Tag: Zachary Kluckman

Gold Writing Workshop April 28, 2019

On By awhitetrashpoetIn Gold Writing Workshop

Join Swimming with Elephants Publications, LLC and StrangeFlock Gallery for the first of a series of Writing Workshops scheduled for the last Sunday of each month from 12pm-4pm.

The Gallery will be open from 12pm – 4pm.  Writers of all genres are invited to be inspired by the monthly artwork in the gallery by completing Ekphrastic Writing Prompts or partake in a more constructed workshop hosted by local and national guest writers. The structured writing workshop taking place between the hours of 1pm – 3pm.

Suggestion donation for the workshop is 5$-10$. All proceeds will be split between the workshop guest host and the Gallery. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.

Our guest workshop host for April 28th will be Zachary Kluckman and his workshop is entitled: “Flipping the Drama Script” which will discuss the Karpman Drama Triangle and the roles we take in relationships with people, and then doing some generative writing from the thoughts produced.

The featured artwork for the month of April is by Paulina Lopez. If you do not get a chance to view her work through the month, this will be the last opportunity to enjoy her display.

About the host for Sunday, April 28th, 2019:

Zachary Kluckman, the National Poetry Awards 2015-2016 Slam Organizer of the Year and 2014 Slam Artist of the Year, is a Scholastic Art & Writing Awards Gold Medal Poetry Teacher, Red Mountain Press National Poetry Prize recipient and a founding organizer of the 100 Thousand Poets for Change program, now recognized as the largest poetry reading in history. Kluckman has appeared multiple times at the National and Individual World Poetry slams and tours the nation as a spoken word artist. Recently he was one of 3 poets invited to represent the United States at the Kistrech International Poetry Festival in Kenya. He is the former Spoken Word Editor for Pedestal magazine and has authored two poetry collections.

Swimming with Elephant Soiree THIS SATURDAY!

On By awhitetrashpoetIn News

Make your way down to Tortuga Gallery this Saturday to join us in celebrating five years of publishing under Swimming with Elephants Publications, LLC.

An size donation will get you in the door, but a minimum 5$ donation will get you a SwEP Swag bag.

We will have a limited supply of books for sale at the event. All available books will be priced at 10$ each or three for 20$. Bring cash or credit card (a 1$ service charge will be added for credit card purchases). If you want to be sure to have a certain book signed by one of our performing poets, you are encouraged to purchase it prior to the event and bring it along.

Many of our poets will also be bringing their personal crafts to sell at the event so come get some shopping done for the holidays.

Poetry Performers include:

Bassam, Emily Bjustrom, Matthew Brown, Courtney Butler, SaraEve Fermin, Kat Heatherington, Zachary Kluckman, Manuel Gonzalez, Sarita Sol Gonzalez, Jessica Helen Lopez, Kristian Macaron, Gina Marselle, Manuel Montoya, Mary Oishi, Liza Wolff Francis

Musical Guests:

Kai Ocean

Marion Carrillo

Bring Food!

This is a pot luck, bring your own beverage event (Yes, alcoholic beverages are okay, just be responsible).

Please attempt to bring reusable plates/cups etc. View Tortuga’s Zero Waste Goals for more information. 

Featured SwEP Author: Zachary Kluckman

On By awhitetrashpoetIn Authors, Featured Writers, News

Swimming with Elephants Publications, LLC would like to reintroduce to you to Zachary Kluckman.

Zachary Kluckman’s, Some of It is Muscle, was published by Swimming with Elephants Publications in December 2013, making it the second collection released from SwEP

Pick up Zachary Kluckman’s, Some of It is Muscle, from Bookworks ABQ during the month of April or order from Amazon or Barnes and Noble today!

Already own a copy? Please write a review on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Goodreads, or submit a review to swimwithelephants@gmail.com for publications on this site.

Zachary Kluckman

262710_10200154892465990_1862870133_nA performance poet since 2006, Zachary Kluckman has been writing poetry for 25 years. He is a member of two consecutive Albuquerque National Poetry Slam Teams and has represented the city at the Individual World Poetry Slam.

