Canon Fodder

WINNER of the Writer's Digest first place award for BEST SELF-PUBLISHED POETRY COLLECTION in 2023

"Sizemore's book is the best I've read in months." - John Guzlowski, author of Mad Monk Ikkyu

We often see lists of books online with titles like "THE TOP 100 NOVELS OF ALL TIME." How many of them have you read?

During the pandemic, poet Jay Sizemore decided to try and read them all. Not only would he read the books on such lists that he had never read before, but he would also write poetry inspired by those texts. The project would consume his life for nearly two years, taking an immense amount of dedication and ambition. But the resulting poems ended up being powerful tightrope acts, attempting to unify the creative worlds of prose and poetry by connecting the genres in fundamentally intriguing ways.

For those people out there who are interested in the themes and the value of classic literature, here, Sizemore has tried to distill these epic volumes down to poem-sized appetizers, while retaining their essential nutrients. If you don't have time to read the thousand page epic Moby-Dick, for instance, Sizemore's poem based on that text is just three pages.

In Canon Fodder, Sizemore wrote poems based on readings of books such as The Grapes of Wrath, Frankenstein, Anna Karenina, Don Quixote, Crime and Punishment, Ulysses, and many, many more. To see the full list of books that he read, and the resulting poems within the collection, pick up this book.

The goal is to get inspired by classic literature, work that has outlived the time of its creation, and continues to fascinate in its ever-present relevance and cathartic power. This is poetry that should appeal to poetry lovers and poetry neophytes alike, poetry that bridges the gap between fiction and verse and brings both worlds together for the sake of the love of art.

If you are a lover of art, and especially a lover of great literature, you need this book. Get it today.



PRAISE FOR CANON FODDER:

"In an age when most poetry collections are quiet affairs, slender in size and modest in ambition, Jay Sizemore's Canon Fodder swims through the ocean of contemporary poetry like Moby Dick, huge and unstoppable. Sizemore is to poetry what Jack Kerouac is to fiction, a passionate, funny, deeply human voice trying to catch the whole world in words." - George Bilgere, author of Blood Pages

"Never trust a poet who has no interest in reading great literature, which, as Dr. Johnson teaches us, is a kind of intellectual light, like the light of the sun that enables us to see. Jay Sizemore is that rare breed of poet who sees clearly and sings beautifully. And he writes with more honesty and erudition than anyone I've read in a long time."
- Norman Minnick, author of Advice for a Young Poet

"If you love writing and great literature, you've got to read Jay Sizemore's Canon Fodder: Poems Inspired by Classic Literature. He writes like nobody else.

Sizemore writes and comments beautifully and evocatively about: the nature of the self, the hunger of the dying, the fate and impermanence of art, the world we live in with its mass Walmart shootings and its funerals, and its joyful dancings and yearnings.

My first creative writing teacher told me the best response to a piece of writing is another piece of writing. Jay Sizemore has learned that lesson better than anyone I've read in a decade. Read Canon Fodder, and then you need to go back to the writers you love and do what Jay teaches here: Write that poem about the work that touched you most. Write that and write another and another and never stop."
-John Guzlowski, author of Echoes of Tattered Tongues