The Open Mic Project: Max Earl Blair

A self-employed writer and sketchbook artist, Max Earl Blair (1969-2022) was the founder and head of Tomcat Press, an independently run publishing organization under whose auspices came works by area poets Joey Cloudy, Cameron (né Jamaal) Cloudy, and Josh Lewis. Max’s own chapbook of prose writings, Above the Pain: Tales from Near the Lip of the American Abyss, was released by Tomcat Press in 2002. When he began performing his work in 2001, Max dazzled the local literary community with his own unique brand of political and social satire.

Hailing originally from South Carolina, Max prided himself on his extensive knowledge of literature and on his love of Anglo history. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Theater Arts from Hendrix College (Conway, AR) in 1995, and appeared in stage productions of The Grendelmas, Nothing Sacred, MacBeth, and Our Country’s Good, as well as writing an award-winning play of his own. In more recent years, Max concentrated his efforts on short stories and monologues. He was a founder and regular reader at the now-defunct Dead Air readings at Deep Ellum’s Insomnia Coffee Bar before it was taken over by new management. He was also one of the longest supporters of the original open mic at Bill’s Records & Tapes, and appeared there from its inception in the summer of 2002 until its end in December 2005.

Max completed his Masters in Education at the University of South Carolina in May 2011 and set to work on an “epic saga of pirates, exotic megafauna, and the cheese of suspicious origin.”

“. . .a fabulist, a forger of fables, or a storyteller, or maybe a bard.”

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