Falcons on the Floor is a 300 page novel set in Fallujah and Ramadi, Iraq in 2004. It follows Salim and Khalil, two young men living in Fallujah, as they leave the city on the eve the first coalition siege. With two years of research and help from Iraqi refugee Haneen Alshujairy, I was able to create as authentic a novel as possible.

Falcons on the Floor has been taught at major universities such as SUNY Buffalo and was named best indie novel of the year by two book review blogs. It has been praised by The American Book Review, Rain Taxi, The Colorado Review, The Rumpus, and The L Magazine (NYC) among others.


BLURBS and PRAISE:

Falcons on the Floor is the rare novel about war that re-humanizes everyone involved. Through excellent writing and a deep understanding of what occupation does, to civilians and soldiers alike, Sirois and Alshujairy take the reader on a deeply personal journey where we are shown how and why war should be avoided at all cost.

Dahr Jamail, independent journalist and author of Beyond the Green Zone
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Falcons on the Floor is witty and darkly funny when it needs to be, and its sad and disastrous moments are perfectly timed... Sirois knows his craft.

Jeff Ludwig for American Book Review
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A classic male debut novel... This book will change your life.

Ben Tanzer

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Sirois makes no political speeches and his characters are totally overwhelmed and lack the language to describe what they have lost, the novel may seem grim, but its single-minded focus on the damage done to civil life by war, the negation of the social, gives the novel both a critical position and a ruthless emotional power.

Adam Novy, for The Rumpus
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Justin Sirois’s debut novel is exciting and eye-opening, with a sad finish that will leave the reader with a fresh disgust for war.

Robert Tumas, for The L Magazine (NYC)

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Apart from its obvious value in and of itself as a frequently striking piece of prose, Sirois’ novel is also notable for its perspective. After an unrelenting slew of movies and books telling the invasion story from American or British or Western points of view, this is a narrative that does at least some justice to the people of Iraq by telling it from their side.

Declan Tan, for 3:am Magazine

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Falcons on the Floor has a distinct advantage over many books being published today. That is, it feels deeply, drastically important to read.


Shane Jones, author of Light Boxes
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This book is important.

Christopher Newgent, Vouched Books
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The writing is excellent, and I say that as a reader who enjoys action in his fiction novels. There is a certain buddy cop vibe to the two main Iraqi characters, Salim and Khalil. But the novel is more Albert Camus and Michail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov.


Muslim Media Review
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Sirois has done something pretty damn beautiful here, both culturally and in terms of mixing the poetic with the prose, so respect must be paid, and the book highly praised.

J.A. Tyler, author of Inconceivable Wilson and A Man of Glass & All the Ways We Have Failed
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Sirois disproves that art has no place during times of war. He illuminates the absurdities and complexities of war, details a ravaged, gorgeous landscape and the hearts of men in a way only a novel can do. Compelling, heartfelt, intelligent- Falcons on the Floor shows us how young men, all over this sad planet, become pawns in a world beyond their control.

Paula Bomer, author of Baby and Other Stories
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The battle of Fallujah seen on the ground by Iraqis. Two young men slip out of the city under siege to walk through desert patrolled by Coalition commandos to Ramadi. Two young men with conflicting appraisals of the situation, and with the loyalties and lusts of youth and hopeless hopes. The writing of this complex novel makes it a lyrical and sensuous poem – an astonishing and mesmerizing book.

Alphonso Lingis, philosopher and author of The First Person Singular and Body Transformations
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I hesitate to call this a brilliant first novel. It is a brilliant novel. Sirois demonstrates a succinct mastery of active language that manages to strike a lyrical cadence. The prose is poetry at times... the dialogue and action move so fluidly and with such grace that it feels like he is retelling a personal experience, or like he stumbled upon such a story, which just happened to take place on the eve of the sieges.

Seth Amos, Dark Sky Magazine

From the publisher: In the Last Book of Baghdad, Sirois explores a world where, under desperate conditions, a lost collection of poems might be able to save a person's life. In The Last Book of Baghdad, we see Nisreen Abid robbed of two beloved things: Al Mutanabbi Street—the literary hub of Baghdad—and her husband. With Al Mutanabbi Street in ruins, Nisreen tricks a book printer to help her locate her kidnapped husband while navigating the deadly city. Baghdad is burning out of control. Little does she know, the book she uses as ransom to get her husband back will be the most important book of her life. Justin Sirois is at the peak of his powers, crafting prose inside historical contexts largely ignored by Western media. Sirois is exploring what would easily be hidden, a world that is as real as it is ready to be revealed: In THE LAST BOOK OF BAGHDAD, the power of the written word proves that a dead poet's words are enough transcend war's many tortures.

