Jay Marvin - Punk Noir. The first great crime writer of the 21st century, who dips his pen into warm blood and shattered bone and paints his unflinching view of how it is out there. An honest voice in an age of whining, emotionless hacks

Jay Marvin, The White Trash Chronicles, Hats Off Books, 2001.


The White Trash Chronicles is another chapter in the on-again, off-again unfolding saga of Jay Marvin's self proclaimed "Punk Noir" writing style. This collection of poems deals with stormy relationships, down-and-out lives, and life as seen through a muddy camera lens.


Jay Marvin dips his pen into warm blood and shattered bone and paints his unflinching view of how it is out there. An honest voice in an age of whining, emotionless hacks. He’s a friend and a valuable creative spirit. - Tom Russell


Meet Jay Marvin, the first great crime writer of the 21st Century. - Edward Bunker

Jay Marvin, Punk Blood, Fiction Collective 2, 1998.
read it at Google Books


Scene follows scene until one realizes that all of the scenes are rendered more or less uniformly. The torrent of words spilling from Cohen’s brain gives his father’s mysterious disappearance the same weight as his pal’s buying speed, or what’s happening in the porn video on TV.
Cohen wonders about an old girlfriend, takes a shower and then kidnaps, strips and murders two college girls in the desert. No event is more significant than any other. To someone who cannot feel, all of life is a passing parade of visual images.
Cohen’s is the awareness of someone constantly watching TV, where shampoo makes your hair shine longer and bombers waste a factory in Sudan.
Cohen gives us a glimpse of the other side, that of the life-long outlaw, whose actions differ from ours, but whose thoughts and feelings may not. Cohen is a self-actualized loser, America’s shadow.

One hell of a writer or the hell of a writer? Both. Jay can take you along on breathless rides on the wings of his very peculiar, black and sad songs: hold on and let the rhythm of his prose take you to the very center of his world. Where the anguish of life and death meets with the aesthetical joy only a true author can produce. - Vittorio Curtoni

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Jay Marvin’s words have sand in their teeth and dead neon in their eyes. He knows us; he knows our scarred underbelly. There are no maps for the places in this book — bring a large suitcase and keep your eyes wide open. It’s a hell of a ride. - Bill Schields

Marvin writes like a maniac. He hears things that many of us miss. He puts those things on paper where they are exceedingly strange and evocative. His work is never short of stun gun sharp.

- Frederick Barthelme

When I was in high school, someone said I should listen to late nights on WLS-AM in Chicago. There was a young fresh voice on the air which I would enjoy. His name was Jay Marvin. I listened. I thought that he was not my cup of tea. He was ridiculous prank calling WGN Radio's Extension 720 program, saying dumb things, then hanging up. Of course, he was doing this while on the air. Aside from that, I thought he was okay. The person who first told me about Jay insisted that if I gave him a chance, he would win me over. The person said Jay champions the little guy. Jay attempts to be the voice of those who do not have one. He does great work to bring awareness to mental health issues in the world. I kept listening and in very short order, I had become a fan of his show. In fact, I loved it. He in fact did take calls from people with mental health issues who screamed out for help. Unlike others, Jay listened. He tried to help these callers both on and off the air. Wanting to establish myself in radio, I reached out to Mr. Marvin and he actually took the time to call me back, answer my questions, and sounded genuinely interested in my life and story. Eventually, he left Chicago and moved around the country. I was not able to find him until I was in college hosting a radio talk show where I would do my best to interview various media members about the latest stories or the media's role in information gathering or entertainment providing. I have been lucky enough to become friends with Jay over the years. Besides being a wonderful talk show personality, he writes and paints. In fact, you can buy two of his books at the following sites. Please take the time to read about Jay Marvin as well as his books. You will be entertained and moved by his words. - Sexy Isra    
http://sexyisra.blogspot.com/2013/02/jay-marvins-death-dance-and-punk-blood.html

Jay Marvin, Death Dance, Howling Dog Press,
40+ pages sample (issuu)


“Jay Marvin is a throwback to the hard, gritty, naturalistic writing of the ’30s and ’40s when characters didn’t spend all of their time doing lunch or seducing their students. He joins Algren, Wright, Conroy, Olson, and Cain.” - Ishmael Reed
 
“Marvin writes like a maniac. He hears things that many of us miss. He puts those things on paper where they are exceedingly strange and evocative. His work is never short of stun gun sharp.” - Frederick Barthelme
 
“Jay Marvin dips his pen into warm blood & shattered bone and paints his unflinching view of how it is out there…. [He] is a product of the front lines: Border towns, porno theaters, wrestling auditoriums, radio stations, used car lots, mental hospitals, twelve hours on the surgery table, years in rehab … and all of it. His poetry is a testament to a life lived. Read him. Weep or laugh. But read him. Amen.” - Tom Russell
 
“Superior to the tough language, or the harsh and bleak landscape is Jay Marvin’s capacity for capturing, then holding hostage, characterization & conflict. His voice is authentic, his experience visceral—in tandem they seem singularly enormous. A frenetic sense of obscure panic careens amok throughout his lines. Marvin’s poetry drives hard, hot & furious through the darkest shadows of the human psyche. Has anyone else written poetry noir? To my knowledge, no--not before Jay Marvin--as original an inventor of style as they come. Better take him seriously; Jay Marvin will generate a lot of imitators, but none who understand the genre to the depths that he does.”~ Michael Annis
 
"I don't think I have ever recommended a book on Facebook before, but I am doing it now. I am reading Death Dance by Jay Marvin, published by Howling Dog Press. As hard to read as it is hard to put down--think Genet meets de Sade meets Kerouac; you're on the road, but it's a dark road indeed, crossing a landscape where the line between a dark thought and a dark deed is nonexistent. Marvin throws a lot of punches; he's Bukowski without the politeness, which makes Death Dance a bruising read. With stark and startling images by artist Jeff Kappel that, like the prose, get under your skin like a splinter and stay there. Marvin is more Rimbaud than Auden; there's no Augustan distance here; it's personal. (As an aside, this book is published by an independent press which I support greatly.) You may be disburbed by this read, but not disappointed."- Regina A. Walker


Jay Marvin Simmers Down