Writing

Books

Poetry

Full Catastrophe Living, Winner of the Iowa Poetry Prize, University of Iowa, 2009
Annulments, Winner of the Colorado Prize for Poetry, Center for Literary Publishing, 2010
The Firestorm, Winner of the CSU Poetry Center Open Award, Cleveland State University, 2011
The Man Who Lost his Head (chapbook), Winner of Omnidawn's Chapbook Prize, Omnidawn 2011
Century Swept Brutal, Black Ocean, 2013
The Orchard Green and Every Color, Omnidawn, 2016
Daybed, Black Ocean, 2018

Prose

Events Film Cannot Withstand, Rescue Press, 2011
Diving Makes the Water Deep, Rescue Press, 2016

Selected Praise and Reviews

“Playfully dire and mordantly rambunctious, Full Catastrophe Living, through deranged epigram and pointillist jabs, proves that electricity is musical and that poetry is the best of all conductors. Imagine Imagism crossed with Zen koans sent to us from a creature made entirely of ears and eyes. Imagine an expansive heart and mind speaking back to crows in Crow, to the heavens in Heaven-ese. Well, lucky for us, we don’t have to; all we have to do is read this book.”
--Dean Young

“The poems of Zach Savich take root in a shape-shifting amalgam of juncture and disjuncture. Their intensely wrought language pleases the mind and troubles the heart as only the genuine article can. ‘Just say the feeling’s been thought.’ That synesthetic turn of phrase signals a remarkably talented and thoughtful search for an idiom honest to time and event. One hardly expects a first book to have such capacity, but this one does.”
--Marvin Bell

"Sparse, spare, these lines [in Annulments] nonetheless overflow with a sheer and brilliant imagination: 'The crows: hearing our voices through wires'; 'the horses hold themselves like torches'; 'the sun a dial tone' . . . The tension between minimalism of form and maximalism of concept and feeling gives this work a vivid, oddly crystalline, momentum. The central long poem unfolds one small leaf at a time, yet resists accumulation; instead it presents us again and again with the opportunity to immerse ourselves in the slightly uncanny: what would it be to sing instead of to say? This book gives us an intimation."
--Cole Swensen

"It is the poet who, undistracted by the imbecile telegraphy of this moment, dares to sustain a sustaining sound I most esteem and most warmly embrace. Zach Savich has written a book both intimate and vast, both tender and acidly candid. And with his long poem, 'The Mountains Overhead,' he has entered that visionary company of poets who, by overturning Babel, lay the heavens at our feet."
--Donald Revell

"Zach Savich's The Man Who Lost His Head wrestles with the irrational rationality of life as we dimly perceive it. Yet these poems elicit, like the ambiguity of life itself, our most fervent and strange fidelities. There's such a thing as a willed poetic ignorance: it forms its own epistemological haven, and these poems live in that locale. Thus the poet can ask "Does dark mean blank?" and, in the very asking, expand the horizon of possibility (that is, knowing) by which we recognize the interchangeability of absence and desire. In that dark, we grope into and through the rudiments of our own longing, "melted to its presences." When Savich writes "I suppose I do believe in nothing," his words resound as a positive statement of belief."
--Elizabeth Robinson

“Take Zach Savich’s The Firestorm as one proof of Emerson’s assertion that the mind’s nature is volcanic. A firestorm is such a conflagration that it produces above it its own atmosphere. And so a reader finds in Savich’s pages a super-heated cloud in which the poet’s voice grows multiple, grows active, and the poem records the intimate collisions of lines that veer from prophecy to aphorism to ribald wit to stoic speculation. If this sounds nebulous, it is not. It is figurative, lightning-like, shot through sudden flashes of experience that in the sudden afterglow reveal that experience also experiences itself. Such is the complicated place where wit turns witness, and in doing so, opens up the deeper ironies that at first glance seem quite plain: 'I have forgotten if I am pulling the curtain open or closed.' Savich pulls the curtain open and closed, showing us again poetry’s paradoxical necessity: that the poem must show and hide at once, reveal and obscure simultaneously, and that a song that thinks makes of its melody a matter that matters.”
--Dan Beachy-Quick

“What do you get when the instructions call for apples, leaves, rivers, cities, eggs, black-eyed lazy susans and a desire exceeding imagining? You get to inhabit the world only Zach Savich’s exceedingly intelligent and shapely poems have conjured up for us. I love this book. I love having poetry taking this good care of my brain.”
--Dara Wier

Journal Publications (Selected)

