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Honors student Hunter Davis recently published a book of poems titled “Pinstripes, Brandy Queen, and the Rabbit Behind the Patio,” co-authored with his friend David Wentzel.
Davis, a senior majoring in Spanish and French Education, and Wentzel, a student at the University of Ottawa, published the book themselves. The poems inside draw from different styles of writing, including both freeform and traditional poetry.
“Writing has always been a pastime for David and me,” Davis says. “We took stock of our priorities and decided we just wanted to have a book in our hands.”
“To be honest, the actual writing bit is where the real enjoyment comes from,” Davis adds, “Like the sense of achievement from really putting effort into something, coupled with the comradery aspect of making drafts and edits. It’s kind of calming to constantly try and make something better.”
In order to publish their book independently, Davis and Wentzel had to first register for a copyright. From there, they had to decide between purchasing an ISBN number themselves or find a company that would publish it for them. However, the COVID-19 pandemic provided some extra challenges.
“The Library of Congress was shut down for a while,” Davis explains, “They stopped printing certificates of copyright completely, and the only way we ever found out we could go ahead with printing was from checking the databases for our names and book title ourselves.”
Despite this, Davis and Wentzel successfully published their book through Kindle Direct earlier this year, making their book available on Amazon.
“The poems themselves aren’t anything too special— they were written by a couple of teenagers,” Davis says, “But they mean something to us, like dealing with depression, getting older, adjusting to ‘real’ life, love… all the normal stuff that makes folks start writing.”
“Pinstripes, Brandy Queen, and the Rabbit Behind the Patio: A collection of god-awful poetry for god-awful people” is available here: https://www.amazon.com/Pinstripes-Brandy-Queen-Rabbit-Behind-ebook/
