"Jon Roket's got the good shit."
- Mike Doughty, Soul Coughing Bon. Bon.

"Reading Kentucky Is Wider feels like having a bartender for a friend. You sit down and you sip a
little something, and you like it and he gives you a little more, and then a little more, and before
you know it the world is blurry and hilarious and this guy is your best friend and everything he fixes
you feels delicious and true."
- Daniel Handler, Author of Adverbs and A Series of Unfortunate Events

"You don't read the works of Jon Roket and head back home. The words come back
to the house with you; they poke their head into your window at night; they soak into your
skin and you can't shake yourself dry. In the end, you don't want to."
- James Lang, author Learning Sickness and Life On The Tenure Track

"Roket's work, to be short about it, shows great promise. Informed by the ghosts of both dada
and V. I. Lenin, but never completely kowtowing to either, Roket's mind takes him off on odd little
side journeys where the only thing that matters is sound. And this is a wonderful thing, and
makes the collection... worth reading by itself." - The Book Barn

"Flash fiction and poetry reminiscent of Richard Brautigan. Accessible, breezy, and amusing."
- The Iconoclast

"What [Kentucky is Wider...] requires of us is that we trust it - trust that the language of the lives
of Emma, Cornel, Faulty is also the language of our lives. And I believe it is. If you have ever taught
writing you understand that language has never really been conscripted by grammar or punctuation.
In young writers, you can see how they strive to both create beautiful language while confining it to
ways of seeing the world, of speaking the world. Roket is a seasoned, rather than young, writer. And
if we continue the metaphor, we can see in his writing the same texture we find in an iron skillet that
has been treated properly. Flavors, oils, and verbs have been left over the fire to simmer themselves. And they rise."
- Beth Connors

"Don't be misled by the title: Jon Roket does not write traditional short stories. Rather, he
writes a combination of innovative flash fiction, poetry and prose poetry, reminiscent of William
S. Burroughs meets John Lennon... Roket is also a songwriter who has released two albums, and his
storytelling is lyrical in its focus on imagery, on fresh and engaging twists of language. And yet,
his work is deeply rooted in genuine emotion. Rather than traditional short stories, these pieces
read like intricate, twisted dreamscapes from which emerge truths."
- Wild Violet

"Kentucky Is Wider + Other Short Stories is the best book of poetry i will read
this year. it will probably be the only one as well. who has the time? poetry almost
rhymes with smarmy for a reason.
but this collection is not at all Frosty. it has the taste of back alleys and concrete dust;
of old technologies--manual typewriters, acetates, phonographs."
- Kevin Grasha