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TESTIMONIALS & REVIEWS

Kirpal Gordon combines sound judgment with a most unusual range of background knowledge. He's learned but without the arrogance. His script consultations are a delight.
Francine Lefrak, producer, HBO Films

I've never met a more all-around talented writer than Kirpal Gordon. He was a great help with my newsletter, but I had a lifetime project whose parts I couldn't cohere. He took my twenty years of interviews with Texas songwriters, edited it into a readable format, encouraged me to go further and then wrote the prospectus that sold the idea to the University of Texas Press. I ended up not only with a nice advance and a beautiful book which is now enjoying its second printing, but I've just signed a second book deal, thanks to his head start.
Kathleen Hudson, director, Texas Heritage Music Foundation

There may not exist a manuscript, book pitch, press package or feature article that Kirpal Gordon’s editing eye cannot improve upon—exchanging ideas with him is a delight.
Paul Hinkle, public speaker, Hinkle & Associates

Prison writing should be a predictable genre: street-smart diction, racial friction, escapist fiction. They're all here in EMPIRE, the NYS inmate writing journal, but so is autumnal lyricism, speculative metaphysics and tendrils of a deep humanism. We've got founder/editor Kirpal Gordon to thank for such smart editing and thoughtful cacophonies.
Harry Smith, Pulpsmith Magazine

Astounding in its frankness, touching yet amusing, EMPIRE defies any pigeonhole like "prison genre literature." Rather than just tell us what goes on inside the prisons of New York State, which it does do very well, it connects, as only great literature can, with all of life—not just the hard streets of the Empire State but of the connecting avenues of cities in Iran and Vietnam. Though edited by Kirpal Gordon, a civilian, the entire project is written, illustrated and printed by prisoners—a tribute to what imprisoned bodies and free minds can achieve.
Elliot Richman, poet/critic

My first contact with Kirpal Gordon came through EMPIRE, his prison brainchild which won the accolades of Governor Cuomo. His work embraced my own literary vision: to integrate the music, rhythm and soul of the English language with a fiery, passionate, spiritual sensuality and erudite scholarship. I invited him to be a contributing associate editor of my press, a title he holds to this day, fifteen years later. As an editor, he has consulted on countless manuscripts, made infinite helpful suggestions, referred me to hundreds of useful contacts and authors, chosen with me the winner for our annual chapbook contest and helped me build my press beyond what I thought I could achieve. As a writer, his train sails way above the tracks on an arc to the stars and back. You get articulate, sane, grounded quality of mind that combines with a combustible spontaneity; he's a wise fool for love with an ear to the street, the closest we have to a scribe of the tribe, connecting the individual to the greater collective. His contribution is inestimable.
Steve Hirsch, poet/publisher, Heaven Bone Press