Gathering together shards of autobiography, poetry, and critical commentary on music and writing, Sheets of Sound evokes DeWald's experiences as a musician and poet, father and teacher, movie-lover and teenage skater. This debut collection of essays-by turns lyric and philosophic-reflects on jazz improvisation, poetic constraints, writing pedagogy, and the "queer art of failure" (Jack Halberstam), offering fresh perspectives on artists as various as Ellen Douglas, Nicole Mitchell, and Tomoka Shibasaki.