG: I love being an editor because it gives me the chance to showcase other writers and emerging talents. I know the joy of getting an acceptance to a magazine you dig and hope I can give back to the writing community in ways that editors have done for me in the past. The writing community has giving me a lot and I’m always thinking of ways to try and help others, whether that be retweeting writers whose work I dig or editing my own anthology, as I did with the GONE Crime Anthology. It’s important to try and give as much as you take.
JL: What's next for Stephen J. Golds?
SG: The last year has been a pretty rough one, however I’m currently putting the finishing touches on novels 5 and 6 and will probably try and release another collection of short stories soon.
As a writer, no one is ever sure of the future, you just got to hang in there and keep punching away at the keyboard. All life ebbs and flows, the writing life isn’t any different. Love what you do, do what you love. Corny as hell, but true.