photo by Vivian Demuth

Eliot Katz's newest book is a full-length volume on the poetry and politics of Allen Ginsberg. He is the author of seven books of poetry, including Unlocking the Exits (1999) and Love, War, Fire, Wind: Looking Out from North America’s Skull (2009), done in collaboration with the artist, William T. Ayton.  His first full-length poetry book, Space and Other Poems for Love, Laughs, and Social Transformation was published in 1990, with introductions by Allen Ginsberg and Amiri Baraka, and a front cover drawing by Leon Golub. Katz is also the author of two prose e-books, Three Radical Poets: Tributes to Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, and Adrienne Rich (2013) and The Moonlight of Home and Other Stories of Truth and Fiction (2013). He was a coeditor, with Allen Ginsberg and Andy Clausen, of Poems for the Nation (2000), a collection of contemporary political poems that Ginsberg was compiling in the 18 months before his death in 1997. A cofounder, with Danny Shot, and former coeditor of Long Shot literary journal, he guest-edited Long Shot's final issue, a "Beat Bush issue" released in Spring 2004. His poems are included in the anthologies: Poetry After 9/11: An Anthology of New York Poets; Blood to Remember: American Poets on the Holocaust, 2nd ed.; The World the 60s Made: Politics and Culture in Recent America; Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Cafe; Blue Stones and Salt Hay: An Anthology of Contemporary New Jersey Poets; Identity Lessons: Contemporary Writing About Learning to Be American; Bum Rush the Page: A Def Poetry Jam; Nada Poems; Confronting Capitalism: Dispatches from a Global Movement; and In Defense of Mumia. His long essay, "Radical Eyes," is included in the prose collection, The Poem That Changed America: "Howl" Fifty Years Later. He is coeditor of a bilingual anthology published in France in 1997, entitled Changing America: Contemporary U.S. Poems of Protest, 1980-1995. Called “another classic New Jersey bard” by Allen Ginsberg, Katz has worked for many years as an activist for a wide range of peace and social-justice causes, including a decade spent as an advocate for Central New Jersey homeless families. He currently lives in Hoboken, NJ, and serves as poetry editor of the online politics quarterly, Logos: A Journal of Modern Society and Culture.

For more information about Eliot Katz's newest book, see The Poetry and Politics of Allen Ginsberg. Poems from Unlocking the Exits Dinosaur Love Ode to the Car Keys To the Vegetable Aisle Who Does What to Whom For Mark Bradley, Songwriter & Chef McNamara's Ghosts Oklahoma City Elegy for Allen What No God Knows At the End of the Century New & Recent Poems Even a Poet Laureate Doesn’t Deserve to Get Beaten by the Police 7 Types of Bliss 45th Birthday in 2002 2001 Skies Can We Have Some Peace and Quiet Please? Gregory's Last Lines In Praise of the Seattle Coalition One Year Later Portraits / M. The Logic of War The Weather Seems Different To the Northern Winds July 4, 2002 What We Don't See When the Skyline Crumbles   Online Poems Rocking the Globe from DC These Beautiful Territories Chapbooks When the Skyline Crumbles: Poems for the Bush Years (Cosmological Knot Press, 2007) View from the Big Woods: Poems from North America's Skull (Cosmological Knot Press, 2007) (email Eliot Katz at ekatz57@earthlink.net if you would like to order signed hard-copy versions of these collections.) Online Prose "Reaching Out to Adrienne Rich: An Activist Poet's Tribute" "Recalling Allen" "Unlocking the Language Room of War" Interviews "Talkin' Occupy With Eliot Katz," by Levi Asher "Howlin Soul," by Michael Limnios Editor Affiliations A history of the founding of Long Shot A review of Poems For The Nation

Film See Eliot in Dinners with Andy Eliot Katz & Andy Clausen: Interview with Harold Channer (8/24/04) Elliot Katz YouTube page Poetry/Music Collaboration Poetry/Music Collaboration with Russell Branca Reviews Review of Andy Clausen's Without Doubt Adrien Begrand's review of Unlocking the Exits Review of Unlocking the Exits by Jim Cohn Praise for Unlocking the Exits by Allen Ginsberg Alicia Ostriker Sings Praise for Eliot Katz Book Order Information Three Radical Poets: Tributes to Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, and Adrienne Rich The Moonlight of Home and Other Stories of Truth and Fiction Love, War, Fire, Wind: Looking Out from North America's Skull—done in collaboration with artist William T. Ayton Space and Other Poems for Love, Laughs, and Social Transformation (With Introductions By Amiri Baraka and Allen Ginsberg) When The Skyline Crumbles - Poems for the Bush Years View From The Big Woods - Poems From North America's Skull Unlocking the Exits "Liberation Recalled" In his long poem, "Liberation Recalled," composed from 1994-97, Eliot Katz presents testimony from his mother about her WWII concentration camp experiences, interspersed with his own stylistically varied verses on a wide range of contemporary social themes. Employing elements of modernist experimentation, Katz inventively explores questions of historical and intergenerational legacy, psychic reconstruction, political-literary theory, and the challenge of building a more humane future. The poem, written in 39 sections, is posted here in its entirety in a pdf format. "Liberation Recalled" was originally published in the poetry collection, Unlocking the Exits (Coffee House Press, 1999). For information about reprinting "Liberation Recalled," in whole or in excerpts, or to inquire about readings, please contact the author at ekatz57@earthlink.net Download the pdf version of "Liberation Recalled"