Blurb from Michael Kimball, author of Big Ray and Dear Everybody

The Fallujah Burning series might be the only fictional account by an American author that highlights historical tragedies on the Iraq war while giving voice to diverse Iraqi perspectives. From the sieges of Fallujah to the bombing of al Mutanabbi Street, Sirois follows a fractured family as they struggle to reconnect with loved ones. The Last Book of Baghdad and Falcons on the Floor show the human cost of the U.S.'s failed policies and the lasting effects it has on our shared global community. This is essential reading.

Fiction
Publishing Genius [Press]
60 pp
5 x 7"
perfect bound paperback
1st and 2nd printings.

MLKNG SCKLS (Milking Sickles) is a book of short stories that are "deleted scenes" from Justin and Haneen's novel Falcons on the Floor. The narrative follow Salim and Khalil, two young men from Fallujah, Iraq, as they leave their hometown on the eve of the first US siege. They do not want to fight in the uprising. They thing walking up the Euphrates river to Ramadi might be safer. Acclimated by Book Slut (.com), the Baltimore City Paper, and over a dozen online literary journals, MLKNG SCKLS has functioned as a book trailer for the (then) forthcoming Falcons on the Floor.

This novel would not exist without the editorial support of Haneen Alshujairy. Haneen and her family fled Baghdad in the summer of 2003 as Iraq succumbed to sectarian violence. After spending two years in Jordan, the Alshujairy family moved to Cairo. Haneen left Egypt after the Arab Spring to seek asylum in the United States. She now lives in Baltimore, Maryland. She and Justin met for the first time in 2014 after working on projects for nearly six years.

So Say the Waiters
books 1, 2, and 3
900 pages
fiction
Series is currently optioned for TV. Named best of 2013 by the Enoch Pratt Library.

So Say the Waiters explores the way social media has dramatically changes the way we interact with the world. It reveals what liberties we, as users, give up when we hit submit. The series also shows what happens when app/social media founders abuse the power they are granted. In an age of web surveillance and privacy rights, So Say the Waiters is a critical response to the spectacle of social media and how individuals navigate the cultural shifts within it.

Synopsis:

Henry is hired by a successful software developer and college friend who has created kidnApp, a cell phone app and social network that allows people to kidnap each other for fun. The app is growing faster than they can handle. His friend wants to groom Henry as the Mid-Atlantic regional manager with part ownership of the company, but he will need to become a seasoned kidnApper first. The problem is, Henry is stuck in his conservative job, suffering from post-fiancée breakup depression, and he definitely sucks at kidnApping. But this is an opportunity he cannot refuse.

Danielle (Dani) Hardly is an aimless bartender at a rundown nightclub. She is barely scraping by, but she is one of the first users of kidnApp in Baltimore. She uses the app as an escape from the increasingly difficult world around her, often time pushing the limits of the experience. During a botched kidnApping, she is rescued by newly recruited Henry – someone she has nothing in common with until Henry opens up to her about his less than mediocre kidnapping skills.

The unlikely duo start to change each other in ways they never expected, both good and bad. Their professional relationship, however unlikely, becomes an adventure beyond just kidnapping the simple "Waiters".

BLURBS FROM THE BOOKS

“So Say the Waiters is dope. It renders the Baltimore scene lovingly, from the ground, while tapping into that contemporary human need to escape through the shifting space where technology and dreams collide. A cyberpunk novel for a corporatized generation.”

Matthew Porterfield, director of Putty Hill, I Used to be Darker and Hamilton

“The Waiters' catalyst perfectly captures the disconnected, escapist cultural mood of the current era. Baltimore , its setting, embodies so much of what is great and terrible about America right now. The characters pull you with them, hurtling through a landscape that changes under your feet with every step.”

Nolen Strals, Post Typography, Double Dagger, Pure Junk

“As a bibliophile, I'll admit I was hesitant to read a book on a computer screen, but Sirois' "So Say the Waiters" was a great introduction to using the medium and a fast paced read, to boot. His characters and locations were comfortingly familiar to me as an artist working and living in Baltimore City, and also a reminder that there are so many scenes and stories in my own town that are still hidden. Henry and Dani are kindred spirits, both navigating the hyper-connected, private-is-public world of our modern living in search of way to help others, and themselves, let go and just hit that "submit" button.”

Ellen Cherry, sign/songwriter, Please Don’t Sell the Piano

“So Say The Waiters moves like a high-dollar TV series. The writing's dangerously precise. You'll start reading Book 1 and you'll come to hours later, wondering where you just were & craving to be taken back.”

