Description
Dead Dad Jokes is an unflinching take on family, loss and trauma. There is nothing quiet about Schminkey’s debut. Every page is raw, honest and unforgettable. Dead Dad Jokes brings the impact of addiction into crisp focus while also shattering our simplistic TV preconceptions about it. Ollie never lets the reader slip into the easy sadness of cliche – instead they guide us through the realities and contradictions of losing someone you love and of death – reminding us that they need not be one and the same.
Praise for Dead Dad Jokes
I find articulation of grief to be challenging because the machinery of grief never stops humming for those who are in the midst of it. I am thankful for a book like this one, which is unafraid to return to a site of ache and continue in attempts to illuminate it — with some joy, with some gratitude, and without shame.
– Hanif Abdurraqib, author of A Fortune For Your Disaster
In Dead Dad Jokes, Ollie Schminkey recounts their experiences as a caretaker with both tenderness and an arresting honesty, and in doing so, continues to care for us. I am immensely grateful for this collection, for its honoring of the messiness of grief and its celebration for all that survives it. Dead Dad Jokes is a gift born of bereavement and still, beautifully, full of life.
– Kevin Kantor, author of Please Come Off-Book
Awards
About Ollie Schminkey
Ollie Schminkey is a non-binary transgender poet/musician/artist living in St. Paul, MN. They facilitate, direct, coach, and host many organizations, including a weekly writing workshop called Well-Placed Commas, which serves primarily queer and trans writers. They’ve performed poems… MORE