NESTER, Daniel 1968-

(Daniel M. Nester)

PERSONAL: Born February 29, 1968, in Portsmouth, VA; son of Michael Nestor (a truck driver) and Patricia A. (a secretary; maiden name, Little) Dudek; married Maisie Weissman (a video editor), October 7, 2000. Ethnicity: "White." Education: Rutgers University, B.A., 1991; New York University, M.F.A., 1997. Religion: "Ex-Catholic." Hobbies and other interests: Record collecting, guitar playing.

ADDRESSES: Home—270 5th St., Ste. 2E, Brooklyn, NY 11215. Agent—Adam Chromy, Artists and Artisans Inc., 45 W. 21st St., 3rd Fl., New York, NY 10010. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Writer, editor, and educator. Painted Bride Quarterly, Camden, NJ, contributing editor and online archive project coordinator, 1992–2004; Pequod, New York, assistant editor, 1995–96; Film & TV Today, New York, NY, editor and writer, 1995–99; New York University Film and Television, New York, NY, administrative assistant, 1996–2000; Slack Inc., Thorofare, NJ, medical writer and correspondent, 1999–; La Petite Zine, editor-in-chief, 1999–2003; DUCKY, contributing editor, 2000–; New York University, adjunct writing professor, 2001–; Slope Editions, board of directors, 2003–; Poetz.com, member of board of directors, 2003–; McSweeney's, assistant Web editor, 2003–; Unpleasant Event Schedule, editor, 2003–; TBWA/Chiat/Day, New York, NY, proofreader, 2004.

MEMBER: Poetry Society of America.

AWARDS, HONORS: Residency fellowship, Virginia Center for Creative Arts, 2001.

WRITINGS:

God Save My Queen: A Tribute (prose poems), Soft Skull Press (Brooklyn, NY), 2003.

God Save My Queen II: The Show Must Go On (short essays), Soft Skull Press (Brooklyn, NY), 2004.

Contributor of poetry to literary journals, including Spoon River Poetry Review, Columbia Poetry Review, Verse, Crazyhorse, Mississippi Review, Hollins Critic, South Carolina Quarterly, Painted Bride Quarterly, Santa Clara Review, and Minnesota Review. Contributor to anthologies, including Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing, 5th edition, edited by Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell, Thomson/Heinle (Boston, MA), 2003; The Best American Poetry 2003, edited by David Lehman, Scribners (New York, NY), 2003; and Isn't It Romantic: 100 Love Poems by Younger American Poets, edited by Brett Fletcher Lauer and Aimee Kelly, Verse Press (Amherst, MA), 2005. Also contributor of poetry to online journals.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Research on twentieth-century American poetry and poetics, theory of the essay, slam poetry, performance poetry, poetry on film, literature and new technologies, and journal editing and publishing.

SIDELIGHTS: Daniel Nester told CA: "I write because I can't not write. I've tried to quit. I've also been conflicted about what is the 'appropriate' subject matter for a poem, which is my primary genre. This led to a suppression of my writing about what I perceived to be inappropriate subject matters—records, rock music, and my obsession with the rock band Queen—and finally an outpouring of writing on those same subjects. So I guess I think I have a missionary zeal for writing poems about unpoetic things. I am influenced by my own current dramas or fascinations, but I am also wildly influenced by an assortment of writers, from Allen Ginsberg, William Carlos Williams, Sharon Olds, Wallace Stevens, Lester Bangs, Amiri Baraka, and John Giorno. Rock music, especially the big stadium kind, gets my motor running. I write on paper and take notes first, often scattered thoughts. Sometimes I try to piece them together and figure out what I'm saying. Other times I'll type a piece on the computer, then write it out. I keep pads in several parts of my house and in all my bags so that I can be ready to write a word or phrase down."