James H Duncan

The Oscars are coming up and I've always enjoyed watching those, so here's my own ten picks for Best Picture of the last 12 months or so, in order:
One Battle After Another
Train Dreams
Blue Moon
Weapons
Sinners
The Ballad of Wallis Island
Euphus
Marty Supreme
Hamnet
Wake Up Dead Man

A Review of Odyssey Bookstore — James H Duncan 115 W Green Street Lower, Ithaca, NY It was a bright Saturday morning in downtown Ithaca when I opened my phone and typed what I usually do when I pass through any given town or city: “Bookstores Ne...

A throwback to my write-up of Odyssey Bookstore in Ithaca. I haven't been here since sometime just after the pandemic and it's long overdue for a return!

www.jameshduncan.com/the-bookshop...

Our open call has a theme of the American Southwest. Give us plateaus and deserts. Myths and legends. Bustling city streets baked by the sun, full of joy, grief, and stories of the communities of folks who have lived in this vast space for centuries. https://hobocampreview.blogspot.com/p/submission-guidelines.html?m=1

Our open call has a theme of the American Southwest. Give us plateaus and deserts. Myths and legends. Bustling city streets baked by the sun, full of joy, grief, and stories of the communities of folks who have lived in this vast space for centuries.

hobocampreview.blogspot.com/p/submission...

Submissions are now open. Guidelines are at the website: https://hobocampreview.blogspot.com/p/submission-guidelines.html?m=1

Submissions are now open. Guidelines are at the website:

hobocampreview.blogspot.com/p/submission...

ONE WAY TO REDUCE STRESS IS TO MEDITATE. ANOTHER WAY IS TO NOT LIVE UNDER A FASCIST GOVERNMENT. THIS HAS BEEN WELLNESS TIPS! Underneath the Welcome to Night Vale logo, a purple eye with a crescent moon in the pupil

Stress reduction

If by AWP you mean All Waffles & Pancakes then hell yeah I'm going to AWP.

A Review of The Golden Notebook — James H Duncan 29 Tinker Street, Woodstock, NY Woodstock might seem like it’s a quiet rural community, but in the summer and fall months it becomes a touristy hot-spot, especially in the Hudson Valley’s beautiful ...

My write-up of The Golden Notebook in Woodstock, NY over at The Bookshop Hunter blog

www.jameshduncan.com/the-bookshop...

Open submission window coming soon, poetry and fiction, art and photos, with a theme of the American southwest.

A Review of Lake Bound Bookstore — James H Duncan 2878 NY-43, Averill Park, NY (really in Sand Lake, though) First impressions go a long way. It’s what this bookstore blog was originally based on: that initial feeling of wandering a shop with littl...

My write-up of the beautiful Lake Bound Bookstore in Averill Park/Sand Lake NY is over at The Bookshop Hunter blog

www.jameshduncan.com/the-bookshop...

A poem titled the postcard from the 2019 poetry collection by James Duncan titled Ferrell Kingdom

A poem from my 2019 collection Feral Kingdom

www.jameshduncan.com/books

Writers Who Use AI Are Not Real Writers Dorothy Parker famously (but probably not really) said, “I hate to write, but I love having written,” which is a sentiment I don’t largely understand or agree with in the broader …

Stop using AI to write, or at least stop calling yourself a "writer"

terribleminds.com/ramble/2026/...

That Bad Bunny halftime show was FUN

A Review of Green Hand Bookshop — James H Duncan 661 Congress Street, Portland, ME Green Hand is the kind of throwback second-hand bookshop you yearn to find, where new books sit side-by-side with old-school pulp paperbacks in every row, aisle, st...

My write-up of Green Hand Bookshop in Portland, Maine is now posted at my blog, The Bookshop Hunter.

www.jameshduncan.com/the-bookshop...

We gotta come up with a better system than “everything rests on whether these twelve billionnaires are nice”

A Review of Urban Aftermath — James H Duncan 295 Hamilton St, Albany, NY A couple years back I wrote that Dove & Hudson , one of my favorite bookshops, was the only used bookshop in the city of Albany. I couldn’t have been more wrong, and...

A write-up of Urban Aftermath in Albany NY from a few years back. Still going strong!

www.jameshduncan.com/the-bookshop...

Not that I think anyone with these qualifications would sign up to do something this stupid, but WOE to the writer who does. The rest of us will eat them alive.

Upcoming open calls at HCR

A short piece of fiction in the form of a poem called Blade and Salt from my book Nassau

A short piece of fiction in the form of a poem from my book Nassau

A Bookshop Interview with Gabriel Ricard — James H Duncan Gabriel Ricard is a poet, writer, and occasional actor currently based out of Long Island, and I originally came to know him through his role as the cinema guru at the always epic Drunk Monkeys site...

A bookshop interview with writer Gabriel Ricard. I need to start doing more of these again.

www.jameshduncan.com/the-bookshop...

Obviously I'd rather people weren't dying and getting kidnapped and that ICE would go away, but if Bovino and Noem are both gone over the response over the last couple days, all I can say is, good work Minnesota.

This is what they've always wanted, the ability to beat up and shoot anyone simply because they don't like them, and receive total immunity from leaders who are laughing all the way to the bank. This is fun for them, the werewolf of the American psyche running wild. It's disgusting and evil.

Meet the Alaska Student Arrested for Eating an AI Art Exhibit A conversation with Graham Granger, whose combination of protest and performance art spread beyond campus. “AI chews up and spits out art made by other people.”

Bravo

www.thenation.com/article/soci...

New Interview on the Meat For Teacast — James H Duncan In late 2025, I had the pleasure of joining my poetry writing partners Gabriel Ricard and Kevin Ridgeway on an episode of the Meat for Teacast, a podcast hosted by Elizabeth Macduffie.

In late 2025, I had the pleasure of joining my poetry writing partners Gabriel Ricard and Kevin Ridgeway on an episode of the Meat for Teacast, a podcast hosted by Elizabeth Macduffie, where we discussed our book, We Have Waited Long Enough.

www.jameshduncan.com/blog/2026/1/...

Hey, thank you very much!

https://www.magicaljeep.com/product/cistern/161

"Prophecy" from my book Cistern Latitudes, published by Roadside Press

www.magicaljeep.com/product/cist...

Winter Twilight by Charles Burchfield, 1930.

Winter Twilight by Charles Burchfield, 1930.

A Review of Cherry Valley Bookstore — James H Duncan 81 Alden Street, Cherry Valley, NY I first heard about the Cherry Valley Bookstore from some other bookshop hunting friends, and we found the tiny yellow house in the middle of the village with fr...

The Cherry Valley Bookstore is a wonderful shop in central New York. This is my write-up from a couple years back but they're still worth visiting anytime!

www.jameshduncan.com/the-bookshop...

Hobo Camp Review Interview with Michele McDannold A note from HCR Editor James Duncan: Of the many indie press editors I've worked with over the years,  Michele McDannold has always stood ou...

We interviewed poet and publisher Michele McDannold in our latest issue

hobocampreview.blogspot.com/2026/01/hobo...

The Soul of the Soulless City ('New York - an Abstraction') by Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson, 1920.

The Soul of the Soulless City ('New York - an Abstraction') by Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson, 1920.

A Review of WM H Adams Antiquarian Books — James H Duncan 608 Main Street, Hobart, NY WM H Adams was the last bookshop I explored during my trip to Hobart in the pandemic summer of 2020, but it was not at all the least of the shops I found there. The fir...

Here's a write-up of one of the many fascinating bookshops in The village of Hobart, New York.

www.jameshduncan.com/the-bookshop...