Poachers and Pills

"When I read Clapp, I can feel, taste, and smell the dirt and the grit. This is lived-in fiction. The perfect jeans and trucker cap, the soft pack of Marlboros on the truck dash, the bacon grease. Broken dreams and making do. Poachers and Pills showcases one of my favorite voices in fiction and poetry. The bard of the grind."

-Anthony Neil Smith, author of The Ticks Will Eat You Whole

"As an editor of a rag-tag indie magazine I've read hundreds of stories in the last few years written by talented authors. Maybe thousands of stories by thousands of authors. However, every so often you'll read words by an author who absolutely makes you sit up, holding your breath, nodding to yourself like you're watching your favorite boxer pull off a masterclass of beautiful violence. Punches in combinations like a symphony. It is a beautiful kind of violence. Those two words sum of everything about JD Clapp's stories. Beautiful violence. He's poetic. He's dark. His writing is unrelentingly real. Stories written by a man who's been there, done that and carved his initials into the nearest wall. Poachers and Pills is THE best collection of short stories of 2025 by one of the most talented writers out there today!"

-Steven Golds, editor-in-chief of Punk Noir

"Some say the only way to document the truth is to tell it in lies-from rural Ohio to the deserts of Baja and the high seas of the Pacific, JD Clapp knows the terroir of truth. He may be part social scientist and part naturalist, but he is a full-tilt storyteller...For all its emotional weight this is still an adventure book, and you will be better for the journey."

-Matt Phillips, Thriller Award-nominated author of A Good Rush of Blood

Cowboy Jamboree Press
good grit lit.