Delicate Men takes a hard look at men caught in that land between here and there, men on the move, men on the verge of what comes next. The writing is sure, and the stories ring true with hard-earned wisdom.
—Lee Martin, Pulitzer Prize Finalist author of The Bright Forever
{ By the Numbers }
150 pages, 9 stories, 3 editions (audio, e-book, print),
2 Puschcart Prize nominations, 1 Million Writers Award nomination
What’s so compelling about R Dean Johnson’s Delicate Men is the startling revelation that the anxieties and insecurities of our youth—the ones we are certain we will outgrow—actually haunt us into maturity. . . Sensitively rendered, Delicate Men is honest and poignant storytelling.
—Rigoberto González, author of Autobiography of My Hungers
{ Author Interviews }
Focus on Fiction (print) interview from July 14, 2016
Bluegrass Writers Studio, Faculty Facts (print) interview from July 8, 2014
WIPs: Works (of Fiction) in Progress (print) interview from February 26, 2013
The men in Delicate Men are delicate men, yes, in the now-fashionable crisis-of-masculinity sense, but they are also vagabonds and romantics and at times profoundly indelicate men, their indelicateness exposed for all the world to see, and we (the world) are better for having seen them through the tender prism of these mischievous stories by R Dean Johnson.
–Jeff Parker, author of Ovenman and Where Bears Roam the Streets
{ Media }
“Concrete”, an early version of the story “No Better,”
read live by an actor Ryan Ervin at Liars’ League NYC. Full audio here.
{ Photos }
R Dean Johnson 