Category Archives: New Books

New Books

New for Fall 2024 Ignatius Donnelly literary biography

New for Fall 2024, The Strange Genius of Ignatius Donnelly by Zachary Michael Jack, is now available in hardcover and e-book from Cornell University Press/Northern Illinois University Press.

The Strange Genius of Ignatius Donnelly sheds light on the inimitable life of a neglected figure in US political and literary history. The father of American Populism, lieutenant governor of Minnesota, People’s Party candidate for vice president, popularizer of the Shakespeare authorship controversy, proponent of the Atlantis theory, and author of bestselling speculative fictions, Ignatius Donnelly positively defies categorization.

Called a crank and a pseudoscientist by some and a genius by others, Donnelly broke all the rules. As Zachary Michael Jack’ shows, in the latter half of Donnelly’s remarkable life, he generated more fame and infamy than he had as a combative congressman. In an uncanny reversal of the usual midcareer doldrums, Donnelly turned political defeat into an opportunity for personal and professional reinvention, remaking himself as a visionary author and a champion of people-first third-party politics. The man known by enemies and friends alike as the Sage of Nininger pushed through poverty and ignominious defeat to introduce the masses to surprising theories about ancient civilizations, world-ending comets, and cryptograms purported to reveal the true authorship of Shakespeare’s plays. At root, The Strange Genius of Ignatius Donnelly reveals the story of a man unafraid to speak truth to power, consequences be damned.

“Zachary Michael Jack deftly places the forgotten nineteenth-century politician and author Ignatius Donnelly in the hub of a fascinating wheel with spokes twisting from Shakespeare to Atlantis to Donald Trump. Part sage, part crank, Donnelly resurfaces as nothing short of captivating.” –Curt Brown, Star Tribune history columnist and author of Minnesota 1918

“This extremely insightful book about one of the most interesting historical figures of the late nineteenth century is extraordinarily well researched and beautifully written.” –Jerry Prout, author of Chasing Automation

New Books

New for 2023 On Script: Dramatic Writing for Stage, Screen and Streaming

On Script: Dramatic Writing for Stage, Screen, and Streaming was released by Northampton House Press in paperback and ebook for 2024. Buy On Script on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or order at your favorite indie bookstore.

Advance praise for On Script:

“A detailed, soup-to-nuts primer on the art, craft, and business of writing short drama.” —Jim Wicker, Dramaturg, Literary Manager, Radio Theatre Project

“An impressive work and a great resource. Zachary Michael Jack…gives readers the guidance they need to write their own scripts.” —Jo Ann Katz, Actor, Director, Producer, Northport Plays

“Of the many submissions I have seen over the last twenty years I wish quite a few of them would have read a book like On Script.” —Brad Slavik, Actor, Director, First Run Theatre

“…A practical and creative guide to starting, building, and promoting a script. The writing prompts and exercises are invaluable.” —Jody Hovland, Founding Artistic Director, Riverside Theatre

Tired of self-promoting gurus touting easy “secrets”? In On Script seasoned scriptwriter, author, and educator Zachary Michael Jack explains step-by-step how successful Creatives write, edit, pitch, polish, and produce dramatic work. Packed with authoritative commentary, prompts, and advice, On Script is the perfect read for emerging and established writers in the Digital Age.


New Books

Special Effects: New writing textbook released nationally

Special Effects: Short Takes on Stylish Prose tackles the dilemma dedicated writers have faced for generations: how to make words on the page as compelling as images on the screen. Perfect for film buffs and TV enthusiasts who want to improve their writing, this innovative handbook reveals how cinematics transform syntactics. Packed with 40 proven strategies designed to make serious and scholarly texts “read” as seamlessly and enjoyably as great movies, and accompanied by nearly 100 writing prompts perfect for use in writing courses, writers’ workshops, and workplace conference rooms, this one-of-a-kind guide shows how to make the daring leaps action heroes and dauntless authors make routine.

