Aaron Gilbreath is an essayist, journalist and burrito enthusiast. His essays and articles have appeared in Harper's, New York Times, Paris Review, Vice, The Morning News, Saveur, Tin House, The Believer, Oxford American, Kenyon Review, Slate, Virginia Quarterly Review, Narratively, and Brick. His essay "'ra-di-k?l" from Hotel Amerika is a Notable Essay in Best American Essays 2013, and "Dreams of the Atomic Era," from the Cincinnati Review, is a Notable in Best American Essays 2011. He lives in Portland, Oregon.
Everything We Don't Know is expansive, obsessive, and consistently
entertaining. Gilbreath's inquisitiveness is infectious, and his
misadventures are filled with a self-doubt that's charming and all
too relatable.
--Portland Mercury [These essays] explore isolation, weaving
together the intangible and material touchstones of life periods
with remarkable ease [...] Beneath an eternal-boy persona, a
surprising tenderness reveals the struggle for human connection
[...] Everything We Don't Know demonstrates the pain of sometimes
misguided perceptions, and the many routes an insatiable mind can
take.
--Foreword Reviews Whether by working in collage with different
subjects, or making the ostensible focus of the piece someone other
than himself, Gilbreath is able to explore the personal obliquely,
writing about the self by writing about things outside the self. If
all essay writing is a performance, then he plays his part
perfectly, deflecting attention from his star turn and thus winning
the reader's interest and allegiance.
--Los Angeles Review of Books What a great read! Aaron Gilbreath
has put together as fine a book of essays as you're likely to find
these days. At times I felt as if I could be reading a John
Jeremiah Sullivan collection. Aaron Gilbreth's strong, candid, yet
insightful first-person narrative is compelling, clearly honest,
and frankly, it reminded me of many things I'd prefer to forget,
yet did so powerfully enough to keep me coming back for more.
--James Williamson, guitarist of Iggy and the Stooges I've been
jonesing for the next great collection of personal essays, and
Aaron Gilbreath's Everything You Don't Know cures my pangs. Booze,
drugs, failed relationships, poverty, knee-jerk travel,
desperation, joy, music, and recovery--it's like a primer on late
twentieth/early twenty-first century American living, written with
honesty, astuteness, and self-deprecation. I loved this
collection.
--George Singleton, author of Calloustown Aaron Gilbreath's first
collection of essays, Everything We Don't Know, is a rowdy,
exuberant, obsessive and often hilarious examination of the ennui
and energy of a youth spent rambling through the wild west and
other meaningful landscapes. Combining a novelist's understanding
of narrative structure and pacing with the essayist's digressive
talents, Gilbreath creates a voice that embodies the best
journalistic qualities of Hunter S. Thompson, Mary Karr, and Joan
Didion. Gilbreath's essays combine humorous, unsentimental,
unflinching prose with rigorous research, harrowing drama, and
confessional moments of deep reflection. Everything We Don't Know
is a testament to the adage that the greatest gift any writer
possesses is a curious mind; and the abundant fruits of Gilbreath's
curiosity end up being the greatest gift of this book.
--Steven Church, founding editor of The Normal School and author of
One with the Tiger Everything We Don't Know is an electric, funny,
and far-reaching collection about Gilbreath's early loves and
misadventures growing up out West. Sometimes ecstatic, sometimes
angst-filled, he follows where curiosity leads, anchoring himself
in resiliency and feeling, intelligence and humility. The essay
It's Really Something You Should Have Examined, about his
girlfriend Abby and his ferret Wiggy, highlights Gilbreath at his
quirky and tender best.
--Marcia Aldrich, author of Girl Rearing and Companion to an Untold
Story Aaron Gilbreath writes the kind of essays I'm always crossing
my fingers for when I open a new collection. He grabs the threads
of history, nature, pop culture, geography, and travel, and weaves
a kind of wild web around the personal essay. Honest, open, deft,
and able to turn a phrase like a bad ass--Gilbreath is now on my
shortlist of go-to essayists.
--Amber Sparks, author of The Unfinished World and May We Shed
These Human Bodies Gilbreath is among that rare breed of writer
with both a journalist's keen eye for observation and discovery,
and a memoirist's skill for shining a light on our human foibles,
mistakes and thwarted ambitions. His brilliant examinations expand
and contract seamlessly between the outer world and his own inner
life--from Googie architecture to the Redwood Forest to his
harrowing efforts to kick heroin. Gripping, honest, and endlessly
intelligent, Everything We Don't Know marks the debut of a major
literary talent.
--Justin Hocking, author of The Great Floodgates of the Wonderworld
Aaron Gilbreath's new collection of essays shatters the tenets of
memoir, and leaves the shards out in the sun to stew, before
putting them back together in ways more frazzled, distressed,
hilarious, scarred, and thereby more human, and true. Along the
way, Gilbreath's exhilaratingly cockeyed meditations on the
seemingly mundane detritus of our world--when leashed to
engagements of friends, jobs, lovers, family, strange music and
stranger architecture--are allowed to dovetail with (in his words),
"these mythic notions [that] colonize your head." I, for one, am
grateful to have had my head colonized by these wonderful
essays.
