Poor Ghost

The Next Great Rock and Roll Novel

On a September afternoon in Santa Barbara, a private jet carrying the members of Poor Ghost--one of America’s most storied rock bands--plunges into the backyard of Caleb Crane, a retired insurance salesman. Still mourning his wife’s death from Covid, Caleb finds himself navigating trauma, grief, and loss, all while his quiet neighborhood is invaded by pushy reporters and rabid Poor Ghost fans.

For fans of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Daisy Jones & the Six and its fictional documentary structure, Poor Ghost moves back and forth between the impact of the plane crash on Caleb’s life and an oral history of Poor Ghost--from its beginnings as a working-class punk band to rock icons. As the twisting and turning strands of the plot converge, readers are shown what happens when different worlds (literally) collide with one another, and how we view, negotiate, argue with, and aid those who are unlike us.

David Starkey served as Santa Barbara’s 2009-2011 Poet Laureate. He is Founding Director of the Creative Writing Program at Santa Barbara City College, Co-editor of the California Review of Books, and the Publisher and Co-editor of Gunpowder Press. Over the past thirty-five years, he has published eleven full-length collections of poetry with small presses--most recently Dance, You Monster, to My Soft Song and What Just Happened: 210 Haiku Against the Trump Presidency--and more than 500 poems in literary journals such as American Scholar, Georgia Review, Prairie Schooner, and Southern Review. His textbook, Creative Writing: Four Genres in Brief(Bedford/St. Martin’s), is in its fourth edition. He is also the author of two composition textbooks: Hello, Writer: An Academic Writing Guide(Bedford/St. Martin’s) and Academic Writing Now: A Brief Guide for Busy Students (Broadview). Starkey is also a writer of fiction and creative nonfiction (published in American Literary Review, in Cimarron Review, in Living Blue in the Red States, and elsewhere), and a playwright whose plays have been produced across the United States (davidstarkey.net).