“In American Busboy, a wry anti-mythology, the anti-hero busboy in an anonymous Clam Shack! tangles with the monotonous delirium of work, the indignities and poor pay of unskilled labor, the capricious deus ex machina of mean-spirited middle management, the zombified consumption of summer tourists, while jostling for the goddess-like attentions of waitresses and hostesses—all battered up in sizzlingly crisp wit and language, and deep-fried in a shiny glaze of surrealism.”-Lee Ann Roripaugh

“When Matthew Guenette says your mother is a busboy, it sounds like an insult. When he says Jesus is a busboy, it sounds like a prayer. But aren’t we all busboys? Aren’t we all essential to the hum of daily life? Aren’t we all unsung? Don’t we all put cornstarch in our polyester pants to keep from getting a butt rash? The next time you’re chowing down at the Clam Shack! and some pimply teenager or schoolteacher working a second job staggers by with a trayful of dirty dishes, you’ll remember these ballsy, all-American poems and think, poetry in motion.” -David Kirby

“There is a splendid intercourse between the dream and the conscious life in Matthew Guenette’s poetry, a constant mental eventfulness that never rests, never surrenders to the old, dried up poeticisms or the stereotypes. A Guenette poem feels ongoing, flung, a creation in the absolute keep of the imagination, a moving revelation where nothing is forbidden or held too precious. Like every good funny poet, Matthew Guenette is to be taken seriously because he is deeply sane, a writer who cleanses us of pretetention and restores our wonder. Sudden Anthem is a brilliantly inventive debut.”-Rodney Jones

“Sudden Anthem is a raucous, boisterous, song of praise. Matthew Guenette’s outrageous poems romp across the page then make a beeline for your gut, your heart, and your intellect. Guenette is both a nimble purveyor of pop culture and a singer of the most intimate of songs. Sudden Anthem is a deliriously witty collection.” -Denise Duhamel