READING | FRIDAY, OCTOBER 9 | 6 PM | FREE
T.J. English Reading & Book Signing
An Official Event of the Rising High Arts Festival
Author and journalist T.J. English is coming to FUSION on Friday, October 9, at 6 PM as part of the Rising High Arts Festival. English is the author of Dangerous Rhythms: Jazz and the Underworld, and is currently on tour for his latest book, Blood in the Desert: The T. J. English Reader. Bringing another dimension of storytelling, Blood in the Desert spans subjects as varied as jazz, boxing, police corruption, and violence in the desert Southwest. A follow-up interview will be conducted by Hakim Bellamy, the inaugural Poet Laureate of Albuquerque, NM (2012-2014).
ABOUT BLOOD IN THE DESERT
From the publisher
“T. J. English is, in every great sense of the word, a born raconteur. His tales within this book range far and wide… English is heartless in his assessment of bureaucracies and institutionalized crime and indifference, but he is compassionate (yet quite clear-eyed) about all the hapless and hopeless strivers out there… Out of these strivers, English creates a symphony of souls. A collective voice. A universal hymn.”—from the foreword by DENNIS LEHANE
The world of print journalism may be waning, but the art of reporting is anything but dead. A former New York City taxi driver turned acclaimed chronicler of crime, corruption, and the American underworld, T. J. English has spent four decades practicing a form of literary journalism that is as vital as ever. The author of classic works such as The Westies, Havana Nocturne, and The Corporation, English has earned a place alongside legends like Jimmy Breslin, Pete Hamill, and Gay Talese.
Blood in the Desert: The T. J. English Reader collects, for the first time, the finest of English’s published essays and reporting alongside new work, including the haunting title piece, which has never before appeared in print. Spanning subjects as varied as jazz, boxing, police corruption, violence in the desert Southwest, and the comedy of George Carlin, this book showcases a scribe drawn toward the fault lines of American life.
With a foreword by bestselling novelist Dennis Lehane, Blood in the Desert stands as both a celebration of a tireless truth-teller and a reminder that great writing never loses its power.
T.J. English will also be sticking around to MC CARIBE: Salsa Meets Jazz—A Tribute to the Village Gate, the event following his reading & signing.
Free parking is available in FUSION’s main lot, in our lot next to Burger King on Lomas, and is also free along 1st Street after 6 PM (more parking info + map available here).
ABOUT T.J. ENGLISH
Thomas Joseph “T.J.” English comes from a large Irish Catholic family of ten brothers and sisters. Early in his writing career, English worked as a freelance journalist in New York City during the day and drove a taxi at night. He often refers to cab driving as a metaphor for what he does as a writer—cruising the streets, interviewing strangers, exploring the unknown, reporting on what he sees and hears from his sojourns in and around the underworld.
In 1990, English published his first book, The Westies, an account of the last of the Irish Mob in the infamous Manhattan neighborhood known as “Hell’s Kitchen.” The book was the result of a series of reports English wrote for a weekly Irish American newspaper based in New York.
The Corporation (2018), Dangerous Rhythms (2022) and The Last Kilo (2024) have added even more luster to T.J.’s reputation as “our premier chronicler” of the underworld, as acclaimed novelist Richard Price called English. Historian and author Luc Sante called English “one of the best reporters of our time.”
As a journalist, English has written for Vanity Fair, Esquire, Playboy, New York magazine, The Village Voice, Los Angeles Times Magazine, the New York Times, and JazzTimes. In the mid-1990s, he wrote a three-part series for Playboy entitled “The New Mob” that explored the changing face of organized crime in America. Also for Playboy, he wrote “Narco Americano,” an investigation into the narco war in Mexico and how the violence has affected the Juárez-El Paso borderland. His article for Playboy about a DEA agent alleged to have framed innocent people on bogus narcotics charges won the prestigious New York Press Club Award for Best Crime Reporting. These and other articles were published in the book Whitey’s Payback (2013), a collection of the author's crime journalism over a twenty-year period.
In 2021, English was presented with an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Lehman College, part of the City University of New York (CUNY) educational system in the state of New York.
He lives in New York City and also in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Quality bar service will be provided by Safe House Distilling Co. and Teller Genuine Vodka. Click here for some nearby dining options.
The Rising High Arts Festival is possible thanks to the support from:
