Welcome to the world, Demons of Eminence, the debut novel of poet Joshua Escobar (aka DJ Ashtrae + Little Piñata), winner of The Bo Huston Prize 2023. Demons of Eminence is the 16th book in the Fellow Travelers Series, an imprint of Publication Studio, edited by novelist Matthew Stadler. The Fellow Travelers Series also published Kevin Killian’s Spreadeagle, Nate Lippens’s My Dead Book, STS’s Golden Brothers, and books by Shelley Marlow, Travis Jeppesen, Aeliana Nicole, and Brekan Blakeslee, among others.
In Demons of Eminence a young travel nurse and self-described cumdump observes and sanctifies the friendship between an aging gay porn star and a goth chola dropout half his age, one that leads to them throwing endless parties in the industrial scrublands of SoCal’s Inland Empire at the height of the pandemic. The title is taken from a poem written by one of the characters. Set primarily in the IE at the height of the first COVID epidemic, the story also takes us to Portland, Los Angeles, San Diego, Oaxaca, and Mexico City.
“Hail the sad-boys, demon twinks, puppy punks, burly cholos, gurlie goths, marijuanos, gay tweekers, DL dudes, plaid vaqueros, circuit fairies, trans otters, lesbian-poet-theorists, and leathered manwhores who people Joshua Escobar’s inspired and lovingly rendered universe. Suspended between COVID stay-at-home orders and the strained capacity of a hospital’s ICU, a glitter-spangled affirmation blazes through suffering, loss, and loneliness in a euphoria of sex-parties and drug-fueled raves around Southern California’s Inland Empire. In hard-edged prose with an ear for the feverish poetry of gay banter and elective joto affinities, Escobar expertly captures the intergenerational ‘crossfire of pain and ambition’ as the festival of youth begins to fade into the night horizon between Fontana and Los Angeles.”
—Roberto Tejada, author of Why the Assembly has Disbanded and Carbonate of Copper
Joshua Escobar’s Demons of Eminence is a delirious and intoxicating off-road trip through the heady and sexed-up world of a young travel nurse at the height of COVID. He’s also a hornithologist on the make, undefended and open to experience, which includes hookups, friendships, and ecstatic states of being lost—to music, men, a nation’s insanity. Simultaneously wised-up and questing, full of wonder, sexual valor, and radical turns of mind, it’s a novel like no other.
—Nate Lippens, author of My Dead Book and Ripcord
Here’s the start of Chapter One: Blood Sport, which also appeared last Fall in Your Impossible Voice:
In 2025, Joshua will give readings from Demons of Eminence in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, and LA in March, in Houston and New Orleans in April, and in New York and the East Coast in June, mostly at indy bookstores. At the end of last year, some of Joshua’s friends came together to celebrate the launch of the novel at a combo party-and-reading that gives a good taste of the book. During the launch Joshua talked about the places and parties that inspired the novel, Matthew Stadler talked about The Bo Huston Prize, and Patrick Kiley (who runs one of the Publication Studios that actually produce and distribute the Fellow Travelers Series books) talked about the art of printing and binding. Then each of the guests read a selection from the novel: Julio Acevedo/Lady J Monroe; Anna Moschovakis; Monique Quintana; Roberto Tejada; James Nulick; Brittany Menjivar; and Matthew Stadler.
The writing and production of Demons of Eminence was supported by The Bo Huston Prize, which honors the life and art of Bo Huston, author of four books of prose before his untimely death at age thirty-three. Diagnosed HIV-positive, Bo went to Zurich in 1991 to undergo an experimental treatment for AIDS. His essay, “Meditations in Zurich,” published posthumously in Thomas Avena’s anthology, Life Sentences: Writers, Artists and AIDS (Mercury House, 1994), is a nonfiction account of this experience. Bo’s novel The Dream Life is also part of the Fellow Travelers series, with an afterword written by his close friend and colleague, Rebecca Brown. This year’s winner of The Bo Huston Prize is Amercan prose writer and graphic artist Raegan Bird; she will complete her first novel, Hard to Say Not Knowing, to be published in the Fellow Travelers Series. More info about the prize here.
photo of Bo Huston in the early 1990s
Joshua Escobar is also author of the chapbooks Califorkya Voltage (No, Dear/Small Anchor) and xxox fm (Doublecross Press), and a full-length collection of poems, Bareback Nightfall (Noemi Press and Letras Latinas), that was a finalist for the 2021 California Book Award. He edits the student magazine, Open Fruit and lives in West Hollywood, CA.