A Pushcart Prize nominee, and recipient of the Red Mountain Press Poetry Prize, his work appears in print globally in such publications as the New York Quarterly and Cutthroat, as well as numerous anthologies. Featured on over 500 radio stations, with appearances on many of the nation’s most notorious stages, he is an accomplished spoken word artist. He serves as the Spoken Word Editor of the Pedestal. Twice recognized for making world history, he is the creator of the Slam Poet Laureate Program and an organizer for the 100 Thousand Poets for Change program, the largest poetry reading in history.

His first collection of poems, Animals In Our Flesh, was published in 2012 by Red Mountain Press. He has a  collection titled, The Curious Circus, from Uncola Press. An activist and youth advocate, he lives in New Mexico with his four children.

Now Available: Trigger Warning: Poetry Saved My Life

On By awhitetrashpoetIn News, Publications, Shameless Self Promotion1 Comment

Trigger WarningTrigger Warning: Poetry Saved My Life

Compiled and Edited by Zachary Kluckman
Available at Amazon and CreateSpace for $14.95.

For decades, the coffee houses, darkly shadowed bar stools, inner city apartments, and subway stations have sounded the echo of this phrase – poetry saved my life. Poets worldwide have uttered these words to one another like a scared truth, a shared secret. Not all of them certainly, but enough. Enough to make this little tome more than a mere collection of voices, but a vital, celebratory reminder that poetry still opens the door for those whose screams are strangled by pillows. Here are the sounds of pleasure heralded against shoulders, the uplifted voices and stark tremolos of those who have survived the turmoil and trembling because they found something so deceptively simple – so heart-wrenchingly real.

Acknowledging the Elephant!

On By awhitetrashpoetIn Local Events, News, Shameless Self Promotion
IBookst’s time this elephant officially came out to play!Save the evening of June 14th to hear poetry from some of our wonderful authors and save your dimes to buy their books. Hosted by the Artbar on Gold and Second Street in Albuquerque, NM, this event is basically an open-house for our authors to share and talk about the works they have published or been a part of and the future of this emerging publishing company.CCFounded by Katrina K Guarascio, SwEP is an independent publishing agency that publishes/promotes the community-minded, working artist/writer, and raises funds and awareness for youth writers in the community. Blue-collar artistic elephants!

CuntBomb Promo 1On hand will be current (and near future) published SwEP authors and contributors like Zachary Kluckman, Jessica Helen Lopez, Katrina K Guarascio, Gina Marselle, Benjamin Bormann, and more!

Also, musician extraordinaire Keith Sanchez will open and close the show with his awesome musica!

Special Pricing: All books are $10.95 credit/check or $10 cash.

Swimming with Elephants Publications Available for Purchase at Event:

Anthologies:
Catching Calliope Winter 2014
Catching Calliope Spring 2014
Cumulus Collections
Light as a Feather
To The Last Word 2014
Nika Ann’s To Anyone Who Has Ever Loved a Writer
Emily Bjustrom’s Loved Always Tomorrow
Matthew Brown’s Verbrennen 
Katrina K Guarascio & Gina Marselle’s September 
Katrina K Guarascio & Shawna Cory’s my verse,
Zachary Kluckman’s Some of it is Muscle
Jessica Helen Lopez’s Cunt.Bomb.
Books 2

 

Now Available: Catching Calliope Spring 2014

On By awhitetrashpoetIn Publications

cc coverSwimming with Elephants Publications is proud to announce the release of the spring edition of Catching Calliope.

Catching Calliope is a quarterly publication benefiting the Rio Rancho Youth Poetry Community. All proceeds from sales will go to supporting the community and the youth program. Buy your copy today to show your support for poetry and the youth. You do support poetry and the youth, don’t you?

Find your copy at Amazon or CreateSpace.

This is the second edition of this quarterly publication. All Catching Calliope publications will be benefiting the Rio Rancho Youth Poetry Community (a non-profit collective focusing on bringing poetry and freedom of expression to Rio Rancho, NM and surrounding areas).

Submit to the Summer 2014 edition of Catching Calliope May 15-June 15th. More information to come.

