About Ode To Sunset

Copyright © Pat Nolan 2014

Ode To Sunset, A Year In The Life Of American Genius is a work of fiction about dying and death, about a poet who is not quite Charles Baudelaire, not quite Charles Bukowski, who looks like a well-worn Alex Trebek but with the pit-bull demeanor of a Mickey Rourke.  It mostly takes place in a city not always quite Frisco. It is satirical, playful and, inevitably, deadly serious. 

Caveat Lector! This is not a roman à clef!   Ode To Sunset is primarily a work of the imagination meaning lies and made-up stuff.

  • If you think you will be reading thinly disguised or transparent autobiography, stop now and seek help.
  • If you are a college professor, former college professor, wannabe college professor whose funny bone has been institutionally impaired, stop now and save yourself a trip to the ER for apoplexy.
  • If you are poet and think that you know everything about poets, poetry and the poetry scene, stop now and dust the furniture.

No actual poets were named in the writing of this fiction with the exception of dead poets who serve as historical or literary markers as is often required of dead poets. Names,  characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.  Any resemblance to actual events or locales is entirely coincidental.


Ode To Sunset, A Year In The Life Of American Genius by Pat Nolan
October 2025  $35  paper  500 pages  ISBN 978-0-9840310-9-2

Ode to Sunset, A Year In The Life Of American Genius
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Pat Nolan has lived in silent cunning exile along the Russian River in Northern California for over forty years.  His poetry, prose and translations have appeared in numerous literary magazines and anthologies in North America, Europe and Asia.  He has been a literary magazine editor and publisher, and has worked as a bartender, rock band manager, trail crew grunt, radio DJ, janitor, preschool teacher, and emergency dispatcher.  He is the author of two novels and over a dozen poetry books.  His most recent poetry book, So Much, Volume II, (Notebook Keyboard), Selected Poems 1990-2010, was published by Nualláin House, Publishers, in 2019.