Jason Mashak – Words & Music

Jason Mashak

« L’homme que j’étais, je ne le suis plus. » — Henry Miller

Wordsmithery (Published works)

“Every ruin / is a thing we have made” (from “Irish Pub, Midway Airport”)

Poem "Irish Pub, Midway Airport" from the book Salty as a Lip

Jason Mashak’s poetry – raw, surreal minimalism praised by Bill Knott as “beautiful brilliant” – has been featured in many publications, reviewed in The Prague Post, and included in the historical literary anthology The Return of Kral Majales: Prague’s International Literary Renaissance 1990-2010. The final couplet from his poem “Irish Pub, Midway Airport” — “Every ruin / is a thing we have made” (pictured above) — was pressed into a concrete sidewalk in Portland, Oregon, as part of a TriMet MAX public art project.

Lines from Mashak’s poem etched into concrete as sidewalk art in Portland, Oregon, at the SW corner of SE 17th and SE Boise (photo by COLIN SMITH)

Mashak’s accessible, gritty poems appeal to fans of poets like Emily Dickinson, Jack Gilbert, or Paul Blackburn. He has been a featured poet at multiple international literary festivals, and his poems have been translated into Czech, Slovak, and Polish languages.

His debut book of poems, Salty as a Lip, earned attention as one of Black Heart Magazine‘s Six ‘Most Kick-Ass Books of 2010’.

Page Contents

  • Poetry in Anthologies
  • Poetry in Journals
  • Articles/Essays/Reviews
  • As Editor
  • Featured Readings
  • Interviews
  • Reviews
  • Praise from Peers
  • Author Profiles

Poetry in Anthologies

Poetry in Journals

Articles/Essays/Reviews

As Editor

  • Ekleksographia – The Czech Issue (2010)
    • Featuring poetry by Lisa Birman, Iliya Bolotyansky, Vera Chase, Christopher Crawford, Tatjana Debeljački, Stephan Delbos, Daniela Kantorova, Arthur McMaster, James Ragan, Tera Vale Ragan, N.J. Wigginton…
    • Featuring prose by Norbert Blei, Alex Henderson, Radka Hlisnikovska, Richard Katrovas, Natasha Kirshina, Dominica Kriz, Joe Lenin, Lenka Candar Petrova, Rick Pryll, Nora Seilheimer, Ida Theren

Featured Readings

2026

  • MAY 18 — Portland, Oregon’s KBOO radio show Talking Earth (Listen here)
    • Also featured: Diane Corson, John Beer; Hosted by: Dan Raphael

2013

  • OCT 19 – Ars Poetica – A4, Bratislava, Slovakia
    • Also featured: Juraj Charitun, Ville Hytonen, Daniel Cundari, Hans Thill, Louis Armand, Milos Djurdievic

2011

  • OCT 21 – Protimluv Fest – Antikvariat a klub Fiducia, Ostrava, Czech Republic
    • Also featured: Hnát Daněk, Bob Hysek, Anna Amadina, Mária Modrovich
  • APR 13 – Book Launch: FLEETING HOMES / Between Banishment and Inner Exile – U.S. Embassy American Center, Prague, Czech Republic
    • Also featured: Pavel Zajicek, Brad Vice

2010

  • NOV 5 – Palacky University’s Ostrovy bez Hranic / Islands Without Borders Festival – Bila Nora/Konvikt, Olomouc, Czech Republic
    • Also featured: Alena Slepickova, Brad Vice
  • OCT 19 – Prague Microfestival – Shakespeare & Sons, Prague, Czech Republic
    • Also featured: Richard Tipping, Marcus Slease, Catherine Hales, Donna Stonecipher, Jaromir Typlt, Hana Andronikova, Sara Quiroga Navarro, Ryan Scott
  • MAY 9 – Book Launch: “Beef Stew Redux” Král Majáles Anthology – Radost/FX, Prague, Czech Republic
    • Also featured: Hana Andronikova, Louis Armand, Petr Borkovec, Isobelle Carmody, G.S. Evans, Vincent Farnsworth, Jim Freeman, Thor Garcia, Joshua Mensch, Ken Nash, Scott Nixon, Justin Quinn, Simon Safranek, Theodore Schwinke, Bethany Shaffer, Holly Tavel, Alan Ward Thomas, Marek Tomin, Lawrence Wells
  • APR 30 – Anglo-American University (AAU) Library Spring Reading Series – AAU Library, Prague, Czech Republic
    • Also featured: Scott Nixon, Sarah Borufka, Anne Brechin, Iliya Bolotyansky
  • GRASP III Launch Reading – Globe Bookstore & Cafe, Prague, Czech Republic

2009

  • NOV 28 – Rakish Angel Poetry Pamphlet Launch – Shakespeare & Sons, Prague, Czech Republic
    • Also featured: Sarah Borufka, Stephan Delbos, Christopher Crawford, Gil Fleischman, Katerina Rudcenkova

