"This poet on the page is as fluid as a dancer on stage, or on the dance floor. Everything flows, everything fits, so that readers, rightfully, cannot tell what passages were labored over more than others. Yamrus "makes it look easy," and knows it's not easy to come up with a poem that "says something," and all of these do. He is precise and fluid, more importantly passionate about what he puts on the page. The fiction writer-poet Raymond Carver said "Get black on white," which is exactly what John Yamrus does, as he simultaneously instructs (never ever preaches) and entertains. All the poems in seriously warrant going back to, for the sheer pleasure of reading."
-From the Introduction
One of the most prolific writers of poetry on the scene today, John Yamrus is widely considered to be a master of minimalism and the neo-noir in modern poetry. The relaxed style of his writing can be seen as a continuation of the oral tradition of literature associated with Allen Ginsberg and The Beats, and his poems are best appreciated when read aloud.
The unlikely pairing of often dark subjects, combined with humor and irreverence has become something of a trademark of his work.
His nearly 50 published books, which include not only poetry, but also novels, memoirs and a children's book, are beginning to appear in translation, and he is a frequent guest on podcasts and television programs.