Poetry

“Forever For Sale Truck.” American Poetry Review, May/June 2014.
“Antique Windfall.” Granta Online, April 2014.
“from Century Swept Brutal.” Transom, Issue 6, Fall 2013.
“from Century Swept Brutal.” Matter Monthly, Issue 4, Summer 2013
“from Century Swept Brutal.” Notnostrums, Issue 8, Summer 2013.
“from Century Swept Brutal.” Ossuary Whispers, Number 3, Summer 2013.
“from Century Swept Brutal.” Witness, Volume 26, Number 1, Spring 2013.
“from Century Swept Brutal.” Modern Language Studies, Volume 42, Number 2, Winter 2013.
“from Century Swept Brutal.” Interrupture, Issue 6, Fall 2012.
“from Century Swept Brutal.” Iowa Review, Volume 42, Number 2, Fall 2012.
“from Century Swept Brutal.” jubilat, Number 21, Fall 2012.
“from Also and Always”; “Eternity Lesson.” Strange Machine, Issue 9, Fall 2012.
“from Sunporch.” Columbia Poetry Review, Number 25, Spring 2012.
“from Century Swept Brutal.” Washington Square Review, Spring 2012.
“A Look Both Ways Town.” Barn Owl Review, Issue 5, Spring 2012.
“from Century-Swept Brutal.” Phoebe, Volume 41, Number 1, Spring 2012.
“My Ideas Have Set Nothing on Fire—Yet.” Unstuck, Issue 1, Spring 2012.
“The Chronic Pain Conversions.” Proteus: A Journal of Ideas, Spring 2012.
“from Century Swept Brutal.” Sprung Formal, Number 2, Spring 2012.
“from Sunporch,” “from The Avid Hours.” Diode, Volume 5, Number 1, Fall 2011.
“from Sunporch.” Weekday, Issue 2, Fall 2011.
“Much of Make,” “Lovely.” Dark Sky Magazine, Issue 12, Fall 2011.
“Elegy: For a Zoom Lens, Get Closer.” Toe Good Poetry, Fall 2011.
“from The Avid Hours.” “Trumpet,” “Sunporch.” VOLT #16, Summer 2011.
“from Sunporch.” Paperbag Journal Number 3, Summer 2011.
“Polishing the Boards,” “Costing Not Less Than Everything.” iO, Volume 2, Summer 2011.
“The Eye is the Sexiest Thing to Look At.” Now Culture, Spring 2011.
“Asked to Repeat His Trick,” “Under-Melt.” Laurel Review, Volume 45, Number 1, Spring 2011.
“Strip Show.” Poets.org, Academy of American Poets, February 2011.
“The Time of Day” and “Hadrian’s.” Mare Nostrum, Volume 5, Spring 2011.
“Sunporch” and “A Vision of Inseparability.” Oh No Number 1, Spring 2011.
“Water Unflavored by The Apples in It.” Gulf Coast, Volume 23, Number 1, Winter/Spring 2011.
“Deep Cover,” “Cardinal Song,” and “A Children's Story.” Poetry Northwest, Fall/Winter 2010-11.
“There Is Nothing That Is Not Green.” Colorado Review, Winter 2010.
“A Painting Does Not Lead The Eye.” Anti-Poetry Number 7, December 2010.
“As Any Approaching Might Smile and Stop.” Broadsided, December 2010.
“Heart Set.” A Public Space, Issue 11, Fall 2010.
“Riddle” and “Outside the New World.” The Offending Adam, Number 43, November 2010.
“The Impossibility of Sleeping Alone.” Seneca Review, Volume 40, Number 10, Fall 2010.
“These Days of Disinheritance” and “Autobiography.” H_NGM_N, Number 11, Fall 2010.
“Curtain Light,” “The Eye is Trained as in Educated,” “Loves Necessity.” The Umbrella Factory, Issue 3, Fall 2010.
“Popular Songs About Feeling Bad.” Verse Daily, May 24, 2010.
“Selections from The Mountains Overhead.” I Thought I Was New Here, May 2010.
“Poem After Last Night (1, 2, 3).” Jellyfish Magazine, Issue Two, Spring 2010.
“Real Time.” Omnidawn Blog, March 8, 2010.
“Popular Songs About Feeling Bad” and “On The Higher Branches.” Burnside Review, Volume 6, Number 1, Spring 2010.
“Cadenza.” Dossier, Issue 5, Spring 2010.