Image of Escobar wearing a hand painted leather mask sold out of a gay bar in the French Quarter of New Orleans.
As a bonus for all you readers, here are some excerpts from Josh’s four-part poetry book, Bareback Nightfall (Noemi Press):
Check out the Instagram for the Fellow Travelers series for a Q&A with Escobar and Brittany Menjivar.
Check out Josh’s instagram for merch and ephemeria related to the book.
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p.s. Hey. Today the blog reconstitutes its red carpet function in order to do its part in ushering the first novel by the writer/poet Joshua Escobar into the cold, cruel world. But less cold as of today. Please eyeball the sample and related info re: this very fine, spanking new chunk of narrative prose and see if it seems like something you would like to gulp down in its entirety. Much gratitude to the venerable, never endingly admirable Fellow Travelers Series for the post and mostly for the exciting book. ** PL, Hi! Oh, gosh, I don’t know all that much about the Estate business or the workings of Matta-Clark, I wish I did know more. But I do have a friend who’s kind of a Matta-Clark expert, and I’ll shoot him a message and see if he would pony up some info or direct me to some extant source to pass along. Apologies for not having stuff to tell straight off the bat. I’m excited that you’re so interested in his work. ** Misanthrope, Hi, G. Yury’s doing A-okay. I hope your mid-week isn’t boring you to tears. ** James, Well, then for sure don’t look into the microscopic mites that apparently live in every pillow that everyone in the world sleeps on, and definitely don’t seek out microscopic photos of them, and, on second thought, I probably shouldn’t have even mentioned that, sorry. Thank you for braving the post in detail. I should hire you as the blog’s publicist or something. Interesting about even-steven. And somehow surprising that the name Steven existed as early as 1866. I’ve never used a Kindle, so I don’t know. For me it’s either books or pdfs. Wow, you are powering through the GbV oeuvre. You might even end up hearing the gigantic all of it if you keep that up. Favorite GbV album is very hard, as you can imagine. Historically, when people ask me that question, I often say ‘Under the Bushes, Under the Stars’. But I don’t know. Actually, their brand new one ‘Universe Room’ sounds thus far like it might be up their among their best. If you want to investigate Robert Pollard sans GbV, his album ‘Kid Marine’ is a masterpiece. Anyway, I should stop. I could blather about them for years. I hope English gave you whatever its warmest greeting would consist of. ** _Black_Acrylic, Bad times are already here, my friend. ** Dominik, Hi!!! That show sounds cool, naturally. Ah, PSB. Nice. That lyric attained its score without my even having to hunt. Hold my place, I’ll be back in no time, As I buy some drugs for this girlfriend of mine, Got my cash and I know where to find, Just the perfect gift for that girlfriend of mine, Only cash, but I know where to find, Just the perfect gift for a love that’s sublime, G. ** Steeqhen, Ha, what do you know! Gay rugby team, wow. But then why the hell not, I guess. I bet there’s no gay American football team. Wait, there probably is. I’m the worst at figuring out what gay guys like to do. Good news about the lack of gas. ‘Amazing’, it doesn’t get much better verbiage-wise than that. Cool. Uh, I don’t know the names of teeth. A molar, sort of midway back in my mouth. February has been relatively friendly. I’m way over the cloudy, gloomy, wet skies it has in tow however. I hope yours is being sparklier. ** Sypha, Hi! Yes, for the longest time there was some strange bug in the verification system that was keeping lots of people out of here, but it seems like it has finally magically been repaired at least partly because no one has written me to say ‘I can’t get inside your blog’ in a while, and I was getting those messages all the time. Nice, I’ll