2006

  • 27 JUL – Portland Jazz Jams – Proper Eats, Portland, Oregon, USA
    • Also featured: Christopher Luna
  • 15 APR – Wordstock: Poetland – New American Art Union/Spare Room, Portland, Oregon, USA
    • Also featured: Kaia Sand, Daneen Bergland, Cat Tyc, Walt Curtis

2005

  • NOV 30 – Bold-Sky Reading Series – Bold-Sky Cafe, Portland, Oregon, USA
  • OCT 16 – Writers Benefit for Hurricane Relief – Acme, Portland, Oregon, USA
    • Co-organized with Dan Raphael, featuring dozens of local writers over the course of a whole day
  • AUG 8 – I Love Mondays Series – Borders Books, Portland, Oregon, USA
    • Also featured: Sage Cohen, Trevino Brings Plenty

2004

  • JUL 30 – Bill Shively’s Goat Roast – Newberg, Oregon, USA

2003

  • Subterranean Beat Revival – The Rabbit Hole, Portland, Oregon, USA
  • Miscellaneous Events – The Red & Black Cafe, Portland, Oregon, USA

Interviews

2024

2023

2012

2010

Reading at the American Center, US Embassy in Prague (April 2011)

Reviews

Amanda Kimmerly, in “Salty as a Lip by Jason Mashak” – Black Heart Magazine (February 2011):

  • “Rarely does poetry turn me on, but Jason Mashak‘s collection, Salty as a Lip, practically unbuttoned my cardigan. These poems are just plain sexy.”

Stephan Delbos, in “Expat poet’s new book sets itself apart with humor” – The Prague Post (March 2010):

  • “Mashak amalgamates various national, historical and religious traditions into a myth-mash that illuminates many sects’ fanatical compartmentalizing, and the fact that so many religions and philosophies share similar goals, if not roots.”

Screenshot of the Prague Post's book review of Jason Mashak's Salty as a Lip
Book Review by Stephan Delbos for The Prague Post (2010)

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Jason Mashak's book Salty as a Lip with a backdrop of Prague's Old Town Square
In Prague, with first author copy of Salty as a Lip(2010)

Praise from Peers

“a carpe diem poem (and certainly as that it is beautiful brilliant)”

–BILL KNOTT, poet & professor, on the poem “As a Child”

“A nice bit of smooth, full-bodied, surreal storytelling. I like it.”

–JOHN BENNETT, writer & publisher, on the prose poem “I Was Trained to See Shadows”

“the kind of poems I want to read many times… ‘Salty as a Lip’ is my favorite. It’s so alive: strange and human / earthy and raw. Mysterious but grounded. Mashak has manifested paradox, it seems. Bravo!”

–SAGE COHEN, poet/author & coach, on Salty as a Lip

“I was riveted from the first page to the last. I read it in one sitting and in one location. It is so strange and compelling that when I looked up after about an hour, I forgot where I was.”

–AMY TEMPLE HARPER, poet & educator, on Salty as a Lip

“I liked/enjoyed it thoroughly. Its perceptions are fresh, well-conceived and well-rendered, and economical in its lyricism in a way that can be readily apprehended and felt.”

–DOUG MARX, poet & musician, on Salty as a Lip

“Makes me want to drink a bottle of champagne with the he and she in it and dance around in slinky silk dresses and high heels spilling intelligence all over.”

–JOYCE MCMAHON, poet & accordionist, on Salty as a Lip

“BEST collection of poetry I have read so far this year…Jason Mashak’s Salty as a Lip…he is an understated genius with such a delicate sense of clever balance in his words, carefully chosen, handily wrought…I was reading it in a park and it started raining, but I didn’t move, I didn’t want to stop…”

–D.E. OPRAVA, poet & artist, on Salty as a Lip

“I think Jason Mashak needs to write more books. His compositions are as good as poems can ever get. Hard, soft, slow, fast, not too much at once…”

–DENA RASH GUZMAN, poet & publisher, on Salty as a Lip

“The poems are at once syllogistic, hard-edged, satirical, reflective, and finally as playful as love notes. The true joy of this book is that we are deliciously engaged in a ‘pantomime of pleasure’ which the language and imagery generously evoke.”

–JAMES RAGAN, poet/screenwriter & professor, on Salty as a Lip

“Mashakian: a principle based on civil disobedience and dissent without fear of repercussions or institutionalized policy. A thought process that draws from marginalized information within the static existence of normal discourse. As in, ‘at times of despair and frustration I realize that by referencing the mashakian principle I have the ability to defend myself against the status quo’.”

–OTTO ESTERLE, writer & educator

Author Profiles

Listen to Jason Mashak’s music.