CRANKY LITERARY JOURNAL PRESENTS A WORKSHOP LED
BY THE POET AND EDITOR, ZACHARY SCHOMBURG
On Friday, September 7th, from 1-5 pm, Cranky Literary Journal hosts a workshop led by Zachary
Schomburg, author of the acclaimed poetry collection, The Man Suit (see Alex Walton's
review in our current issue). This will be a rare opportunity to work with Zachary, who
is also co-editor of the online journal, Octopus, and Octopus Books, which publishes a
beautiful series of chapbooks. He is co-curator of The Clean Part Reading Series and a
PhD student at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. He is currently working on a second
book of poems as well as translations of the Russian-language poet, Gennadii Aigi.
Zachary will also be reading at Richard Hugo House on Thursday, September 6, at 7:30 p.m. with
Catherine Wing and Rebecca Hoogs. Details on the reading are on our news page.
The workshop will be held in a private home on Capitol Hill from 1-5 pm on the 7th and
the fee is a very reasonable $65. Zachary's workshop description follows. Register below via PayPal or email Amber Curtis at
editors@crankymag.org. We will limit the workshop to 10 students.
Monster Attacks and Flash Floods of Lava: Turning a Poem on Itself
There is a long tradition of poems pivoting on fulcrums--I'm thinking specifically of the
volta in a sonnet. It is this pivot that provides the poem with energy, movement, and
dimension. For example, the pivot is the point at which the poem about a man bowling
alone on a weekday afternoon turns into a poem about guilt when he looks at the pins and
sees his abandoned children. It sets up the spiraling down and makes the readers
re-consider where they've been. It turns the light on in a room without bulbs or
electricity or walls.
This workshop will focus on those turns by discussing a diverse range of examples (i.e.
Shakespeare, Armantrout, Tost, and myself) and by working closely—through exercises and
group workshop—with our own poems. We'll talk about the expectations and genre
conventions we establish for our reader at the poem's outset and the ways we can surprise
those expectations, both subtly and shockingly, to give the poem an energy that moves its
reader successfully toward the final lines.
Participants will be asked to email 1-2 short poem(s) as soon as possible to editors@crankymag.org. We will compile a packet for all participants.
Zachary Schomburg is the author of a book of poems, The Man Suit (Black Ocean Press,
2007). the co-editor of an online poetry magazine, Octopus, the co-editor of a small
poetry press, Octopus Books, the co-curator of the The Clean Part Reading Series, and a
PhD student at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. He is currently working on a second
book of poems as well as translations of the Russian-language poet, Gennadii Aigi.
Praise for The Man Suit:
"It is a rare and fine thing when a poet momentarily affiliates his words and his
cadences with the entirety of a world, thus freeing his poem from all burden of
mediation, all transgression. In our own era, Rene Char and Pablo Neruda come most
vividly to mind in this regard. With The Man Suit, Zachary Schomburg, quietly but with
deep conviction, begins to join their company. His book is a blessing."
—Donald Revell
"Zachary Schomburg is a wildly imaginative poet who will take you many places you've
never been or even dreamed of, always with grace and quirky humor. Whether you are caught
in Abraham Lincoln's Death Scene or the Sea of Japan, you are certain to enjoy the
original vision of this highly entertaining poet. It's a book like no other."
—James Tate
Copyright © 2004-2007.
This page was last updated August 17 , 2007 .
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