read your review. Everyone, Sypha aka the excellent fiction writer James Champagne has reviewed James Nulick’s novel PLASTIC SOUL, which was the previous walker of the blog’s red carpet, on goodreads, and that means here. ** jay, Hi, jay! So happy to add to your DVDs. No coffee, no problem. I hope you’re enjoying the great but unfortunately a bit nippy and drab at the moment Paris. “God Jr.’ to the rescue! If you guys find exciting nooks and crannies in the local environs, do pass them on. Hugs from across town! ** Tyler Ookami, I’m going to have to investigate that. How strange. What a fitting audience for Abramovic’s crapola. And The Chapman Bros. thing. Wow. If only that cult wrote experimental fiction. Poor Cattelan to have this whole, sometimes quite terrific body of work get dumbified by his little banana joke. Anyway, that sounds extraordinarily lame. Worse than I had even imagined. ** Steve, Based on my antibiotics use, you should start feeling just the slightest bit better today. Excellent concept for your album. Even, dare I say, potentially viral. I do understand artists not thinking they have anything original and sufficiently artistic to say about politics to put it in their work and thinking that’s something more important to relay to their followers in the work’s margins. Everyone, Steve has interviewed UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE director/actor/co-writer Matthew Rankin and actor/co-writer Ila Firouzabadi here. ** HaRpEr, I know that, at least with Bresson, there are all kinds of rights issues. And his widow is very, very controlling of his work. But she’s very old so … we’ll see. Yeah, Oklou is a real find. I wondered if people in London knew the Ben Wilson things IRL. I’m going to look at my shoes a lot the next time I’m there. So sorry about your mom. Complicated, no doubt, but stressful no matter what. Same with me and my parents. I used to try to pretend they were just our house’s hired security detail. ** Bernard Welt, Whoop! Blowing your considerable mind is a conquering Mt. Everest kind of thing. Yeah, curious about Brady Corbett’s unexpected fate. I can’t imagine seeing ‘The Brutalist’. I saw his first film only because Scott Walker did the score, and that was enough to ward me off. I’ll stick to following the charmingly wishy-washy futures of Billy Mumy and Butch Patrick, thank you. ** Darby☏, Hi! Your first comment actually appeared here a few days ago, and I responded then. Curious Twilight Zone moment there. Your thoughts on Rimbaud would be most highly prized. Verlaine was wild while he was fucking Rimbaud and then he turned into an alcoholic lump of a guy who sat around in cafes giving interviews about Rimbaud and signing autographs. Trip! Where? Have the most amazing fun! ** Bill, Given how many thematic art posts I do, the chances definitely are that Sampson has been here before, yes. I don’t in fact know Q. Hayashida. I like her name. Okay, on it, thanks, pal. And I hope you keep emerging. ** Right. Go back to studying the new novel placed before you today please? Thank you. See you tomorrow.
Now available in North America 
That’s ok! I’ll wait for your friend insights. Thanks!
Hi!!
I think I need to have this book in my collection. The Fellow Travelers Series is just so beautiful. Congratulations, Joshua, and thank you, as always, for the red-carpet service, Dennis!
Now, I definitely had to google this one. I’ve never heard this song. I gave you blood, blood, gallons of the stuff, I gave you all that you can drink, and it has never been enough, I gave you blood, blood, blood, I’m the kind of human wreckage that you love, Od.
Dennis, Am I wrong in thinking that poets many times make the best novelists? Congrats to Mr. Escobar.
Good about Yury. Yay!
Eh, not to bored. I’m proofreading a 111-page publication right now that’s not the most exciting text in the world, hahaha. It’s about depreciating property. Yawn.
We got about 8 inches of snow last night. Ech.
