What do you think?
Rate this book
With a Difference
Cowritten by poet Francis Daulerio and fiction writer Nick Gregorio, With a Difference is inspired in part by Rancid and NoFXs 2002 BYO cover split album. Gregorio has adapted ten of Daulerios poems into stories, and Daulerio has turned ten of Gregorios stories into poems. Like a vinyl record, the book must be flipped over to read both "sides."
“With a Difference beautifully dances the line between hopeful and devastating. I was encouraged and challenged all the same. A poignant escape from my brain but a reminder of where my feet are planted.”
– Andy Hull of Manchester Orchestra
“Gregorio and Daulerio have created a mosaic of stories and poems that are sharp in both delivery and craft. Both writers have created a rippling depth that resonates page after page, a feat they achieve through deft skill and razor-sharp honesty. The variety in form will keep you riveted, and the emotion seeping through the pages will stay with you long after you close the cover.”
– Madeline Anthes, author of Now We Haunt This Home Together
The writing in With a Difference gives itself permission to wonder. One of Francis Daulerio’s poems writes of “how alive this all is, / and how simple.” By returning the gaze back to the wide-eyed, to the wonderful, to the act of taking-it-all-in, Daulerio and Gregorio center us in a vision of the world that hopes as much as it mourns, that laughs as much as it cries. This is writing that loves the scary, silly, wild, and wonderful world we each inhabit. To read Daulerio and Gregorio is to be more fully alive with each word.
– Devin Kelly, author of In This Quiet of Night I Say Amen
“The stories and poems in this collection are Polaroids that dance and shake like shadows against a backlit wall, filled with clever allegories which brighten rainy days, stretch our dream realms further, and make us question life with optimism. We learn the outsiders are observing, looking in, with hope stained on their faces.”
– Elle Nash, author of Animals Eat Each Other
“With a Difference beautifully dances the line between hopeful and devastating. I was encouraged and challenged all the same. A poignant escape from my brain but a reminder of where my feet are planted.”
– Andy Hull of Manchester Orchestra
“Gregorio and Daulerio have created a mosaic of stories and poems that are sharp in both delivery and craft. Both writers have created a rippling depth that resonates page after page, a feat they achieve through deft skill and razor-sharp honesty. The variety in form will keep you riveted, and the emotion seeping through the pages will stay with you long after you close the cover.”
– Madeline Anthes, author of Now We Haunt This Home Together
The writing in With a Difference gives itself permission to wonder. One of Francis Daulerio’s poems writes of “how alive this all is, / and how simple.” By returning the gaze back to the wide-eyed, to the wonderful, to the act of taking-it-all-in, Daulerio and Gregorio center us in a vision of the world that hopes as much as it mourns, that laughs as much as it cries. This is writing that loves the scary, silly, wild, and wonderful world we each inhabit. To read Daulerio and Gregorio is to be more fully alive with each word.
– Devin Kelly, author of In This Quiet of Night I Say Amen
“The stories and poems in this collection are Polaroids that dance and shake like shadows against a backlit wall, filled with clever allegories which brighten rainy days, stretch our dream realms further, and make us question life with optimism. We learn the outsiders are observing, looking in, with hope stained on their faces.”
– Elle Nash, author of Animals Eat Each Other
108 pages, Paperback
Published May 29, 2020
3 people want to read
About the author
Francis Daulerio
8 books19 followersFrancis Daulerio is a poet and teacher from Blue Bell, Pennsylvania. He received his MFA in Creative Writing from Arcadia University in 2014 before releasing If & When We Wake (Unsolicited Press 2015) and Please Plant This Book (The Head & The Hand Press 2018), both with illustrations by Scottish artist, Scott Hutchison. Francis has also released All Is Not Lost, a collaborative vinyl EP of poetry-infused music to benefit the Tiny Changes charity organization, and With a Difference (Trident Boulder 2020), a split book of ‘covers’ with Philadelphia author Nick Gregorio. His most recent collection, Joy, was released in 2022 by Unsolicited press.
Francis is a mental health awareness advocate, and has performed across the United States and abroad to raise money for suicide prevention.
He lives in the woods with his wife and children. He finds a good bit of joy there.
"Francis Daulerio is a masterful poet, but more so, a callus-handed gardener, slowly peeling back the layers of the simple and often unseen beauty of the human experience." - Gregory Alan Isakov
Francis is a mental health awareness advocate, and has performed across the United States and abroad to raise money for suicide prevention.
He lives in the woods with his wife and children. He finds a good bit of joy there.
"Francis Daulerio is a masterful poet, but more so, a callus-handed gardener, slowly peeling back the layers of the simple and often unseen beauty of the human experience." - Gregory Alan Isakov
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
August 4, 2020
Daulerio condensed 10 longer works of fiction into gems of poetry. He’s got a knack for everyday language that still surprises. Most notably, he managed to condense a novel length work into a poem that says more in its 30 odd words than the novel that inspired the poem.
Displaying 1 of 1 review