--Matthew Gavin Frank, author of The Mad Feast and Preparing the
Ghost
Everything We Don't Know is expansive, obsessive, and consistently
entertaining. Gilbreath's inquisitiveness is infectious, and his
misadventures are filled with a self-doubt that's charming and all
too relatable.
--Portland Mercury [These essays] explore isolation, weaving
together the intangible and material touchstones of life periods
with remarkable ease [...] Beneath an eternal-boy persona, a
surprising tenderness reveals the struggle for human connection
[...] Everything We Don't Know demonstrates the pain of sometimes
misguided perceptions, and the many routes an insatiable mind can
take.
--Foreword Reviews Whether by working in collage with different
subjects, or making the ostensible focus of the piece someone other
than himself, Gilbreath is able to explore the personal obliquely,
writing about the self by writing about things outside the self. If
all essay writing is a performance, then he plays his part
perfectly, deflecting attention from his star turn and thus winning
the reader's interest and allegiance.
--Los Angeles Review of Books What a great read! Aaron Gilbreath
has put together as fine a book of essays as you're likely to find
these days. At times I felt as if I could be reading a John
Jeremiah Sullivan collection. Aaron Gilbreth's strong, candid, yet
insightful first-person narrative is compelling, clearly honest,
and frankly, it reminded me of many things I'd prefer to forget,
yet did so powerfully enough to keep me coming back for more.
--James Williamson, guitarist of Iggy and the Stooges I've been
jonesing for the next great collection of personal essays, and
Aaron Gilbreath's Everything You Don't Know cures my pangs. Booze,
drugs, failed relationships, poverty, knee-jerk travel,
desperation, joy, music, and recovery--it's like a primer on late
twentieth/early twenty-first century American living, written with
honesty, astuteness, and self-deprecation. I loved this
collection.
--George Singleton, author of Calloustown Aaron Gilbreath's first
collection of essays, Everything We Don't Know, is a rowdy,
exuberant, obsessive and often hilarious examination of the ennui
and energy of a youth spent rambling through the wild west and
other meaningful landscapes. Combining a novelist's understanding
of narrative structure and pacing with the essayist's digressive
talents, Gilbreath creates a voice that embodies the best
journalistic qualities of Hunter S. Thompson, Mary Karr, and Joan
Didion. Gilbreath's essays combine humorous, unsentimental,
unflinching prose with rigorous research, harrowing drama, and
confessional moments of deep reflection. Everything We Don't Know
is a testament to the adage that the greatest gift any writer
possesses is a curious mind; and the abundant fruits of Gilbreath's
curiosity end up being the greatest gift of this book.
--Steven Church, founding editor of The Normal School and author of
One with the Tiger Everything We Don't Know is an electric, funny,
and far-reaching collection about Gilbreath's early loves and
misadventures growing up out West. Sometimes ecstatic, sometimes
angst-filled, he follows where curiosity leads, anchoring himself
in resiliency and feeling, intelligence and humility. The essay
It's Really Something You Should Have Examined, about his
girlfriend Abby and his ferret Wiggy, highlights Gilbreath at his
quirky and tender best.
--Marcia Aldrich, author of Girl Rearing and Companion to an Untold
Story Aaron Gilbreath writes the kind of essays I'm always crossing
my fingers for when I open a new collection. He grabs the threads
of history, nature, pop culture, geography, and travel, and weaves
a kind of wild web around the personal essay. Honest, open, deft,
and able to turn a phrase like a bad ass--Gilbreath is now on my
shortlist of go-to essayists.
--Amber Sparks, author of The Unfinished World and May We Shed
These Human Bodies Gilbreath is among that rare breed of writer
with both a journalist's keen eye for observation and discovery,
and a memoirist's skill for shining a light on our human foibles,
mistakes and thwarted ambitions. His brilliant examinations expand
and contract seamlessly between the outer world and his own inner
life--from Googie architecture to the Redwood Forest to his
harrowing efforts to kick heroin. Gripping, honest, and endlessly
intelligent, Everything We Don't Know marks the debut of a major
literary talent.
--Justin Hocking, author of The Great Floodgates of the Wonderworld
Aaron Gilbreath's new collection of essays shatters the tenets of
memoir, and leaves the shards out in the sun to stew, before
putting them back together in ways more frazzled, distressed,
hilarious, scarred, and thereby more human, and true. Along the
way, Gilbreath's exhilaratingly cockeyed meditations on the
seemingly mundane detritus of our world--when leashed to
engagements of friends, jobs, lovers, family, strange music and
stranger architecture--are allowed to dovetail with (in his words),
"these mythic notions [that] colonize your head." I, for one, am
grateful to have had my head colonized by these wonderful
essays.
--Matthew Gavin Frank, author of The Mad Feast and Preparing the
Ghost
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