Thank you about the Plastic soul review and the GbV feedback. I was waiting to know how it is and I am so glad it seems to be that good I will tell you thoughts soon. I told you before but my favourite ever GbV album is Propeller (so far)
Oklou is a great find I just discovered her two three days ago from Instagram and I am getting into the album surely
Corbet movies are not my cup of tea at all although I liked some stuff about Vox Lux but it could be good and it wasn’t. But I like the one song that is called Hologram and some stuff here and there that become something with my imagination but not the film Anyway
Nice to know more about this novel I liked the title for long time and made me think and ponder as good titles do
Love from Crete as full moon leads to Valentine’s and will lead to a Valentine or no
Internally debating whether being a ‘self-described cumdump’ is any better than being described as a cumdump by another. Fiction set during something as recent as the COVID epidemic serves to remind one that fiction is always an ongoing thing. ‘Sad-boys, demon twinks, puppy punks’ almost certainly make for ideal acquaintances. I’ve come to appreciate glitter more as I’ve aged. Gosh I’m starving. I contracted COVID several times and that’s probably what shagged my sense of taste. Rundown discos have got to be their own special kind of sad. I hope my younger brother doesn’t kill me, that wouldn’t be very nice of him. I am unsure if Che Guevara could ever be ‘cancelled.’ Seeing the word OnlyFans in print is not something I expect of what I read. ‘a cybergeography of gaydom’ – oo, I like that. Love seeing ‘Bet.’ as a one-word sentence in print, too. ‘I don’t get marriage’ either! ‘For the record I keep falling for unavailable mofos’- ach, too true. ‘For a baby gay the heart is the ultimate cockblocker’ – hm. I’m not sure just what qualifies as a ‘baby gay.’ ‘My friends meme’d my hoe as a mini-boss from Dragon Quest VIII’ is an amazing sentence, even if I prefer Dragon Quest IX. ‘the people will merge together like freeways’ – niiiice. ‘an angel whose single job is to wait beautifully’- very pretty. And that poetry is formatted in such a lovely way. Nice one, Escobar B] thumbs up!
Hi Dennis, cold and starving right now. I know about all the yucky little tiny things which are everywhere, in beds, fucking on people’s eyebrows and stuff, it’s all terribly disgusting and I’m very glad that they are as small as they are, because if they were big enough to be visible I would probably not be able to live in such a world. I can barely tolerate the tardigrade, as a micro thing. I’m going to avoid searching those kinds of things because they eww me out.
I have no experience in the field of being a publicist, so I’d be wary of hiring my blog-publicising services since like I wouldn’t have a clue as to what I was doing. But thank you for your thanks. I’ve tended to today’s post too, as routine encourages me to do.
Steven isn’t a name one thinks of in the 19th century, no. Stephen, possibly. Something I should know about happened in 1866. Uh, Alexander II had an assassination attempt directed at him. Bit rude, that.
I’ve never used a Kindle seriously, but I’ve held a couple and read a few pages on it, but, meh, not my thing. Books, yes, PDFs, ehhhhh, I prefer .epubs, but either can get the job done.
Choo-choo, the GBV train continues. Inhale, let’s see (all in one breath) – Earthquake Glue, Earth Man Blues, Universe Room, Space Gun, Same Place The Fly Got Smashed, Sunfish Holy Breakfast, and I’m listening to Welshpool Frillies right now (exhale). When it comes to Universe Room, my favs were Independent Animals and Aesop Dreamed of Lions. And on Fly, How Loft I Am? is suuuuuch a sweet and cute song, made me internally go ‘awww.’ That’s going into the list of ‘songs on guitar I should play for a guy if fate is auspicious enough.’ Pollard’s just crazily prolific. Kid Marine noted.
To up the question difficulty just a tad (i.e., by a lot) – favourite GbV song(s)? It’s probably Gold Star for Robot Boy for me, I genuinely just cannot get it out of my head or stop singing it to myself randomly.
English was easygoing as ever, nice chats with friends and a brief discussion with my teacher about books we’ve read which culminated in him being impressed by how much I apparently read, so, always nice to have one’s ego upped a bit. And it was far more warm in that classroom than I am now, brr. Thanks for the Escobar snippets, fun to see what The Gay Experience can be like for different people outside of 21st century England as a teenager. Fiction generally likes picking on contemporary society, but these excerpts have been the most up-to-date instance I’ve seen of that. See you tomorrow on Thursday, bugger, ugh, Thursdayyyy, shit. I’m going to be wiped. Tschuss.
@ Joshua, congratulations on this! FTS is hitting it not just out of the park but outside of the planet too.
Bad times are indeed here, but the good news is that Leeds United are currently top of the Championship by 5 points! Also, the former Leeds wunderkind
Archie Gray now plays for Spurs down there in London. He’s currently tearing up the Premier League in his new position as defender. Maybe Archie could return should we get promoted? Would be nice, I think.
