Look and Listen

Biography

With the way that he combines literature, music, poetry, live performance and a Gonzo journalism lust for truth, writer/ musician Eric Kiefer can only be described with three words… blue collar troubadour. In addition to publishing his debut novel, The Soft Exile(Gentleman Tree Press), a fictionalized memoir of a Peace Corps worker in Old Mongolia, Kiefer has written for a wide variety of magazines and newspapers on a plethora of subjects. He’s written about the California medical cannabis scene (“Death of a Pot Club”, East Bay Express), covered contentious school board meetings and murder trials (as an award-winning reporter in New Jersey), and written for the largest English-speaking newspaper in Mongolia, among other assignments. But he is also a unique and entertaining musician, specializing in a one-man band, singersongwriter style of performance. Kiefer’s wordsmithing skills are apparent in his lyrics, which combine an old-school,1960’s revolutionary attitude with a fresh, new-millennium relevance. He’s appeared at various events, bars and venues such as The Crossroads in New Jersey, the Purple Moon Pub in Vermont, the Red Light Café in Atlanta, and the First Rutherford Anti War Rally - and is fresh on the heels of his debut musical CD, The Spectre and the Dozer. The factotum can currently be seen plying his trade in the Bay Area of California, occasionally collaborating with a rotating cast of writers, musicians, poets and artists. His writing, music and videos can be seen on his website, www.TheKiefer.com,as well as on Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, and the rest of the digital zeitgeist.

Inspiration

His non-writing work life has been equally odd and worldly, and has been peppered with blue-collar experiences that have had a huge influence on his creative endeavors. Kiefer has spent time as an ESL instructor in California, a staff writer for the United Way in Vermont, a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in Mongolia, a state-certified reader of GED tests in Atlanta, a waiter at four IHOPs in two states, a Christmas Elf in a New Jersey mall, and a political canvasser in Hoboken. In addition, he’s been a supermarket checkout clerk, a highway road flagger, a kennel attendant, a deli clerk, a gas station attendant and a tour guide at the Ben and Jerry’s ice cream factory.