My second poetry collection Saturday Night on Earth is live and in the world as of today, November 17, 2025. A million thanks to Alien Buddha Press for believing in me again.
Saturday Night on Earth is my tale of music geekdom and all of the fun I’ve had in the Pittsburgh DIY music scene. It’s 57 shocking true tales (I know I’m from Pittsburgh, but I swear I didn’t do that on purpose). It’s about my love of creative communities and the important role that music plays in my life.
Check out the first 5 poems on The Alien Buddha Blog.
Buy a copy on my Big Cartel Store.
Save a few bucks and buy it from the Big Borg website.
I’ll be reading a few poems from the collection as reels on my author Instagram page.
Not yet convinced you need to buy my book?! Check out these awesome blurbs:
“Matthew Ussia has a gift for capturing the liberation of punk and the depth of human experience in a subculture. Saturday Night on Earth made me laugh and it made me miss my friends no longer with us. It is deeply moving to read this collection of poems that evoke the visceral feeling of being seen in the collective outside, reading clear, honest portrayals of a punk community that has shaped my life and the lives of countless other misfits.”
– Jim Fair (Big Baby & Positive Thinking)
“Ussia’s writing opens a crack just wide enough into our secret liminal space to intrigue the uninitiated and to hopefully frighten away any tourists without the constitution for carnage and noise. Those of us who exist in this parallel universe are immediately drawn in as we recognize our own secret language and customs. This collection of ephemeral spaces, worlds built and burned in a night and those with the unwavering compulsion to wake up and do it again is a testament to Ussia’s love and respect for our community.”
-Krystina Haberman (Peace Talks)
“In Saturday Night on Earth, the mad professor Matthew Ussia generously invites us to tag along with him on a tour of Pittsburgh’s record stores, smoke-clogged dives, and punk shows that barely have a venue, seeking out that thing that makes us most feel alive—noise! What some people call music and what others refuse to call music. In these poems, Ussia captures what it is to be an obsessed audiowhore living in this fucked up 21st century mess, sacrificing sleep for a great show, knowing that one night of experiencing live music can change one’s life forever. One of the things that I love about these poems is Matt’s very direct assertion that there is a great power in being a part of a scene—a community of musicians, of poets, of artists. And his argument that we all have the opportunity to be a part of the creative landscape, if only we are willing to open our eyes &; ears and go out and look for our place in this twisted world—even if that place happens to be a dumpy bar in Polish Hill that reeks of piss but has bands playing strange and beautiful songs unlike anything we could have ever imagined. Enjoy the ride!”
–Scott Silsbe, author of Meet Me Where We Survive”