Hmm, this book looks pretty interesting, I may have to check it out. I do have a few other books in this series, such as the Killian SPREADEAGLE one and, of course, the Nulick one (though instead of getting the standard red-covered one I opened the old wallet and splurged for the artist edition cover).
Right now I’m still in the midst of my medieval research reading, but that’s kind of winding down. I hope to have it done by June. Right now I’m reading THE CANTERBURY TALES for the first time and also Machiavelli’s THE PRINCE. Yes, I’m one of those people who like to stretch the Middle Ages out a bit into the 16th century. Would you believe that since I started reading books on the subject (back in August 2022) I have since read nearly 50 books either about the Middle Ages or actually written in that era? Well, you probably can believe it ha ha
Hey Dennis,
That chapter was a pleasure to read, even with my dopey brain from exploding my comprehension load over the weekend, I was enthralled. Once I have time, I will be reading.
Speaking of time, whenever I’m insanely busy my mind decides to fixate on finding a new hobby or project. Last week it was the wizard of oz readathon, this week it’s doing dj sets; I wanna mix industrial, nu wave, and ambient music with rnb, and pop music from the 80s-00s. Im imagining Nine Inch Nails with Janet Jackson leading into Psychic Tv and Janet Jackson, random movie samples and ambience. Basically just some gigantic pop-horror show. Also been busy working on another photoshoot this week. Well two photoshoots, one on Sunday and one on Tuesday. God I don’t have a break.
Apparently there’s enough gay rugby teams in Europe for there to be annual leagues, there’s 2 in Ireland, one in Bristol with some guys i know (and wanna sleep with if i visit), some in Italy and Scotland. I feel like American football is too conservative, it’s fucking gay looking but treated as uber macho. Maybe that’s a bit of the appeal, getting to see guys in jockstraps and tight pants but feel secure in your masculinity.
It felt good to be told that my academic writing is ‘amazing’; it’s such a frustrating style of confusing rules, both written and unwritten, that it’s good to get confirmation that I actually know what I’m doing. Still need to keep it up though, I’m only about a tenth of the way through.
Ooh a molar. I was imagining in my head it was one of your front teeth, and you were giving a bit of hillbilly chic. I know one or two people that have chipped front teeth and purposely left it like that; they’re also a bit annoying and attention seeking, so my biased mind assumes they left it to be edgy. I feel like, in Ireland anyway (though I’d assume in other places like the US and the UK), there’s a bit of a trend of trying to make yourself look worse as a way to look cool: bad haircuts, infected piercing, garish clothes — ok now I’m just being a bit of a hater! I think it’s mostly an effect of 2020 Covid lockdowns + tiktok and the terrible yet expressive fashion trends that came about, it was like a stone thrown into water and these past few years are the ripples.
After that ramble, I’ll leave it there. Good to hear February has been kind, I’m over this weather too though. I’ve yet to see Feb sparkle, but you never know, maybe it’s saving the best for last!
I’ve started researching AI religions/cults, and they’re very real. One is Theta Noir, which posts bad pop music about human symbiosis with AI on their YouTube channel. (I wonder if they might be an arg.) There are others, which I haven’t looked too closely into yet. But I’ve begun writing “Jack Parsons Reborn in the Body of Jeff Bezos.”
I’ve listened to the new Destroyer album once. I’m not sure what I think just yet. The production turns down the synthesizers and looks back towards ’60s pop and rock’n’roll, even using pedal steel, strings and horns.
Hey Dennis,
To answer your question from the other day – no, I’m not familiar with Akerman’s other work. Do you have favourites or reccomendations?
I’m currently lying on the couch in a state of exhaustion watching Real Housewives of New Jersey… and it’s not all unpleasant.
