About

Justin Holt (born November 21 in Niagara Falls, NY) is an American writer.  Holt completed his first novel Payday in 2005.  As of 2011 he is currently at work on a collection of essays entitled, A Decade Under The Influence.

Life and work

Holt studied writing at Monroe Community College in Rochester, NY and then Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, graduating in 2002 with a Bachelor’s Degree in English-Writing in 2002.  While attending EUP, Holt studied in various writing workshops with authors such as Sheldon Currie (Glace Bay Miners Museum, The Long Coaltown Road), Alistair Macleod (No Great Mischief, Island: The Collected Stories), Chuck Palahniuk (Fight Club, Surivivor, Choke), Wayson Choy (The Jade Peony), and Katie Daley.  Though inspired by said workshops, Holt continued writing crappy poetry sporadically until March 2003 when he wrote a page-long observation of some room he was sitting in that seemed to change everything.  That page, and the subsequent discovery of Jay McInerney’s Bright Lights, Big City became the inspiration for writing Payday.

The book blurb from Payday:

You are a twenty-something with a college degree, the debt that goes with it, and a countertop full of rejection letters telling you that your first novel is a failure. The love of your life has left you, and the only job you can find is one pushing carts for the largest retail giant where nobody knows your name, and nobody cares. Lost in your sorrow and your cupboard full of nothing but instant noodles you try to make the best of a bad situation, but the situation keeps getting the best of you. That is until one day, when doing something so innocent as tying your shoe you see something that will set your whole life into a tailspin of lies, larceny, and lavishness that by the time you come down, you will have everything that you could ever dream of, and more.

Except her.

And you will do anything it takes to win her back.

Payday was released by POD methods in 2005.  It sold considerably more copies than he thought, especially considering he never really considered promoting the book.  Payday, for Holt, was more about the process than the final product:  Learning how to write a novel.  Wondering how to publish it.  Discovering how people might discover him/the book.  The all-encompassing etc.  He was sure at the time he was being rational with his line of rationale.  But now he’s not so sure.  As the old adage goes, “You only get one chance to make a first impression” and it isn’t lost on Holt that his first impression was flawed.  From time to time he revisits the idea of revisiting Payday and finishing it proper.

The years following Payday saw many false starts on the fiction front.  After five years of accumulating five-yard penalties Holt , now standing on his own goal line, started work on a collection of essays inspired by Nick Hornby’s collection of essays Songbook.  Where Songbook dealt mainly with, well, songs, A Decade Under The Influence is comprised of essays as they relate to his relationship with certain albums released from 2000-2009.

In 2005, along with fellow writer Jason Kane, Holt created Oxyfication, an online creative community.  Though the focus and look of Oxyfication have changed through the years, the intent has always been on spreading the word of creativity.

Personal life

Holt lives in Rochester, NY with his trusty dog, Stella Bear.

Works:

Novels:

Payday (2005)

Short Stories:

• “The Outsiders,” Colored Chalk, Issue 2, May 2008, pg. 14
• “Diary Of A Pool,” Colored Chalk, Issue 8, May 2009, pg. 4

Interviews/Features:

• Lindi Ortega, Oxyfication, Oct. 2005
• Jason Heim, Oxyfication, Feb. 2006
• Emma-Lee, Oxyfication, Mar. 2006
• Katie West, Oxyfication, Feb. 2007
• Emma-Lee, Oxyfication, Aug. 2008
• Sarah Shafey, Oxyfication, Mar. 2009
• Richard Thomas, Oxyfication, Aug. 2010

CD Reviews:

• Fall From Grace – Lindi Ortega. Oxyfication, Feb. 2007
• S/T – Amelie. Oxyfication, Feb. 2007
• Finding Home – Clare Love. Oxyfication, Aug. 2007
• Seeing Things – Jakob Dylan. Oxyfication, Jun. 2008
• Viva la Vida – Coldplay. Oxyfication, Jun. 20008
• Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust – Sigur Ros. Oxyfication, Jun. 2008
• Agony & Irony – Alkaline Trio. Oxyfication, Jul. 2008
• Never Just A Dream – Emma-Lee. Oxyfication, Aug. 2008
• Tiny Music Box – Sarah Shafey. Oxyfication, Jan. 2009
• Hold Time – M. Ward. Oxyfication, May 2009
• The Asterisk Eye – Danny Handes. Oxyfication, May 2009
• Reservoir – Fanfarlo. Oxyfication, Jul. 2009
• S/T – Killswitch Engage. Oxyfication, Aug. 2009
• Just Go – Lionel Richie. Oxyfication, Aug. 2009
• Volume One – She & Him. Oxyfication, Aug. 2009
• Two Suns – Bat For Lashes. Oxyfication, Aug. 2009
• Beggars – Thrice. Oxyfication, Aug. 2009
• The Pariah, The Parrot, The Delusion – Dredg. Oxyfication, Aug. 2009
• Grin – blueVenus. Oxyfication, Sep. 2009
• Riceboy Sleeps – Jonsi & Alex. Oxyfication, Sep. 2009
• S/T – Monsters Of Folk. Oxyfication, Sep. 2009

Book Reviews:

• Snuff – Chuck Palahniuk, Oxyfication, May 2008
• Imperial Bedrooms – Bret Easton Ellis, Oxyfication, July 2010

Movie Reviews:

• The Wrestler, Oxyfication, Jan. 2009

1. The word writer was crossed out several times because Justin thinks you are what you eat, not what you write.  Just because he likes to write, that doesn’t make him a writer. Holt, Justin The Observation (October, 2011)
2. Yes, this biography page was supposed to mirror the format of Wikipedia.  Why?  Because that’s how people are trained to read nowadays, and Wikipedia is accepted as the gospel, even if it’s been edited by schlubs. (October 2011) Retrieved by common sense.
3. There is no 3.  Continue on with life.