Guns and Gold, by John Jodzio

Prose, chapbook, 36 pages, from Bottlecap Features.

John Jodzio’s Guns and Gold is a collection of darkly funny, absurd, and tender stories about people stumbling through the wreckage of their own lives—armed with bad ideas, misplaced confidence, and just enough hope to make things way way worse. Whether it’s a man starting a popcorn-fueled revolt at a funeral home seminar, a roommate accidentally sedated with hibernating bear blood, or a band whose one and only performance drives away every audience member within 30 seconds, each story captures the hilarity and heartbreak of trying—and failing—to connect in a world that feels slightly off-kilter.

With biting wit and an unflinching eye for the strange poetry of everyday disaster, these stories blend the surreal and the sincere, turning voodoo dolls, broken windchimes, and stolen sandwiches into small, chaotic testaments to being alive. Beneath this chaos beats a quiet, human ache—the need for forgiveness, for understanding, for one more chance to make things right. Guns and Gold is tragicomedy at its sharpest: a wild, empathetic look at how people break themselves and keep on going anyway.

John Jodzio’s work has been featured in a variety of places including This American Life, McSweeney’s, and New York Magazine. He’s the author of the short story collections, Knockout, Get In If You Want To Live, and If You Lived Here You’d Already Be Home. He lives in St. Paul, Minnesota with his wonderful wife, Nina, their three incredible kiddos—Amelia, Gus, and Theo—and their super anxious dog, Churro.