photo by Vivian Demuth

Eliot Katz is the author of five books of poetry: 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); Unlocking the Exits (Coffee House Press, 1999); Les voleurs au travail (Thieves at Work) (Paris: Messidor Press, 1992, in French translation) and Space and Other Poems for Love, Laughs, and Social Transformation (Northern Lights, 1990). He is a coeditor of Poems for the Nation (Seven Stories Press, 2000), a collection of contemporary political poems compiled by the late poet Allen Ginsberg. A cofounder and former coeditor of Long Shot literary magazine, Katz 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 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 worked for many years as a housing advocate for Central New Jersey homeless families. He currently lives in New York City and serves as poetry editor of the online politics quarterly, Logos: A Journal of Modern Society and Culture.

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 The Back Side of the Painting Elegy for Allen Selection from Liberation Recalled What No God Knows At the End of the Century New & Recent Poems 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 Long Shot "Bush Beat" Introduction Unlocking the Language Room of War

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 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 To purchase Unlocking the Exits from Coffee House Press, go to their search engine and type in “Katz.” "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"