Bye,
J x
One could argue that Qanon, Pizzagate, whatever else those people are on about *is* experimental fiction, it’s just written for an audience who believe it’s entirely true. I think fiction authors have some way of subconsciously willing things into existence sometimes. Like there would be no way to know that a significant amount of Americans would be fully convinced that the art market was a front for raping and eating children in secret tunnels, complete with a corny Da Vinci Code system of signaling in any and all edgy-looking blue chip contemporary art. I’m going to clutch pearls about “not the art market!” “not my beloved Democratic National Congress!” because those things really do suck but Americans still have ick around saying capitalism might be the problem, so I guess that “cheese pizza” is code for “child pornography” because they have the same first letters. It is funny, but those poor pizza parlor employees shouldn’t have had to deal with gun-toting maniacs wanting to get in their non-existent basement to save the kids that got tied up there.
Oh, wait nevermind I just happened to glance at where you mentioned making no plans to see The Brutalist. woops!
Also tardigrades are cute. I think thats another I mentioned in yesterdays never sent comment. Im going to be in a place called Williamsburg but not in NY sadly.
Hi. That’s kind of surprising to me that Bresson’s widow would still be alive. It’s unfortunate when an artist’s surviving partner is protective to a fault. Yukio Mishima’s widow refused to accept that he was gay, for example.
This book looks very enticing, and you’ve really sent me down a rabbit hole with this Fellow Traveller series. Luckily I have some cash to spare…
I’ve really been listening to The Quick a lot, sort of daydreaming about what could have been. I’m obsessed with that song ‘Heaven On Earth’. Oh my God, the guitars are amazing, and the organ! and the way a lot of their songs do the loud-quiet-loud thing and don’t stay in one place. Also, I don’t know about you but I’m very fond of wit when it comes to songwriters. I’m not someone who listens to music for the lyrics, and in fact some of my favourite artists have lyrics that make me cringe, but great lyrics are always a plus. It occurred to me the other day that Neil Tennant from The Pet Shop Boys is one of my favourite songwriters. Also, I think one of the reasons I like a lot of glam is the wit. I think Eno was incredibly witty, and Sparks might be the wittiest band ever.
Yeah, it’s a weird thing with parents. My parents can be nice when they aren’t scrutinising every single tiny action I do. My habits confound them. My father, particularly, can be a very difficult person to be around, if I had to sum it up. I remember as a child I was terrified of him because he flew off the handle at the tiniest things, like if I left the remote control on the floor or something, and I had to walk on eggshells. I kissed his feet and didn’t want to annoy him. I tried to be so nice to him, but he somehow got even more annoyed when I was doing that. When I got to be a teenager I finally said fuck you and started answering back, and I suppose we’ve been on weird terms ever since then. Now he accuses me of being ‘touchy’. It’s really only a matter of time before a conversation with him explodes. I only answer back because I never ask him for anything but he has a knack for guilt tripping me and I obviously want to stand up for myself. These days I just try to shut up if he’s up to his typical antics and will leave the room if he’s being like that. My case is not really unique though, I wouldn’t trade parents or anything if I was given the choice.
Accidentally wrote this comment on yesterday’s post so:
Hi Dennis, I finally have a laptop again!!!!!!!!! i’m so hyped. i had kind of a difficult day but i’m still keeping my chin up. how are you? how’s your tooth?:-)
I really haven’t written anything at all this laptop-less week so here’s the first poem I wrote with this new one:)
https://imgur.com/a/8XFnQ6f
Wait this book is really everything. Super super excited to read it. I got Cloudflared after a while yesterday but I don’t think it was site specific because it was happening all day. Today was a good day, especially as far as having my effort recognised goes (which is the meanest of all pleasures, and really something I should’ve worked my way out of by now but haven’t fully been able to, or rather have worked my way out of for most people except those I really admire like my lit prof or my German prof or present company). But yes I am still exploiting the ease of V-Day maybe. We’ll see if it works out the way I want it to. It rained cold rain here today which I love, except that it got in my shoes which I don’t love. I’ve set my table fan on the floor behind my bed to dry them out. Rain is so so nice from on top, but not on the ground. Maybe I should just invest in a good pair of Wellingtons. Spoke to my grandfather, and he’s recovering well from his stroke so that’s good I suppose. Happy Thursday (Thors-day or Jeudi {Jupiter’s day] if you prefer)! Lots of thundering to go around in either case.
hi dennis! gonna write more next post. though i need to order some fellow traveller books, the last two books showcased seems really good.