“City (2),” “City (3),” “Sailors Tied,” “What Flowers.” Handsome,Volume 2, Number 1, Winter 2010.
“For When We May Merely Speak,” “Not Being Sick.” Sixth Finch, Winter 2010.
“Post-script,” “A House Called Fire.” Laurel Review, Volume 41, Number 2, Fall 2009.
“Very Loosely from Dante,” “Back into This Life You Have Brought Me To,” “Portrait of a Lady.” Propellor, Volume 1, Number 1, October 2009.
“The End of Decadence.” Tammy, Volume 1, Number 2, Fall 2009.
“Little Evidence of the Bee’s,” “The Adult Longeing Guide.” Boston Review, July/August 2009.
“Real Geology,” “If Excess Burns Off What Is the Fire.” Caffeine Destiny, Fall 2009.
“Snowmelt,” “Respecting Chaos Enough to be Orderly.” Alligator Juniper, Issue 14, Summer 2009.
“City (4 – 12).” Double Room, Issue 8, Summer 2009.
“Set Up,” “Port Angeles.” Bat City Review, Issue 5, Spring 2009.
“On Some Early Modern Artifacts.” The Rumpus, May 2009.
“Fossil, Snorkle, and Cold Blood.” Ink Node, April 11, 2009.
“Virgil Descending (1),” “Virgil Descending (2),” “Virgil Descending (3).” Denver Quarterly, Volume 43, Number 3, Winter 2009.
“Outside Santa Maria in Trastevere.” Kenyon Review, Volume 31, Number 2, Spring 2009.
“On a Pose of Virgil’s.” Poetry Daily, March 14, 2009.
“Thrush-Throated Song,” “The Problem of Time.” Jellyfish, Issue 1, Spring 2009
“Your Full Name.” Slog: The Stranger Online, January 23, 2009.
“See-Through,” “Grove.” Mare Nostrum, Volume 5, Winter 2008.
“Within an Inch of Your Life,” “Lullaby.” Notnostrums, Issue 2, Winter 2008.
“Berries,” “Delible.” Filter, Issue 2, Fall 2008.
“Animal.” Natural Bridge, Issue 19, Spring 2008.
“Hemispheric.” Court Green, Issue 5, Spring 2008.
“Serenade.” American Letters and Commentary, Issue 19, Spring 2008.
“Cardboard Sonnet,””Ketchup Sonnet.” jubilat, Issue 14, Spring 2008.
“Sap,” “Reply,” “Crave.” La Fovea, Spring 2008.
“Circus,” “On a Pose of Virgil’s.” Iowa Review, Volume 37, Number 3, Winter 2007.
“Circus.” Daily Palette, January 8, 2008.
“City (1).” Verse Online, August 20, 2007.
“Beasts,” “Pleasantness and Shame,” “Inflatable Sonnet.” Forklift, Number 17, Summer 2007.
“Countryside.” New Ohio Review, Volume 1, Number 1, Spring 2007.
“Postscript 23,” “Postscript 25.” Blue Mesa Review, Winter 2007.
“From Weathering.” 580 Split, Issue 9, Winter 2007.
“Reconsidered Vitamins.” 88, Issue 6, Winter 2007.
“Postscript (1-4).” Mare Nostrum, Number 4, Winter 2007.
“City (1),” “City (13).” Burnside Review, Volume 3, Number 1, Winter 2007.
“A Pregnant Bowl of Croissants.” A3 (New Zealand), January 2007.
“Contact Solution,” “The Bandito in the Bistrot,” “War on Sorrow.” Turbine (New Zealand), Volume 6, 2006.
“Sing/Le Figure,” “Photograph,” “Composition 24.” Sidebrow, Winter 2006.
“Limerick Sonnet.” Colorado Review, Volume 33, Number 3, Fall/Winter 2006.
“Tour Guide." Forklift, Issue 15, Summer 2006.
“Beginning.” Denver Quarterly, Volume 40, Number 4, Summer 2006.
“Movie.” Mid-American Review, Volume 26, Number 2, Spring 2006.
“For You To Find You Love Me…” Laurel Review, Volume 40, Number 1, Spring 2006.
“Half-Song: Doxy.” Black Warrior Review, Volume 32, Number 1, Fall/Winter 2005.
“Of Late,” “Your Tattoo.” Fourteen Hills, Volume 11, Number 2, Summer/Fall 2005.
“Judging Children.” Beloit Poetry Journal, Volume 55, Number 3, Spring 2005.
“Water Practice,” “City Nesting.” Cranky, Volume 1, Issue 3, Fall 2004.
“Siesta.” Crab Creek Review, Spring/Summer 2004.

