The Song Poet: A 1930's Tale of Gravity, Love, and Other Things You Can't Stop

Hey Friends,

Many of you know I’ve spent the past several months researching, writing, and rewriting THE SONG POET, a Depression-era historical romance set between the streets of Hell’s Kitchen and the Appalachian mountains of South Carolina.

THE PREMISE

In Depression-weary 1937, a once-promising, now hack NYC songwriter and a tragedy-haunted, mystical Appalachian poetess cross paths through a phony Song Poet contest—meant to bilk the gullible and unsophisticated by offering false hope and praise for pitifully bad (and often humorous) attempts at poetry.

But somehow, with the help of a vibrant cast of friends, family, and antagonists—and after a flurry of train wrecks, boxing scandals, altar calls, radio hootenannies, and one really godawful dirigible disaster (it’s 1937)—a partnership that starts as a scam becomes something sacred.

George Sigalas, Sr., 1908-2005. IN THE NOVEL: Pete's best friend. REAL LIFE: My Athens-born grandfather, whose memoirs served as the genesis for the NYC sections of THE SONG POET.

THE SONG POET is a novel about music, grief, spiritual longing, remembering who you were meant to be, and falling in love when you thought you were finished. It’s about the power of plain old, flat-footed Love when Faith and Hope seem to have taken sabbaticals.

And yes—my Hell's Kitchen-raised grandfather shows up in the story, alongside his real-life friends from 1937, including doomed heavyweight contender Arthur Huttick—plus cameos from Shoeless Joe Jackson, Joe Louis, and even Eddie Rabbitt’s dad.

A friend described it as O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? meets THE NOTEBOOK—but after I smacked him around a little, he agreed to withdraw the Notebook thing entirely and revised it to: Pat Conroy meets Damon Runyon, if GUYS AND DOLLS had a third act written by Wendell Berry.