Gray and Something
by Elliot Harmon
November 2025
69 pages
$18.00
Gray and Something
About the Book
Elliot Harmon’s debut poetry collection Gray and Something is a portrait of the literary community and its distinctive characters, from romantic partners to competitors to friends, and it is also a road map and a deep dive into the cultural products of Americana.
Harmon’s wit and humor infuse the pages with levity, even when the subject matter turns dark. With emotional depth and agility, the narrator navigates quickly between the small-scale prickles of life to deeper issues such as frustration over an inability to find the right words for grief’s enormity. In these poems, highbrow and lowbrow art have equal footing—any subject is worthy of attention, as long as it is interesting at its core.
About the Author
Elliot Harmon was a poet. Early in his career, Elliot received a degree in English from the University of South Dakota and was active in the Midwest arts community. He wrote and directed plays and became an integral part of the slam poetry scene.
In San Francisco, Elliot attended California College of the Arts where he received an MFA in creative writing. He ran literary readings; edited the online poetry journal Idiolexicon; and started his own press, Mission Cleaners.
Along with his work as a poet, Elliot advocated for free speech and the right to innovate online as the Activism Director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Elliot’s passions were as varied as his career—from professional wrestling to country music to French New Wave cinema. Elliot lived with his wife, Kat, and their cat, Nora. The title of this book, Gray and Something, is a reference to said cat. Elliot died of melanoma on October 23, 2021, in his home in San Francisco. Elliot is remembered by his coworkers, friends, and family as a smart, kind, generous, and thoughtful person.