Catching Calliope Spring 2014

featuring:

Victoria Alexander

Melissa Baca

Gigi Bella

Emily Bjustrom

John S Blake

Alicia Borillo

SethWilson I Gray

Katrina K Guarascio

Mercedez Holtry

Gina Falcone

Damien Flores

Zachary Kluckman

Jessica Helen Lopez

Jesus Lucero

Ryan Magee

Gina Marselle

Jasmine McSparren

Susana Rinderle

Vogue Robinson

Bianca Sanchez

Danielle Smith

Sarah Smithson

Jon Sturgess

Felicia Vigil

Brooke Von Blomberg

Amy Waltner

Kirstina Ward

Charles Sanzone-Wood

Accepted for Catching Calliope Spring 2014

On By awhitetrashpoetIn News1 Comment

Thank you to those who submit to the Spring 2014 Edition of Catching Calliope! After careful review, the editors have chosen the following works in our Spring Edition. Our Spring Edition will be released in early May. Our next submission period will run from May 15th – June 15th. Like our page to stay updated.

Lady in the rain4,101~Victoria Alexander

A Triple Crown of Separation~Danielle Smith

Grandfather~Kirstina Ward

Tamales~Sarah Smithson

Or Flight~Jessica Helen Lopez

Grandpop’s House~Brooke Von Blomberg

Unabridged~Danielle Smith

Beth Road~Gina Falcone

First Memory~Zachary Kluckman

Primer~Damien Flores

I Take My Poet Friends to (Briefly) Meet My Dad              ~Jessica Helen Lopez

Write a Poem about It ~Mercedez Holtry

A Junkie like Me ~John S Blake

The Safety of Words ~Alicia Borillo

These Arms~Jesus Lucero

Cricket  ~Gina Falcone

A Ride Home~Emily Bjustrom

To the girl in my English class~Gabriella Reyes

Forty Turns of the Screw~Zachary Kluckman

Sadness is worn into his skin.~Sarah Smithson

An Unedited Heart~Gina Marselle

I Wish I could Fall in Love~SethWilson I. Gray

Death Bell ~Charles Sanzone-Wood

Sunsets                ~Bianca  Sanchez

Kites      ~Jasmine McSparren

Stardust~Amy Waltner

Left Not Right~Alicia Borillo

Love Cage~Susana Rinderle

We Were Never Really Any Good At Goodbyes ~Felicia Vigil

Aisle      ~Vogue Robinson

Wind Chime~Brooke Von Blomberg

Book Stained~SethWilson I. Gray

Outage ~ Jon Sturgess

Vapor~Charles Sanzone-Wood

River~Melissa Baca

Four~Gigi Bella

Morning ~Ryan Magee

Spring is an adolescent  ~Susana Rinderle

Some of it is Muscle: a review by Mark Fischer

On By awhitetrashpoetIn News, Reviews

Some of it is muscle promo 1Some of it is Muscle
Zachary Kluckman

Reviewed by Mark Fischer

Some of it is Muscle is an exercise in strength and perseverance in the poet’s life. Kluckman carefully excises the tough parts, puts them on display in ways that, sometimes, make you confused by how beautiful the scary bits are, and, in doing so, closes old wounds with the love of family and community. The images in this collection will surprise, challenge, and titillate both brain and heart. It is apparent that the poems in this collection were chosen and placed with precision. The poet takes you on a journey from heartache to heart-heal.

I found myself re-reading certain stanzas like puzzles and being rewarded with magical webs of metaphor like tendon and sinew that capture and coalesce into images that are unique to the mind, heart and voice of Mr. Kluckman. For example in the poem The Lions of Dusk he writes “the slow blue impalas swim like neon tetras through the heat haze, windows full of fever” effectively transforming the sinister into survival.

262710_10200154892465990_1862870133_nKluckman plays well with many traditional forms in this collection too, reminding us he is a puzzle man himself. Kluckman is well known for his devotion to the poetry community. He is an organizer of the 100 Thousand Poets for Change program, the creator of the world’s first Slam Poet Laureate program, and editor of Pedestal. He is also a two-time member of the Albuquerque National Poetry Slam Team and a recipient of the Red Mountain Press National Poetry Prize. This second book of poems by southwest poet Zackary Kluckman is worth picking up. It is a book of challenges met, made beautiful, and mended. Some of it is muscle but the whole of it is love.

On the Surgeon’s Table: A Review of Some of it is Muscle

On By awhitetrashpoetIn Reviews

Some of it is muscle promo 1On the Surgeon’s Table

A review by Sarah Smithson

Title of Book: Some of it is Muscle

Author: Zachary Kluckman

                Kluckman portrays his life experiences with a ringing theme of home, family, loss, and endurance presented in each diverse and carefully constructed poem. He offers love and survival as the antidote for all obstacles, evoking emotion and tenderly stitching wounds up with the delicacy of a one performing open heart surgery.

