Geoff Graser
Nonfiction
Rochester, NY
I am a freelance writer based in Rochester, NY, whose focus is on social justice and mental health. I will be using this residency to help complete a memoir called "The King of Secret City" based on my reporting about a graffiti artist who died by suicide. Learning his story helped me look deeper at how many men, including myself, struggle to cope with issues around depression and mental health. My work has appeared in USA Today, Cleaver Magazine, Santa Clara Review, Aethlon: The Journal of Sports Literature, Washington City Paper, Rochester’s City Newspaper and Democrat and Chronicle. I hold an MFA in Creative Writing and Literature from Bennington College and a Master’s in Journalism from Syracuse University.
I am the co-founder of the Flour City Reading Series in Rochester, NY, a curated reading series focused on highlighting diverse voices from all genres. My work can be found at geoffgraser.com.
I struggled to recognize any letters spelling B-O-N-E-S. Eventually, I started to see what might be an O—a soggy cheerio stuck between aqua letters that leaned and folded over others as if locked in a brutal game of Twister. Stepping back again to see the painting’s 30 feet expanse, I had flashbacks to dark lairs from Aliens, a creature’s tendrils dripping through spacecraft grates. The twisted grit of Bones' graffiti, called “wildstyle,” provoked me. I’ve always been drawn to subcultures, people clawing at society’s edges. People who sometimes looked lost. Bones. Skylar. And, of course, me.
Graser, sample from memoir The King of Secret City