Joshua Butts is from Jackson, OH. He received a B.A. and an M.A. from The Ohio State University and a PhD from the University of Cincinnati, where he was a Charles Phelps Taft Dissertation Fellow. His poems have appeared in various journals including Sonora Review, Tampa Review, Harpur Palate, Forklift, Ohio, and Quarterly West. Butts is currently a Visiting Professor of English and Philosophy at the Columbus College of Art and Design. He lives in Columbus, OH with his wife Lesley Jenike and daughter Willa Mae.

Books by Joshua Butts:

Other poems on the web by Joshua Butts:
Two poems
"Retrospective"
"Poem of the Teenager"

About On New to the Lost Coast:

"The 'lost coast' of America has a brilliant new troubadour. Steeped in the cinematic and musical mythmaking of our country – from hip to traditional – Joshua Butts is part James Wright and part Chrissie Hynde, and the Midwest of his poetry is as poignant, generous, driven, and electric as the work of those great artists. As William Carlos Williams said, 'The pure products of America / go crazy–' and this remarkable young poet adds: 'Keep telling stories... and resist thinking it's nice only here. / In many places there's still plenty of wildness.'"
—David St. John

"'Hope is the drag,' writes Joshua Butts in this stellar debut collection, leading the reader on a tour of striving and ruin from Alaska to Appalachia. Butts is an astute observer of American bitterness ('A niece wants a ring off a dead lady's hand. / She has a right.), writing poems of starkness, biting wit, and stripped-down spirituality. Through scrap yards, rough rivers, and the dark interior of the movies, New to the Lost Coast expertly guides the reader with a grip both expansive and tight."
—Natalie Shapero