LARPing IRL

S. Michael Shrawder’s debut collection about fantasy roleplaying game culture and live action roleplaying, LARPing IRL, is part of our 2024 chapbook series sponsored by a grant from the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association.

Get Your Copy!#

The book is available on Amazon.

Library Donations#

One of our goals for our books is to promote poetry literacy by placing copies of our books with libraries wherever we can.

Why not buy a copy to donate?

After you’re done reading the book, just drop it off at your local public, university, or high school library, then email us at info@ogre.red with the name and location of the library. We’ll credit you as a sponsor here on this page.

Reviews#

S. Michael Shrawder’s debut collection of poems, LARPing IRL, is a gut punch, followed by a warm hug. It is a love letter to the dark side and a how-to manual for finding your way out. He’s got heart, and he’s not afraid to show it. He’s like a kid with a magnifying glass, burning holes in the page with his words. This book tells you the truth, even when it hurts.

Margie Stokley-Bronz, Feel the Burn on Apple Podcasts

S. Michael Shrawder’s LARPing IRL pushes the boundaries of poetry both in form and subject matter. As a songwriter, a poet, and an educator, I appreciate Shrawder’s respect of form and use of white space on the page; but more so, I admire the bending of form, just shy of shattering it.

These qualities and sensibilities pervade throughout the book with Dave Sims’ accompanying cover art and mixed media pieces. Sims’ understanding of black & white brings to mind classic woodcut styles, elements of cartooning, watercolor, and digital tools: each provides contrast, not just within the images, but in the writing as well.

This book is a fine symbiosis of two Central Pennsylvania-inspired creators, who likely never knew until now that they vibrate on some of the same frequencies.

Scott Spearly, Founder, The Knuckle Dusters

S. Michael Shrawder’s LARPing IRL unmasks the human landscape of existence. Shrawder dives headfirst in his examination of what it means to find one’s body – heartbeat – amid a society that would rather have you fall in line than stand tall and feel it all. LARPing IRL shows how life can amaze you when you dance and don’t care who is watching.

Donnelle McGee, Editor, Thera Books

Dave Sims’ art swims with the current of the subconscious. His illustrations birth themselves, spontaneously, free from repression of “The Weird.” As we meet each entity, we are reminded to be curious, honest, and raw.

Likewise, S. Michael Shrawder’s poems in LARPing IRL use emotion and transience to dissolve the boundary between self and not-self; the pull to keep turning the pages is none other than the connection to the worlds in the artist. In these pages, the reader finds a sort of excitable camaraderie, a noticing that this is recognizable.

Vanessa Rose Green, Contemporary Painter

In a time of disconnection with humanity and self, S. Michael Shrawder’s LARPing IRL connects us. Shrawder demonstrates a natural, and rare, ability to simultaneously recognize human grandeur and insignificance. He asks us to face the question: “Where do I / go when we decide this game is over?” and comforts us by hoping that we “know that paper lanterns / are the real deal. They capture / it all so perfectly.” Irreverent, sharp-witted, hilarious, and deeply touching, I found myself riding in the full range of human emotion. This collection is nothing short of essential.

Brooklyn Baggett, We Cast Shadows & Other True Stories & Founder, new words {press}

Review Copies#

To review the book for your publication or blog, please email us at info@ogre.red and we’d be happy to send along a free PDF review copy.

About the Author#

S. Michael Shrawder is a poet, musician, and lifelong gamer from Central Pennsylvania. Born to a working class family, he attended Luzerne County Community College, Bloomsburg University, and Goddard College on the way to his MFA.

About the Artist#

A retired educator, Dave Sims now makes art and music in the mountains of central Pennsylvania. His poems, stories, comix and paintings both old-school and digital appear not only upon record cover albums (Pull the Plug) and forearm tattoos (Kaboom!), but also the walls, covers and inside pages of nearly one hundred tactile and virtual publications and exhibits. Find him online at tincansims.com.

Dave has also published art with us in Issue 23, April 2024.

More Books#

Want more? Find a full list of our books here.