Essays and Reviews

“On William Logan’s Guilty Knowledge, Guilty Pleasure.” The Rumpus, February 2015.
“On Brian Blanchfield’s A Several World.” Iowa Review, January 2015.
“On Jose Perez Beduya’s Throng.” Jacket2, September 2015.
“On Ralph Angel’s Your Moon.” Philadelphia Review of Books, October 2014.
“A Walk for Edson.” Propellor Magazine, Summer 2014.
“Easy, Durable Dreams: Notes on Poetry and Social Media.” Poetry Northwest, Summer/Fall 2014.
“On Maged Zaher’s If Reality Doesn’t Work Out." Black Ocean Blog, September 2014.
“On Karla Kelsey’s A Conjoined Book.” Black Ocean Blog, August 2014.
“On Gillian Conoley’s Peace.” From the Seawall, April 2014.
“Memoirs of the Sick.” The Fanzine, April 2014.
“A Brief and Casual Self-Interview.” Thermos, Winter 2014.
“How I Paid for College.” Crashtest, Issue 6, Fall 2013.
“Day Follows Night.” Coldfront, October 2013.
“Resembly: Napoleon’s As first exactly.” napoleonnapoleon.com, October 2013.
“On Alex Kovacs’ The Currency of Paper.” Iowa Review, Online Edition, Fall 2013.
“Eleven Essays I’m Not Writing about Contemporary Poetry.” Philadelphia Review of Books, September 2013.
“Notes on Gregory Lawless’s Foreclosure.” Thermos, Summer 2013.
“Joshua Marie Wilkinson’s Swamp Isthmus.” Kenyon Review Blog, April 19, 2013.
“Margaret Ross’s Decay Constant.” Kenyon Review Blog, April 18, 2013.
“Miguel Hernandez and Mario Santiago Papasquiaro.” Kenyon Review Blog, April 12, 2013.
“Jena Osman and Yevgeniy Fiks.” Kenyon Review Blog, April 2, 2013.
“On Stanely Plumly’s Orphan Hours.” Poetry Northwest, Winter 2013.
“Turns that Affirm: On C.P. Cavafy.” Voltage Poetry, Febuary 2013.
"On Damon Krukowski's Afterimage." From the Seawall, Spring 2012
“The Air in an Empty Gallery.” Dark Sky Magazine, Number 15, January 2012.
“There Exists Now a Book.” Dark Sky Magazine, Number 14, October 2011.
“Turning though Nature: On Joshua Corey’s Severance Songs.” Poetry Northwest, Fall 2011.
“Whisk in the Mouth!: On Filip Marinovich’s And If You Don’t Go Crazy I’ll Meet You Here Tomorrow.” Co-authored with Hilary Plum. The Rumpus, July 2011
“Holyoke Fences.” At Length, Spring 2011.
“Forms That Change: On Karla Kelsey and Gertrud Schnackenberg.” Poetry Northwest, June 2011.
“Unto A Juggler Turned: On Oni Buchanan’s Spring.” Kenyon Review Online, August 2010.
“On Carrie Olivia Adams’ Intervening Absence.” Denver Quarterly, Volume 44, Number 4, 2010.
“On Kary Wayson’s American Husband.” Poetry Northwest, Spring-Summer 2010.
“Go With Me Little Pools: On Don Bogen’s An Algebra.” Gently Read Literature, July 2010.
“On Jennifer Kronovet’s Awayward.” Kenyon Review Online, July 2010.
“On Kathleen Jesme’s The Plum-Stone Game.” Pleiades, Volume 30, Number 2, 2010.
“On Andrew Zawacki’s Petals of Zero, Petals of One.” Boston Review, March/April 2010.
“The Dialogue of Origin and Ear: On Joshua Harmon’s Scape.” Gently Read Literature, April 2010.
“Inner Order: On Andrew Grace’s Shadeland.” Poetry Northwest Online, Volume 4, Number 3, April 2010.
“A Great Poem: Norman Dubie’s Ibis.” I Thought I Was New Here, March 2010.
“On Chris Forhan’s Black Leapt In.” Pleiades, Volume 30, Number 1, 2010.
“On Filip Marinovich’s Zero Readership.” Boston Review, January/February 2010.
“James Shea’s Star in The Eye.” Cutbank Online, January 2010.
“A Happy Book.” Poetry Society of America, Fall 2009.
“Louise Gluck’s A Village Life.” Kenyon Review Online, November 2009.
“Sam Sampson’s Everything Talks.” Kenyon Review Online, June 2009.
“Lens and Eye: James Longenbach and Donald Revell.” Kenyon Review Online, May 2009.
“Singing School: How Poetry’s Music Knows.” The Millions, April 2009.
“Before This No Longer Feels Like A Crime: Mark Yakich’s The Importance of Peeling Potatoes in Ukraine.” Kenyon Review Online, September 2008.
“For Form’s Sake: X. J. Kennedy’s In a Prominent Bar in Secaucus.” Kenyon Review Online, June 2008.
“Some Lovely Scrubbing: The Delie of Maurice Sceve.” Iowa Review, Volume 38, Number 1, Spring 2008.
“The Country That Is Beautiful.” Writers’ Workshop Newsletter, Spring 2007.
“Crumbling Expectations.” Seneca Review, Volume 35, Number 1, Spring 2005.