Jarret Middleton | Author
Jarret Middleton is the author of the novel, DARKANSAS, available in hardcover from Dzanc Books in August 2017. His fiction, essays, and reviews have appeared widely in print and online. He lives in Seattle.
Arkansas Times reviews DARKANSAS
Middleton’s ‘Darkansas’ is sinister and mystical It’s a family tree, darkly. Today’s Ozarks has a more sinister allure. The same attributes that once determined its image as a crop of gullible simpletons now colors them as hardened figures with violent disregard and stubborn meanness over the tiniest slight against one’s honor. And, as the Ozarks...
DARKANSAS Largehearted Boy Playlist
Book Notes – Jarret Middleton “Darkansas” In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book. Previous contributors include Bret Easton Ellis, Kate Christensen, Lauren Groff, T.C. Boyle, Dana Spiotta, Amy Bloom, Aimee Bender, Jesmyn Ward, Heidi Julavits, Hari Kunzru, and many others. Jarret Middleton’s novel Darkansasis a compelling and dark debut. Kirkus wrote of the...
DARKANSAS on The JDO Show (podcast)
The JDO Show: Episode 78 – Jarret Middleton I loved the hell out of Jarret’s novel Darkansas, so I asked him to come on my podcast. In response, he sent me a list of things we could talk about. Here is that list: “In addition to talking about the book, we could hit on myths, surrealism, philosophy,...
Criminal Element Review of DARKANSAS
Review: Darkansas by Jarret Middleton GABINO IGLESIAS Darkansas by Jarret Middleton is a dark, compelling novel of country noir about a family with a secret past and a curse several generations old. Rural or country noir can be one of the most heartfelt and entertaining crime subgenres when done by capable authors such as Daniel Woodrell and David Joy. Now, Jarret...
DARKANSAS a Book Riot Recommended Read for August
8 Small Press Books To Check Out in August 6. Darkansas by Jarret Middleton (8 August 2017 from Dzanc Books) A novel in the Southern Gothic tradition, Darkansas has been called “gritty, ghostly, [and] poetic” by Donald Ray Pollock, who wrote some pretty gritty stuff himself. The protagonist is a not-so-up-on-his-luck man living in the shadow of his father,...
Murder, Myth, and Metaphor at Powell’s Blog
Murder, Myth, and Metaphor by Jarret Middleton, August 3, 2017 9:39 AM Whenever I teach a class or a workshop, I usually try to include a segment on the shapes of stories. Bolaño’s By Night In Chile is a self-referential linear confessional, as is Bernhard’s The Loser. Lispector’s The Passion According to G.H. is a recurrent fever dream that moves the...
DARKANSAS in Publishers Weekly
Darkansas Jarret Middleton. Dzanc, $26.95 (216p) ISBN 978-1-945814-29-7 From the get-go, Middleton grabs readers with an eerie dream about a violent death, a portent of things to come in his page-turning debut about a family’s curse. Generations of male Bayne twins are destined to be the catalysts in their fathers’ deaths. Jordan Bayne, a down-on-his-luck...
DARKANSAS a Vol.1 Brooklyn August Recommended Read!
Volume 1 Brooklyn’s August Book Preview Darkansas, Jarret Middleton (August 8, Dzanc Books) Finding the right phrase to describe Jarret Middleton’s new novel isn’t easy. It’s a tale of the tensions within a family; it’s the story of that family’s bloody history; and it’s an account of bizarre and uncanny forces heightening existing conflicts and...
DARKANSAS a Chicago Review of Books August Must-Read!
12 New Books You Should Definitely Read This August Chicago Review of Books Darkansas by Jarret Middleton Dzanc Books, August 8th “Jordan is a country musician living in the shadow of his father, legendary bluegrass musician Walker Bayne. A man who has made a lifetime of poor decisions, Jordan bounces between dive bars, accruing women...
Shelf Awareness Review of DARKANSAS
Shelf Awareness Pro Review: Darkansas Darkansas by Jarret Middleton (Dzanc Books, $26.95 hardcover, 216p., 9781945814297, August 8, 2017) There is plenty of dark in Jarret Middleton’s cleverly titled novel Darkansas. Rooting through the Ozark hills and hollers reminiscent of the hillbilly noir of Daniel Woodrell, Middleton kicks up the violent secrets of generations of Baynes and their genetic...
Kirkus Review of DARKANSAS
KIRKUS REVIEW Two brothers return home to rural Arkansas to face their ordained destiny. Middleton (An Dantomine Eerly, 2010) edits an imprint of Counterpoint Press and is clearly no stranger to the attractions of horror-tinged fiction. In his new novel, he spins an eerie Southern gothic about a down-on-his-luck country singer who comes home...
DARKANSAS on Barnes & Noble Must-Read Summer Indie List!
12 Must-Read Indie Books Coming This Summer Darkansas, by Jarret Middleton Middleton’s tale is irresistibly gothic: Jordan Bayne is the son of legendary bluegrass musician Walker Bayne. He’s talented, but a series of bad decisions find him locked into a low-rent tour of dive bars, drinking and womanizing far too much. He returns home for the...