The imagery chosen for each poem is open, dry, and honest, reflecting the desert setting presented in a majority of the poems. Although a second or third read may be necessary to grasp the deeper nuances of each piece, it is hardly a burden since a cover-to-cover read is enjoyable and enlightening.

Kluckman’s poems are sun-ripened peaches; flavorful, rich, and filling. Once you’ve been spoiled on them, poetry will never read the same way again. Kluckman, like many performance poets, uses the combination of experience and emotion to craft powerful pieces; a method successfully employed throughout the book.  

262710_10200154892465990_1862870133_nThe poem entitled, “Training Day,” recognizes these themes, stating, “This is how we acknowledge the heart.” As strength. As work. As Muscle. The only blemish in this masterful collection is the use of some rather abstract metaphors, which may require deep thinking and multiple readings to reveal. These poems were intended to offer hope to the quiet, downtrodden, and lost, and they do this well. This would a recommended read for anyone who craves beauty, hope, or guidance.

Zachary Kluckman is a performance poet, a two-time member of the Albuquerque National Slam Team, and an accomplished spoken word artist. He is featured in numerous publications, as well as radio broadcasts and organizes many events in the local Albuquerque area. His recent publication, Some of it is Muscle, is now available from Swimming with Elephants publications. Find your copy on Amazon, Createspace, or a Local Book Seller in the Albuquerque area.

Hurry to Your Local Book Store

On By awhitetrashpoetIn Local Events, News
CuntBomb Promo 1
 
For all of you ABQ locals, Swimming with Elephants Publications first two book: Some of it is Muscle by Zachary Kluckman and Cunt.Bomb. by Jessica Helen Lopez are now available at Bookworks Albuquerque.
 
 
Some of it is muscle promo 1Swing down there to support local business and your local authors. Thank you Amanda Sutton for making the venture from trunk to shelf so accessible. Hope everyone has a wonderful day.

Happy New Year from SWEP

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Elephant New Year

Swimming with Elephants Publications would like to wish all of our followers a very Happy New Year.

We are happy to have our first two releases available for purchase via Amazon.com and CreateSpace Direct.

Please check out our publications for ordering information.

 

Now Available: Some of it is Muscle by Zachary Kluckman

On By awhitetrashpoetIn News, Publications

Some of it is muscle promo 1Swimming with Elephants Publications is proud to announce its newest publication: Some of it is Muscle by Zachary Kluckman. Currently the book is available through Createspace and Amazon.com.

To order from Amazon.com please visit the link: Some of it is Muscle

To order from Createspace Direct: Some of it is Muscle  

A little about the book: The poems in this collection are meant to be read from beginning to end. These are poems of endurance, written with the conviction that “we survive” is the thread that connects the body to the spirit, and from that recognition comes an appreciation of the beauty that exists in the simple acts of living. These are poems that celebrate the anvil and the hammer, those things that shape and reshape us.

Zachary Kluckman

On By awhitetrashpoetIn Authors

262710_10200154892465990_1862870133_nA performance poet since 2006, Zachary Kluckman has been writing poetry for 25 years. He is a member of two consecutive Albuquerque National Poetry Slam Teams and has represented the city at the Individual World Poetry Slam.

A Pushcart Prize nominee, and recipient of the Red Mountain Press Poetry Prize, his work appears in print globally in such publications as the New York Quarterly and Cutthroat, as well as numerous anthologies. Featured on over 500 radio stations, with appearances on many of the nation’s most notorious stages, he is an accomplished spoken word artist. He serves as the Spoken Word Editor of the Pedestal. Twice recognized for making world history, he is the creator of the Slam Poet Laureate Program and an organizer for the 100 Thousand Poets for Change program, the largest poetry reading in history.

His first collection of poems, Animals In Our Flesh, was published in 2012 by Red Mountain Press. He has a  collection titled, The Curious Circus, from Uncola Press. An activist and youth advocate, he lives in New Mexico with his four children.

Zachary Kluckman’s collection of poetry entitled, Some of it is Muscle, is the first publication offered from Swimming with Elephants Publications. It can be found at the following sites.

Amazon

CreateSpace