The Jack Daniels Sessions EP
"Elwin Cotman is one of the most original new voices you will encounter—he is a synthesizer of the domestic and the fantastic, of soaring myth and the grittiest realities, of lewd dialect and high lyricism. His stories are profound engagements with suffering of every stripe—they will also make you hoot with laughter. I was amazed by the force of Mr. Cotman's pinwheeling imagination."
—Karen Russell, author of Swamplandia!
"In The Jack Daniels Sessions, folktales and modern landscapes collide, exploding and reforming in the form of an intriguing and intelligent collection. Cotman seizes the stories of tired tradition and galvanizes them, setting them to dance for us in wonderful, new interpretations."
—Cat Rambo, author of The Surgeon's Tale
"Elwin Cotman has written a book for our times—edgy and transcendent, surreal and bizarrely sweet. You won't put this down after you've picked it up, and you won't be the same once you've finished it. This is a new voice to listen to closely. A writer with strange and exciting gifts." —Laura Kasischke, author of The Life Before Her Eyes
Hard Times Blues
“With its intoxicating blend of rock and roll and the supernatural, crazed religion and visionary prose, Hard Times Blues is a wild ride down the same shadowy American sideroads traveled by the likes of Cormac McCarthy, Greil Marcus and Samuel R. Delany. A marvelous collection by a strikingly original new voice in contemporary fiction.” —Elizabeth Hand, author of Errantry
“Hard Times Blues reads like a wake-up call; a collection of remarkable stories that are as ambitious as they are personal. Cotman is a first-class stylist with a heart and a wit to match. He knows how to make us want to follow him and his marvelous characters down into the lovelorn, maddening, and scary places we already inhabit but so rarely recognize.” —Paul Tremblay, author of Swallowing a Donkey's Eye
“Elwin Cotman’s carefully wrought, gracefully accomplished, and lyrical narratives range in tone and style from picaresque and carnivalesque to elegiac, ironic, and melancholy. Yet, while tonally distinctive and aesthetically vivid, his stories are not so much driven by style or voice, as they are by love in the largest sense. For love does not exclude chaos nor avoid the vicissitudes of history and neither do Cotman’s socially engaged, brilliantly crafted stories.” —Miranda Mellis, author of None of This Is Real
“An exciting, inspiring, and sublime mix of beautiful imagery, old-fashioned pulp, gritty predicaments, biblical poetry, soul, charm, heart, heartache, ghosts, lost souls, bad attitudes, and literary invention. I love these energetic, wistful, vibrant stories. Elwin Cotman writes like a brilliant maniac, as if he’s afraid someone will take his pen away too soon.” —Timothy Schaffert, author of The Coffins of Little Hope
“With hyperbolic, technicolor imagery and engrossing characters that radiate intrigue, these modern tales comprise a new book of essential fables for our time—read it, close your eyes, and delight in the words still glowing hot inside your brain.” —Alissa Nutting, author of Unclean Jobs for Women and Girls
Full-length books
The Age of Ignorance, a novel scheduled or publication by Scribner in 2025
Weird Black Girls, a short story collection scheduled for publication by Scribner in April 2024
The Wizard’s Homecoming, a poetry collection published by Nomadic Press in 2023
Dance on Saturday, a short story collection published by Small Beer Press in 2020
Hard Times Blues, a short story collection published by Six Gallery Press in 2013
The Jack Daniels Sessions EP, a short story collection published by Six Gallery Press in 2010
Non-fiction (selected)
“Slaves of New York,” Lit Hub, April 2024
“Is He Okay,” Bright Wall/Dark Room, June 2021
“Why Are We Learning About White America’s Historical Atrocities,” Electric Lit, October 2020
“To Be Black in this Country is to Live a Life of Tresspass,” Buzzfeed, August 2020
“All Roads Leading Home,” Grist: The Journal for Writers, February 2015
“Leiji Matsumoto, Bushido, Manhood, and Womanhood,” a multi-part article published from January 2014 to April 2014 in Black Gate
“Futuristic Myth: The Space Opera of Leiji Matsumoto,” Black Gate, December 2013
“The Beautiful Nightmare of The Time Masters,” Black Gate, November 2013
“Grit and Social Dynamics in ‘Smoke Ghost,’” Weird Fiction Review, November 2013
“The Ins and Outs of DIY Touring,” Black Gate, September 2013
“. . . And the Whites, His Favorite, Carved a Cruel Idiot God,” Weird Fiction Review, January 2013
“Trauma and Connection in ‘The Boy in the Tree,’” Weird Fiction Review, November 2012
“Film essay: Dreamchild,” Cabinet des Fees, July 2012
“Yoshiaki Kawajiri’s Urban Hells,” Weird Fiction Review, January 2012
“Legends from Fairyland,” Cabinet des Fees, January 2011
Short Story (Selected)
“Twilight of the Eudamancers,” The Sunday Morning Transport, February 2022
“El Santo Contra La Invasion de los Marcianos,” The Racket Weekly, August 2020
‘The Son’s War,” The Offing, July 2020
“Triggered (excerpt),” If I Told Napoleon, January 2017 (print)
“The Piper’s Christmas Gift,” Quail Bell, November 2013 (print)
“The Lucky Ones,” Writing Without Walls Vol. 7, March 2012 (print)
“Graveyard Shift,” published August 2010 as liner notes to the album Awaken Necropolis.
“Graveyard Shift,” Cyberpunk Apocalypse Vol. III., July 2010 (print)
“When the Law Come,” The Dirty Napkin, Sept. 2009 (print)
“Sacred Duty,” Outsider Ink, Fall 2006 (print)
“Flight,” The Fairfield Review, Spring 2006 (voted Readers’ Choice) (print)
“Flight,” The Front Weekly, June 2005 (print)
POETRY
“Stakes,” Breadcrumbs, October 2020
“Lucky,” Breadcrumbs, September 2020
“Untitled,” Oatmeal Magazine. April 2015 (print)
“Salem Scheherazade,” The Southwestern Review, April 2013 (print)
Anthologies
“The Debauch,” Mooncalves
“The Revelation of John” (excerpt), Encyclopedia Project Vol. 3
Fellowships and Awards
Teaching fellowship, University of Louisiana (2012-2014)
Interdisciplinary Writers Lab scholarship (2011)
Graduate English Alumnae Scholarship, Mills College (2010-2012)
Anacostia Watershed Initiative Educational Grant (2006)
Faculty-selected attendee for Three Rivers Review Writers’ Retreat (2005)
Full academic scholarship, University of Pittsburgh (2002-2005)