Blue Graffiti by Calahan Skogman

A love letter to Johnston, WI, a small town in middle-of-nowhere Midwestern America.

Living in the home he inherited from his mother and abandoned by his father, painter and construction worker, Cash, has never known anything beyond the fields of Johnston, WI—never particularly wanted to, either. Why would he when his friends are there, his work is there, his history is there. He loves Johnston. But when an emerald-eyed stranger named Rose blows into town one summer evening in his favorite local bar, everything changes. It’s love at first sight. For Cash, anyway.

What follows is an intimate reflection on the love, faith, and tragedy that courses through the blood of America’s backbone. Cash and his closest friends find themselves vital threads in the fabric of their community, the memory of those forgotten, and partners in a new enterprise: adventure.

A bluesey ode to the Beat generation for the modern era, Blue Graffiti is Wisconsin-raised writer Calahan Skogman’s poetic debut imbued with an essential freedom, romance, and longing for a bygone era.