Van G. Garrett

Follow to get new release updates and improved recommendations

About Van G. Garrett

Van G. Garrett appreciates boxing, photographing hummingbirds in Tuscany, and listening to the trumpeted sounds of Miles Davis. A watch aficionado, Van has photographed President Nelson Mandela, partied on a beach with a queen and royalty, played drums on stages with Grammy-winning musicians, and he has climbed the highest mountain in Ghana.

Read more about Van: vanggarrettpoet.com

Larry Smith

Rachel Fershleiser

Jason Reynolds

David L Tamarin

Gayle Forman

Christina Gonzalez

Are you an author?

Help us improve our Author Pages by updating your bibliography and submitting a new or current image and biography.

Learn more at Author Central

1 11 1

$9.99

Kindle Edition
$2.99

Kindle Edition
$3.99

Kindle Edition
$0.99

Kindle Edition
$2.99

Kindle Edition
$2.99

Kindle Edition
$12.00

Paperback
$12.00

Paperback
$20.00

Paperback
$12.95

Paperback
$53.98

Paperback

Author Updates

Books By Van G. Garrett

All Formats Kindle Edition Hardcover Paperback

SIX WORDS FRESH OFF THE BOAT: Stories of Immigration, Identity, and Coming to America (ABC) Sep 5, 2017

by Larry Smith

( 32 )

$9.99

Six Words Fresh Off the Boat marries the phenomenon of Larry Smith's successful Six-Word Memoirs with ABC and 20th Century Fox Television's hit comedy Fresh Off the Boat. The book captures hundreds of takes on the immigration experience, from every-day people as well as world-famous celebrities including Aziz Ansari, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Julianne Moore, Mario Batali, George Takei, Neil Gaiman, Amanda Palmer, Billy Collins, Junot Díaz, and Dr. Sanjay Gupta. This book will have you thinking in sixes and challenging others to share six words about their lives.

Other Formats: Hardcover

Lennox in Twelve: Poems Jul 4, 2017

by Van G. Garrett

( 2 )

$2.99

In LENNOX IN TWELVE, award-winning poet Van G. Garrett explores moments, both large and small, in the life of heavyweight champion boxer Lennox Lewis.

Using an effortless style to peel back the layers to one of the twentieth century's best athletes, Garrett packs a powerful punch with his words, one worthy of his subject.

An excerpt from LENNOX IN TWELVE:

NO ROSIN

One may not slip on a banana peel,
But one can slip on a canvas.

Slick as grease.

Balance, melting ice.
Hands, unsure.

Feet, burdens,
Scapegoats.

Reasons a fight was over,
Before it began.

Can I Kick It?: Sneaker Microfiction and Poetry Feb 2, 2021

by Ran Walker , Van G. Garrett

$3.99

Whether it's for the comfort, the style, the collectibility, or the investment potential, sneakers play a huge role in pop culture. Ran Walker and Van G. Garrett decided to explore the various aspects of sneaker culture in this collection of microfiction and poetry.

More than a celebration of sneaker culture, Can I Kick It? creatively explores everything from that first pair of J's to the latest Yeezy obsession.

Other Formats: Paperback

Short Stories by Texas Authors: Volume 5 Oct 15, 2019

by Texas Authors

$0.99

Texas authors have once again allowed their creative minds to open up and expand the Universe in which they live with short stories that capture one’s emotions through the everlasting medium of storytelling.

This fifth volume of award-winning short stories takes readers on a personal ride of growth and understanding, then a jaunt through history both factual and fictional, then a trip of magic, suspense, and much more. Those are just a few of the emotions one will experience as they read the 12 winning short stories from prolific Texas authors.

ZURI: Love Songs Jan 15, 2018

by Van G. Garrett , Kwame Alexander

( 2 )

$2.99

"Reading “Zuri” is like listening to Eric B. & Rakim at a traffic light, during the summer, and forgetting to go. It’s like laughing to keep from crying the Blues ‘cause ‘aint no sunshine when she’s gone. It’s like grooving to a bass, a piano, and the vocals of a cornrowed siren." ~ Kwame Alexander

ZURI takes us on a trip through the poetic world of Van G. Garrett, as he explores traveling, coming of age, appreciating music, and falling in love in this diverse collection.

*This collection was previously published as a chapbook, but is now available here in its full form.

HOG: Poems Jul 18, 2017

by Van G. Garrett

( 4 )

$2.99

PRAISE FOR HOG:

Poems that echo the blues
Words that howl and sing
Writing that reminds us and restores us
In the hard life the music endures

— Alan Govenar, author of Texas Blues: The Rise of a Contemporary Sound

"Van Garrett's Hog meets the blues where it lives, sliding the reader along a guitar neck into juke joint cadences signified even in the poems' titles: 'Pig-headed and Crazy,' 'Sardines and Milk,' 'Fingers and Pain.' Just as in the best blues songs, the flash of a line thrusts us into the love and the lust and the mud and the blood, the struggles and loves and losses and pride in a bluesman's life that constitute his art as much as his songs themselves. This is the world of Lightnin' and Muddy, Blind Lemon and the Wolf. The poems here sketch the biography of Slim Harpo's imagined godson Hog, but more than that, they echo and extend the long poetic life of the blues form, a lyric value Langston sensed long ago and Van Garrett keeps vibrant in these pages."

— Jason Mellard, Assistant Director, Center for Texas Music History, Texas State University

The brilliant, and perfect courage of this collection of poems is that they turn away from nothing, and come from deep beneath the raw, gritty, sexual essence of what for me is the blues. Brightly painted word images punctuated like a smoking guitar solo with all the gyrating heat and classic, bygone simplicity of those who have come before. You are pulled into winged dreams through the eyes of a bluesman, and then awakened with a shock, like biting your tongue hard, and tasting fresh blood in your mouth. Loudly, here is life, here is love, here is pain, here is the blues, babies.

— Deb Ryder – Singer, Songwriter, Blues Artist

Van G. Garrett explores moments in the life of bluesman Elmore "Hog" Garrett, the imagined godson of the legendary bluesman Slim Harpo. With poems that breathe life into this Southern story, Van G. Garrett's exploration into the fictionalized Elmore Garrett is both arresting and engaging, a worthy salute to one of America's authentic art forms.

More Information

Are you an author? Visit Author Central to change your photo, edit your biography, and more

See Author Pages Frequently Asked Questions

Anything else? Provide feedback about this page

Similar authors to follow

About Van G. Garrett

Customers Also Bought Items By

Are you an author?

Author Updates

More Information