About the Author

Joseph Sigurdson is a Pushcart Prize-winning author and poet from Buffalo, New York. He won the Edwin Markham Award and the Gabriele Rico Challenge from Reed Magazine. His work has appeared in The Buffalo News, South 85, Columbia Journal, and elsewhere. His first chapbook of prose poetry, No Sand, was published by Thirty West Publishing in 2019. Buffalo Dope is his first novel. 

Reviews

“In the style of Sam Pink, Troy James Weaver, and Bud Smith, Sigurdson’s protagonist, Bobby Washburn, is a tell-it-like-it-is, everything-is-shit-until-it-isn't kind of dude with a gigantic chip on his shoulder. We're willing backseat passengers in the glorious car crash that is Buffalo Dope.”

—Lori Hettler, The Next Best Book Blog

“Joseph Sigurdson’s debut novel, Buffalo Dope, brings together a cast of characters that are gloriously real and ridiculous in their attempts to escape mundanity that only comes from a low-middle class family set on survival in the harsh northeast. With no short supply of dry humor and vulnerable narration, Bobby Washburn in Buffalo Dope paints his unglamorous life that, despite his lack of intention, resonates with the emotional search for purpose in a world without an instruction manual.”

—Dr. Bryana Fern, University of Southern Mississippi.

“And I thought slamming through tables pregaming for the Bills was hardcore! This novel brings pain and leaves you scarred.”

—Anonymous Buffalonian