Debuting as an Amazon #1 new release in Philosophy and top-10 across Running, Art Books, and Poetry, Salt & Flickers is a crossover sensation with runners, dreamers, artists, and seekers alike. With early praise from HuffPost, BuzzFeed, Like the Wind, Esquire, Peloton, New York Times and LA Times bestselling authors, and Olympians, this rising book and movement sits at the crossroads of running, art, and healing, called “a celebration of movement itself” and “a tailwind in life’s race" written by "the Ram Dass of Running", Howie Goldklang and "iconic LA artist and muralist" Eric Junker.
Salt and Flickers is an art-forward coffee table book, but more like a sacred object, a devotional artifact to motion, madness, and meaning because life is, too, when you let it be.
Born on the cracked streets of Los Angeles and stitched together through the long strides and longings from running in and around the world, this large-format work - featuring a foreword by Travis Barker - fuses original illustrations, essays, meditations, icon portraits, and open-ended prose on what it means to move through this world with purpose and pain, a little grit and a little grace.
Created by writer and Silver Lake Track Club founder Howie Goldklang, and artist-provocateur Eric Junker, Salt and Flickers is a living portrait of a culture in motion. This book is for the seekers: the ones who run, create, move, and meditate to understand themselves. The ones who believe running can be art, and art can be salvation. It is for the ones who lost something and decided to go find it through the forced meditation of movement. With Eric’s visceral imagery and Howie’s raw reflections, Salt and Flickers doesn’t just tell a story—it cracks you open and reminds you: the path forward is also the path inward.
Whether you’re an artist, an athlete, or dreamer — this is your invitation to let go and begin again and again.
About the Author :
HOWIE GOLDKLANG is an award winning realism poet and screenwriter and following his athletic career as a Division 1 400m hurdler turned long distance runner, he founded the Silver Lake Track Club, a non-profit supporting marginalized youth runners in Los Angeles. Goldklang co-wrote the feature films, Vanity and Metal Knights, one act plays at the prestigious Sacred Fools Theater as well as writing and performing stand up comedy in his home city of Los Angeles. ERIC JUNKER channels his restless energy into creating art and design inspired by the colliding energies of his life in urban Los Angeles and his passion for nature and outdoor adventure. In his interdisciplinary creative practice, he has contributed design, art, and ideas to a client roster that has included OCULUS, LOUIS VUITTON, MADEWELL, PATAGONIA, COACH, TARGET, and the LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC. His work has been recognized by CBS This Morning, NBC LA, ABC 7, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Cool Hunting, Elle Décor, and countless others. He’s currently a Lecturer at USC’s Roski School of Art and Design.
Review :
“To say that running is a canvas on which people can craft stories is a cliché, because it is true. And in the case of Howie Goldklang and Eric Junker, they take that idea literally. Like the Hunter S. Thompson and Ralph Steadman partnership of the running world, Howie and Eric's work is based on intense, joyful creativity and a deep understanding of running. Salt and Flickers takes the simple concept of putting one foot in front of another and infuses it with life-affirming words and images. When Howie writes about "a tapestry of culture, compassion and competition; an ever-repeating rhythm, poised on the edge of something transcendent” you know you are in for a treat.” —Simon Freeman, publisher and co-founder of Like the Wind magazine.
“Howie runs, writes, and builds community from the heart. His infectious creativity jumps off the page and will inspire you to move, grow, and imagine.” —Jonah Peretti, CEO and cofounder, BuzzFeed and HuffPost
“If you live in Los Angeles, you know and love Eric Junker's work. The flow and colors of his murals have become an inextricable part of the landscape of Southern California. They capture the spirit of a city in motion, but they also bring our attention back to the villages amidst the vastness — the corners where we eat and drink and congregate. Through this beautiful new collaboration with Howie Goldklang, words and images converge in a celebration of movement itself.” —Jeff Gordinier, author of Hungry and contributing editor at Esquire
