Joe Cottonwood



Joe Cottonwood (born August 19, 1947) is an American poet and fiction writer.

Youth
Cottonwood grew up in Bethesda, Maryland. His mother and father were both scientists.

Cottonwood earned a Bachelor of Arts from Washington University in St. Louis, in 1970, majoring in English "with a heavy dose of science."

Personal Life
From 1970 to 1976, Cottonwood worked as a computer operator in St. Louis, San Francisco, Philadelphia, and Mountain View, California. Since 1976 Cottonwood has worked in the building trades as carpenter, plumber, and electrician and eventually became a general contractor doing house repairs. Since 1978 he has lived in the small mountain town of La Honda, California where he and his wife have raised three children. Cottonwood has said, "I used to bristle at being called a hippie but now I'm proud to be called an Old Hippie. La Honda is no longer the Acid Test/ Hell's Angel hangout of the Sixties, but it is still full of cranks, dreamers, and a few astonishing outlaws."

Cottonwood is the co-host of a La Honda tradition known as Lit Night, which is a monthly literary gathering in a bar with an open mic for locals to read their own or other people's works before a live, somewhat lubricated audience. The literary works range from cowboy poetry to Shakespearean drama. Their motto: "Get Lit!"

Writing Career
Cottonwood's first success was his novel Famous Potatoes, published in 1978, often called an "underground novel" due to its countercultural readership and its title. In college Cottonwood at every break would set out hitchhiking around the USA without money or a backpack, going wherever the rides would take him. The experiences formed the basis of Famous Potatoes.

One of Cottonwood's first plumbing jobs was what should have been a half-day project repairing a woman's shower. It turned into a three-day botch, but in the process he became friends with the woman's boyfriend (John Daniel) who wanted to be a book editor. They decided to jointly publish Famous Potatoes under the imprint of No Dead Lines Press. On the day of the press run, Cottonwood got a phone call from a New York publisher (Seymour Lawrence, publisher of Kurt Vonnegut and Richard Brautigan) who wanted to buy the book on the condition that there be no competing self-published edition. It was too late to stop the press, so as 500 copies were being printed Cottonwood agreed never to sell them. He still has them.

Cottonwood has written five novels for younger readers: Quake! about the 1989 "world series" earthquake; The San Puerco Trilogy of three novels about three scrappy boys in the small town of San Puerco, California (which bears a remarkable resemblance to La Honda, California); and his newest, Four Dog Riot. His most recent novel for adult readers is Clear Heart, a love story involving nail guns, wet concrete, and strong women.

Cottonwood has issued podcasts of five of his novels (audiobooks in serialized form). He is currently writing the first draft of a memoir as an ongoing blog, with readers invited to comment. He calls it "open-source editing."

Recognition

 * Danny Ain't won the BABRA Award (Bay Area Book Reviewers Association) as Best Book for Children in 1992.
 * The audiobook of Clear Heart won the Founders Choice Award for "excellence in serialized audiobook production" in 2008.
 * The audiobooks of Boone Barnaby and Babcock won the Founders Choice Award for "impeccable quality" in 2009.

Poetry

 * Son of a Poet. John Daniel, 1986.

Novels for adults

 * The Naked Computer. Black Dragon Books, 1974.
 * Famous Potatoes. No Dead Lines Press, 1978; Delacorte/Seymour Lawrence, 1979.
 * Frank City (Goodbye). Delacorte/Seymour Lawrence, 1981.
 * Clear Heart. (audiobook),  Podiobooks.com, 2007. BookSurge Publishing, 2008).

Novels for children and young adults

 * The Adventures of Boone Barnaby (The San Puerco Trilogy). Scholastic, 1990.
 * Danny Ain't (The San Puerco Trilogy). Scholastic. 1992.
 * Quake!. Scholastic, 1995.
 * Babcock (The San Puerco Trilogy). Scholastic, 1996.
 * Four Dog Riot. ebook, 2011.