Nova Nights

Guy Biederman’s truth at the microphone in Nova Nights, these are the antidotes. I don’t know if it’s the Bay Area thought accents or the moment of reading but I find my time in these poems. To paraphrase one of Guy’s thoughts, some words change the night, they will not be the same after that. These typewriter drawings, these moments as a poet in an alley, these poems deserve your reading time.
– Kim Shuck, 7th Poet Laureate of San Francisco

From the first time I heard Guy read, I was struck by his reverence for our gathering, for the act of listening as much as his turn on the mic. What you find in his writing is that reverence, or wonder, is just how Guy sees. Whether he’s grappling with his place in a protest in The City, or contemplating the life-lessons of boat-life in Sausalito with his cats and wife, there is no attempt to speak as though he has figured more out than the desire to value every aspect of his life and how it might ripple toward a kinder, more playful world.
– Abe Becker, Grandslam Champion of CAL Slam and the Berkeley Poetry Slam, National Poetry Slam Group Piece Champion, host of Nomadic Press’ monthly new-work series, Get Lit

Much like a beloved piano composition, Guy Biederman’s poetry makes you feel all the things: love, joy, melancholy, contentment. In that way his poetry does what poems are supposed to do—show you your own life from a profound and refreshingly different perspective, in ways that make you eager to see and hear it.
– Nazelah Jamison, author of Evolutionary Heart

In this collection Guy Biederman writes magic into the matter-of-factness of life, turning
everyday objects and encounters into something numinous “peeking through the blinds.”
– Marguerite Muñoz, Co-founder of Voz sin Tinta multilingual reading series in San Francisco

Wandering the pages of Guy Biederman’s fifth collection is like entering a carnival of quotidian life. In this assemblage of hybrid pieces, the author lends us his rainbow glasses, through which we may witness everyday objects and events transformed into episodes of wonder. Biederman combines a loose narrative style with lyrical elements, juxtaposing the mundane and surreal. Many of these pieces speak to the poet’s craft and celebrate his membership in the tribe of writers and musicians. There’s a compelling jazz rhythm to this collection, which beckons us to enter a world of small ecstasies where “wind stirs the rodeo dust.” The poem “Yes Love” ends with the line “Love is at the core of this resistance, love is at the core of this rage.” Love is at the core of this collection.
– Sandra Anfang, author of Xylem Highway

Guy Biederman’s poetry lifts the spirit. Open Nova Nights to any page, his words will light the way to the corner of Magritte and Mary Oliver where you’ll meet your new friend, Possibility, and discover an avocado in the tomato bin, dreams a woman can no longer have but must never be forgotten, and a couple of cats on a houseboat licking the world clean.
– Chuck Brickley, author of multiple award-winning Earthshine