30 Days Dry

by Robert Eric Shoemaker

In his first poetry collection, Robert Eric Shoemaker delves deeply into the darkest haven, a rift filled with addictions of harmful and placid varieties many are familiar with. Over the course of a month the writer’s attempts to remain sober and clean of all contaminants demonstrate an on-going internal battle, studded with triumphs and failures, moments of insight and moments of pain. Shoemaker’s language brims with the electrical quality of one on the edge, living as best one can under societal and artistic pressures, as well as personal demons. Shoemaker’s story and poetic voice are empathetic to the plight of multitudes. Sparkling with hope dipped in chaos, “30 Days Dry” proclaims with gusto the possibility of a future free of abuse.

Thought Collection Publishing’s 30 Days... series challenges artists to write consecutively for 30 days on a specific area of study, reflection, or expertise. In return they would personally experience something amazing. The manuscripts in the 30 Days... series are all personal journeys that expand life perspectives.

Thought Collection Publishing is an indie publisher supporting social change through our narrative nonfiction publications. Ten percent of sales from “30 Days Dry” goes to support the Howard Brown Health Center’s Recovering With Pride substance use group.

Join the publisher’s contact list to stay informed about projects and other books in this series: eepurl.com/CuL35. Also visit thoughtcollection.com or reshoemaker.com for more information.

Genres: Poetry

48 pages, Paperback

First published October 5, 2015

About the author

Robert Eric Shoemaker (he/him) is a poet and interdisciplinary artist whose work explores magical poetics, translation, and queer identity. He is the author of three books: Ca’Venezia (Partial Press 2021), an artist’s book of hybrid writing and visual art; We Knew No Mortality (Acta Publications 2018), poetry and memoir; and the poetry chapbook 30 Days Dry (Thought Collection Publishing 2015). Eric’s poem “Hex on Elon Musk as a Portrait of Humanity” won honorable mention in Spoon River Poetry Review’s editor’s contest, and his manuscript FireBear was a finalist for the PANK Big Book contest.

Eric’s work has been nominated for Best of the Net and Best New Translation and is published or is forthcoming in Zone 3, Tupelo Quarterly, Spoon River Poetry Review, Jacket2, ANMLY, the Poetry Foundation, Rattle, Asymptote, Exchanges, Signs and Society, Entropy, Miracle Monocle, Gender Forum, Columbia Journal, Plath Profiles, the Louisville Review, Tiny Spoon, Call Me [Out] and Call Me [Stranger], Analogies & Allegories, Verde Qué Te Quiero Verde, Bombay Gin, Barely South Review, and other journals.

Eric has been a featured guest on PoemTalk and PBS’s Remember Them.

His award-winning plays, including The House of Bernarda Alba and Barrens, which are translations of works by Federico García Lorca, and his musical PLATH/HUGHES have been produced in Chicago and New York.

Eric earned a PhD in humanities from the University of Louisville, an MFA in creative writing and poetics from Naropa University, and a BA in theatre and performance studies from the University of Chicago. Follow Eric at reshoemaker.com.

Reviews

[hich · Rating 4 out of 5]

Got the chance to read this wonderful collection of thoughts which was a sort of narrative non-fictional poetry but was deeply involved with the structure when it raises from fear and anger to
concrete and absolute truth .

[Lavonne · Rating 5 out of 5]

For anyone wanting to conquer an addiction, this books cuts to the heart of change. I had the pleasure of being an early reader and was wowed from the first page. Robert Eric Shoemaker’s poems are lyric observations of the shared essence of a man letting go of a past to embrace an unknown future. He uses raw jagged prose to deliver a tone of facing forward, and embracing the process of letting go to allow the body time to heal. His past is gone, but it’s memory lingers, even as it fades. The poet’s rhythms of struggle and hope to connect to anyone willing to take a risk and look beyond a mirror to deep within, is deeply moving. By trusting the reader, his wellspring became the voices of his past - an echo into his future - guiding him to a place called home. As Robert Eric Shoemaker said so well, 30 days of self improvement changed him, and the imparting of knowledge began. I found his message that everyone has their own best way of living, and that it will change as they change. What matters is taking the time to let the physical addiction fade, and to realize deeply that the psychological addiction will as well. It's saying goodbye to one incarnation and embracing the next, the nature of which is unknown. This collection of poems is so much more than poetry about addiction. It’s 30 days to redemptive victory. It’s a starting place, a form of measure, but mostly, it’s written by a son who loves his father. This book is about choosing to love oneself wholeheartedly, for anyone wanting to make a permanent self sustainable organic change that starts within. This book is my Christmas gift to many of friends.

[Kat Lahr · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was a true blessing publishing this book and being able to share with the world a true story of a man attempting to fix issues in his life. A reflection of the beauty within humanity.

[Robert Shoemaker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you for reading!