(This Is Not A) Mixtape for the End of the World

"I felt a sensation in my chest when I started to read Daniel M. Shapiro's (This Is Not A) Mixtape for the End of the World. It took me a second to realize that sensation was hope. I felt even more hope when I turned to the first page after the Table of Contents and saw "Side A." Music is a solace, an anticipation for the future, so to read prose poems inspired by musicians taken from this world too early blends senses of wonder, nostalgia, and excitement. Shapiro reminds us we are all owners of a lonely heart trying to outshine the drummer's hair and forget we cannot sleep. During a pandemic, glamor shines in little boxes, and we question what we are told vs what we see. Like a quick change back-stage at a concert, we forget whose names are missing from the liner notes as we try to survive one more concert. Shapiro's existential poems explode on the page, ask us 'what would you sell to have just one hit?'" -Jennifer MacBain-Stephens, author, We're Going to Need a Higher Fence

"When Shapiro writes, "...[W]e rejoiced in the new art, farewell to the squint," we get an introduction into just what we're looking at here. We are getting to see what was sung. This book is for the auditory what ekphrasis is for the visual. These are trips into and alongside a song but there are no squints. These poems regard. They spy. They observe and get inside of the art to form something new. Or, maybe something as old as a memory, daydream, conversation. These prose pieces can touch you whether or not you know the songs. They work with what might've been or what might happen next. This is a collection for reading and rewinding. Lots of tracks worth reading over and over again." -Kenning JP Garcia, author, So This Is Story