Poetry, Jim Nisbet, seminal figure in West Coast Noir Renaissance, informed by classical tradition and immediate circumstances of worldwide pandemic, a poetic diary of uncommon artistic, historic, and metaphysical resonance.
Novelist and poet Jim Nisbet was a seminal figure in the West Coast Noir Renaissance. His early novels were published with the original Black Lizard Press, gaining Nisbet an international reputation as a fiercely unique voice whose work defied easy classification. He went on to publish more than a dozen novels, widely translated, with editions in France (by Rivages, under legendary editor François Guérif), Germany, Italy, and more. The author of seven collections of poetry, including a translation of Baudelaire, he published essays and other work in an eclectic mix of international journals and magazines. Nisbet grew up in North Carolina. After graduating from UNC Chapel Hill, he headed out to San Francisco, where he lived for many years, immersed simultaneously in the intellectual life - in his career as a working writer - and his daily work as a cabinetmaker and tradesman. The Plague Ditties was his last book, written during the worldwide pandemic, and completed shortly before his death in 2022.
