Bruce Craven is a member of the Columbia Business School Executive Education faculty in New York City. In addition to directing and teaching in a variety of executive programs, he teaches graduate business students his popular elective Leadership Through Fiction.  His book Win or Die: Leadership Secrets from Game of Thrones, was published in March 2019 by Thomas Dunne Books, an imprint of St. Martin’s Press.  The book is currently being translated into Russian and Turkish. He wrote the novel Fast Sofa (1993) which was published in Japanese and German. He also co-wrote the script for the film adaptation, starring Jennifer Tilly, Jake Busey and Crispin Glover. His collection of poetry, Buena Suerte in Red Glitter will be published in 2019 by Red Dirt Press. He lives with his wife and two sons in the Coachella Valley in California.

Lost After Willie: Post-Show

I rambled in ’80. No college, would start UCSC
That fall. Hungry to live, fought thru being stuck,
& lost. Squinted one lit eye to see poet-rebel Willie.
Post-show? An hour or two later, woke up, still drunk
On hood of the Pinto. In Universal Bar, asked for Roger,
My missing friend, asked myself, “How did the concert end?”
Me & Roger must’ve drank Jack. We sure did in September, the theater
Window at UCSC, broke by a rock, a gossip said was in my hand.
“It wasn’t me!” I insisted to Kira, the dancer from my dorm.
A guy in the bar found Roger asleep under his parked car,
After Willie. Mad, I pushed Roger in a fountain & stormed:
“Where’d you go?! Thought I lost you!” Later, Roger parachuted into war.
We fell away as friends. Different lives: soldier & writer. Outlaw
Music our faded flag. 2018: Roger killed himself. Facebook the last of him I saw.