(UPDATE, February 12, 2007: Book 8 of the re-edited series, The Heatseeker, is now online.)
(UPDATE, February 5: Book 7 of the re-edited series, Jasonettes, is now online.)
(UPDATE, February 1: Book 6 of the re-edited series, Chicago Stories 2001-2004, is now online.)
(UPDATE, January 31: Book 5 of the re-edited series, Chicago Stories 2000, is now online.)
(UPDATE, January 20: Book 4 of the re-edited series, Chicago Stories 1999, is now online.)
(UPDATE, January 19: Book 3 of the re-edited series, Chicago Stories 1998, is now online.)
(UPDATE, January 17: Book 2 of the re-edited series, Chicago Stories 1997, is now online.)
(UPDATE, January 1: Book 1 of this re-edited series, Chicago Stories 1996, is now online; all other links below lead to older, less complete versions, ones that also contain outdated copyright and URL information. A re-edited version of each book will be released regularly throughout 2007, with the entire 18-book collection hopefully finished by summer.)
From 1996 to 2001 I was a regular participant in Chicago's performance-poetry community, centered around its infamous slam and the tendrils that stretched internationally. In those six years, in fact, I wrote almost 400 pieces, each of which was performed in public at least once; that averages more than one new poem, monologue or dialogue per week for over half a decade straight, many of which languished for years solely on smeared napkins in the bottoms of shoeboxes and the like. Given that I never took my performance work fully seriously, even while writing it, and given the amount of page-based non-performance work I was publishing at the same time in those years, it was simply never a priority of mine to comprehensively catalog the slam and open-mic work that was piling up.
In 2001 I ended up retiring from the performance community (see the biographical notes from this series for more); a year later I published the first version of a guide to my slam years, including smaller versions of most of the "Chicago Stories" books, as well as the first couple of compilations. In 2004, then, I retired from all other forms of professional writing as well, in order to found and run a new arts organization instead; at that point I first became interested in finally getting a fully-edited "canon" edition of my entire body of work out, in that it was now a closed list of books and a "finished" date could be determined for such a project.
The entire series, which now reprints all 400 or so poems, monologues and dialogues I wrote in those years, has been broken down into a collection of 13 short books, to make for easier downloading and reading, which will be getting added weekly to this website throughout winter and spring of 2007. First come the Chicago Stories series (1996-2004), collecting all the unthemed work I wrote for the open mics that year; then the annual long-form performances (four altogether), half an hour apiece and each on a common theme, originally commissioned by the old poetry show "Mental Graffiti" held at Chicago's Madbar; then three other themed books of performance work, from poems about women I've slept with to joyous odes celebrating heavy metal and underage drinking. The Complete Performance Work series also includes four short compilations, for those who would like to peruse just the best of the 400 pieces based on differing criteria; and for the truly dedicated, there is a 900-page omnibus edition published as well, collecting up the 13 individual books in chronological order, as well as grouping the biographical and story notes into a continuous eight-year timeline.
The individual books are listed below; if the title is hyperlinked, it means the electronic edition now exists and is ready to be downloaded. Please be aware that this site is currently getting slowly updated; many of the links below lead to the previous version of the eGAD website, along with eBooks that contain oudated URLs and copyright information.
Chicago Stories series (unthemed work):
Chicago Stories 1996
Chicago Stories 1997
Chicago Stories 1998
Chicago Stories 1999
Chicago Stories 2000
Chicago Stories 2001-04
Long-form performances:
Jasonettes (1998)
The Heatseeker (1999)
Notes From my Grandmother's Funeral (2000)
Celibate (2001)
Other themed books:
Psycho Poets (1997)
[Andi.] (1999)
The Tao of Now (2000)
Compilations
The Jason Pettus Portable Reader: Audience favorites
Love Blender: Best stories and poems about relationships
More Poems About Blowjobs: Best dirty stories and poems
Jason Pettus: Personal Favorites
Omnibus (900-page) single-download edition:
Complete Performance Work 1996-2004
Those who enjoy these books and would be interested in reading more about the Chicago poetry-slam community of the 1990s might also enjoy the following non-fiction books from GAD:
How to Win a Poetry Slam: A half-humorous, half-critical look at this unique arena for creativity, in both cases emphasizing the same idea -- that there does exist a small list of rules that can be followed, for manipulating slam audiences into giving you a higher score. Actually now repeatedly proven to work, based on past slam teams publicly endorsing it at national competitions.
Smells Like Sweat: A memoir of the 1997 National Poetry Slam, held that year in Middletown, Connecticut -- the only year I was to ever compete, and the year the Chicago team took a hotly-contested second place nationally. Written entirely as a series of haikus, from an original concept by slam poet Jerry Quickley.
The Tunnel Rat Sessions: A collection of long-form interviews I conducted with interesting fellow poets in the '90s, originally for a newsletter called "Tunnel Rat" that was being published at the time by a gentleman named John Biederman. A useful relic of the slam age, for future undergrads doing snotty term papers on Generation X's historical foibles.
