“All good stories should offer two main things... existential truth and escape from existential truth.” ~ Rowan Duncan
Rowan Duncan (b. 1977) is an American novelist, short-story writer, essayist, poet, and philosopher from West Texas. His writing explores themes of Nature, Existentialism, and the darker aspects of the human mind.
His range of genres includes Crime, Neo-Noir, Neo-Western, Psychological Thriller, Horror, Southern Gothic, and others.
Literary and poetic influences include Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, Arthur Conan Doyle, Joseph Conrad, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Albert Camus, Sylvia Plath, J.D. Salinger, Jack Kerouac, Jim Morrison, Charles Bukowski, Larry McMurtry, and Cormac McCarthy.
“All good stories should offer two main things... existential truth and escape from existential truth.” ~ Rowan Duncan
Rowan Duncan (b. 1977) is an American novelist, short-story writer, essayist, poet, and philosopher from West Texas. His writing explores themes of Nature, Existentialism, and the darker aspects of the human mind.
His range of genres includes Crime, Neo-Noir, Neo-Western, Psychological Thriller, Horror, Southern Gothic, and...
“The Wild Road” is a deeply introspective poetry collection examining human emotions and experiences with rich imagery and philosophical depth.
In the opening section, poems like “The Wild Road (part one)” and “The Velvet Darkness” use mystical natural imagery to explore the connection between the external world and our inner lives, highlighting...
In “Dark Jazz,” Rowan Duncan delivers a haunting collection that masterfully blends the raw emotion of Jazz music with the precise craft of contemporary verse. Through three distinct sections—Poems, Lyrics, and Sketches—Duncan explores themes of mortality, urban loneliness, and the bittersweet nature of love with unflinching honesty and lyrical...
I don’t know how to talk about the constant pain, so I express it in Writing. I write it into Poetry or nestle it between the words of a story, hoping someone, somewhere, will read it and understand - maybe even benefit from it. Art is expression. And Writing, especially Poetry, is the highest form. ~ Rowan Duncan
Picture this: You’re standing at the edge of a vast, dark abyss. The wind howls, carrying whispers of forgotten dreams and shattered hopes. That, my friends, is the playground of Existentialism. It’s not for the faint of heart, nope. It’s a philosophy that’ll grab you by the throat and force you to stare into the void until your eyes bleed.
Now, you might be thinking, “What’s the big deal? It’s just another fancy word for a bunch of eggheads to toss around at cocktail parties.” But let me tell...
Writing. It’s a bitch of a mistress, but damned if she doesn’t know how to show a guy a good time.
Robert Louis Stevenson once said he hated to write but loved having written. Well, no offense to RLS, but I’m here to tell you that’s a crock of shit. I love every hellish minute of it - the good, the bad, the ugly!
Let’s get one thing straight: writing isn’t just some fancy way to get your thoughts out there. It’s a friggin art form, as old as cave paintings and twice as messy. Sure, you could...
Diving headfirst into the wild and wondrous world of creativity, the way it bubbles up from the depths of the human psyche like a geyser of pure inspiration, hot and steaming and ready to burst forth onto the page or canvas or wherever it damn well pleases. It’s a crazy thing, creativity, a force that grabs you by the collar and shakes you awake in the middle of the night, demanding to be heard, to be seen, to be felt and experienced in all its raw, unfiltered glory.
I have officially been extended an invitation by the director of Literacy Lubbock to be a "Signing Author" at the next Lubbock Book Festival, on August 23, 2025. And I accepted!
Though that is a good ways off, it'll be here before we know it, so lots to do to prepare. It's a great honor to be invited!
The Lubbock Book Festival is an annual event put on by Literacy Lubbock! They provide free literacy and education classes, tutors, and resources to students. They offer classes or one-on-one tutor...
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