Ken Baumann, actor, publisher, and author of the novel Solip


http://www.sosaythewaiters.com/

Winner of a 2017 Kindle Scout publishing contract:

Beginning in the year 2018, every person born has an identical twin. What is dubbed the mysterious "Set Mutation" is now, twenty years later, a worldwide phenomenon. This new generation is obsessed with duality. Twins grow to be more alike, mimicking each other in every way. With America's political system growing increasingly conservative, strict birthing laws now restrict families to "one set" of children. A privatized military force polices this as well as the separatist uprisings that rebel against the neo-facist administration.

Penny and Sam, two 16 year old twins, have never understood why they are somewhat different from one another. While all the other sets of twins grow to be more alike, in every way, Penny and Sam struggle to fit that social construct--they aren't naturally the same person. Soon they will find out how deadly their secret really is.

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Two Girls plays with perspective in ways that few stories can. It speaks about our ever-shifting America identity while confronting bigotry embedded in centuries of violence and cultural preservation.

A collaboration between Justin Sirois and Aaron Cohick of Newlights Press, these three broadsides are letter-pressed and hand "destroyed", making them unique each time.

The Mutanabbi Street broadsides have exhibited in:

San Francisco Center for the Book, San Francisco, Calif.
Saratoga Library, Saratoga Calif.
San Francisco Zen Center, San Francisco, California
Carleton College, North Dakota
The Rooms Museum, St. John's Newfoundland, Canada
The Thoreau Center, San Francisco, California
Northern Print, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
U.W.E. Bristol, UK.
Inkspot Studio, Brighton, UK.
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“Necking with Vladimir Nabokov” is in the permanent collection of the Maryland Institute College of Art on display in the Bunting Center.

The Heads of My Family, My Friends, My Colleagues
Poems by Justin Sirois

NEWLIGHTS PRESS
84 pages, double signature pamphlet stitch with folded jacket
8” x 6.25” (closed)
Laser printing, letterpress from lead type, lead spacing material and linoleum
Variable edition of 150 (three different jacket/cover/endsheet color combinations)

BLURB:

"The tattoo / underneath the tattoo / speaks the language I want to learn.” Justin Sirois has always been one of my favorite living poets. “You have / everything you need / when you’re naked”, I trust, I trust ALL his discourse with our throbbing excitement for communion. His poems are our best possible use for ears. If I don’t know you and you LOVE these poems as much as I do, let’s get together to read them out loud over a delicious slice of something. “Lick the window / & your reflection licks back” is a delicious something we all love. It’s important they know to have a copy of this book resting on my heart when they cremate me."

CAConrad 2014 Lannan Fellow, a 2013 MacDowell Fellow, and a 2011 Pew Fellow

Narrow House (2003-2013) was publisher that supported interdisciplinary experimentation in literature. Narrow House published 17 books, full-length albums, and multi media PDFs of poetry and fiction.

Justin Sirois - founder, designer, and co-director
Lauren Bender - co-director and editor
Jamie Gaughran-Perez - co-director and editor

http://narrow-house.blogspot.com/

Some Narrow House recordings are available for free via the University of Pennsylvania's PennSound series:

http://writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/x/Narrow-House.html

Publications include

Chris Mason - Hum Who Hiccup - Book 2011
Adam Robinson - Adam Robison and Other Poems - Book 2010
Ric Royer - She Was Ghosts, He Saw Bodies - Book 2010
i.e. Reader - Book 2009
Magus Magnus Verb Sap - Book 2007
Joseph Cashiola Lips of the Cherubim - PDF 2007
Ric Royer There Were One and It Was Two Annotated Artifacts from The Doubles Museum - Book / CD 2007
Chimera - I Am My Own Twin - PDF 2007
Garrett Caples Surrealism's Bad Rap - CD 2006
K. Lorraine Graham Moving Walkways - CD 2006
Buck Downs Pontiac Fever - CD 2006
Rod Smith Fear the Sky - CD 2005
Laura Elrick, Heather Fuller, Carol Mirakove Kristin Prevallet, and Deborah Richards Women in the Avant Garde - CD 2004
Ryan Schneider Awful Hissing Skexies - CD 2003
Anselm Berrigan Pictures for Private Devotion - CD 2003

I have designed books and book covers for university and independent presses from all over the United States including Both Both a literary journal (San Francisco), Texas University Press, Edge Books (DC), and City Lit Press (Baltimore).

Video poems are from a forthcoming book of poetry published by Newlights Press named The Heads of my Friends, my Family, my Colleagues.

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Secondary Sound
Paperback: 90 pages
Publisher: BlazeVOX Books (2008)
ISBN-10: 1934289647
ISBN-13: 978-1934289648

Secondary Sound is a full-length book of poetry and fiction that addressed open-source culture, copyright reform, piracy, love, and struggling to retain a voice in the perpetual re-sounding of digital information.

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Silver Standard (Newlights Press, 2006) is a book of poetry concerning the housing bubble, out-sourcing, and digital downloading. It is dedicated to Alan Greenspan.