Special Effects addresses writing’s most persistent craft questions by boldly going where no prose style guide has gone before: to a front row seat at the movie theater.

New Books

The Art of Public Writing now available

The Art of Public Writing is now out from Parlor Press and Clemson University.

Today’s professionals recognize the need to elevate written communication beyond argument-driven pedantry, political polemic, and obtuse pontification. Whether the goal is to write the next serious work of best-selling nonfiction, to develop a platform as a public scholar, or simply to craft clear and concise workplace communication, The Art of Public Writing demystifies the process, showing why it’s not just nice, but necessary, to connect with those inside and outside one’s area of expertise. Drawing on a diverse set of examples ranging from Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species to Steven Levitt’s Freakonomics, Zachary Michael Jack offers invaluable advice for researchers, scholars, and working professionals determined to help interpret field-specific debates for wider audiences, address complex issues in the public sphere, and successfully engage audiences beyond the Corner Office and the Ivory Tower.

“We need to teach the things this book advocates for-good writing as citizenship, as workplace, as informing the public clearly, and more. We want college graduates who look out to the world, not those who look back at the academy. This book says all that very well. The argument is convincing, compelling, and could give rise to a movement to acknowledge in writing studies where higher education should go in the current, more open-access, world.” –Dominic DelliCarpini, Naylor Endowed Professor of Writing Studies and Dean of the Center for Community Engagement at York College of Pennsylvania.

“The Art of Public Writing communicates that public writing is communication happening between real human beings-not academic machines.” –Jessica Schad Manuel, Book Oblivion

New Books

New Midwestern narrative nonfiction released in print and audio edition

HauntofhomecoverThe Haunt of Home: A Journey Through America’s Heartland, the latest narrative nonfiction from Zachary Michael Jack, is now available from Cornell University Press and Northern Illinois University Press. 

“Whether interviewing an Illinois casket-maker, an Iowa pastry chef, a retired Kansas banker, his farmer father, or just himself, Jack touches on the universal experience of exploring alternatives while understanding ourselves. He suggests we avoid abstract, distant, and often urban agendas, and preserve the home places which ultimately define us.”

David Pichaske, author of Bones of Bricks and Mortar

“This story of fatalism on the prairie is seamlessly grounded in references to American art, literature, and movies and to communal fatalism in classical literature. In this way, Zachary Jack’s experiences become universal, extending far beyond Middle America.”

James Ballowe, author of A Man of Salt and Trees

“Often beautiful and insightful.”

Anna Clark, author of The Poisoned City

“Jack makes a persuasive and elegant argument for the Middle American Gothic, detailed by writers and artists native to the region. Repression, hypocrisy, and empty righteousness play out in the wide-open landscape, pitted against the human inclination for passion. Much of this book rings true.”

Maurice Manning, author of Railsplitter

New Books

Book Release of Country Views Brings Rave Reviews

IMG_1640A shot of the book-signing table, as Country Views: The Essential Agrarian Essays of Zachary Michael Jack hits bookstores  on October 24th as part of a nationwide publisher release. Join Zachary Michael Jack at the Presidential Politics Conference in Sioux Center and at Beaverdale Books in West Des Moines for an exciting  book launch in heart of the agrarian heartland: central Iowa.

PRAISE FOR COUNTRY VIEWS: 

“Like Art Cullen or Sarah Smarsh, Jack can be angry, funny, nostalgic and hopeful by turns, with a sharp eye for detail and lean, economical prose. Not content to merely idealize rural America, he cherishes it, asking hard questions about how it has changed, what it still has to offer, and what it demands of those who live here and of those who do not.”

–Laura Sayre, editor of Fields of Learning: The Student Farm Movement in North America

 

“Zachary Michael Jack’s writings illustrate that those whose roots are close to the soil, where plants and animals live or die, carry through life an uncommon sensitivity.”

–Dr. Duane C. Acker, former president of Kansas State University, former assistant secretary of the United States Department of Agriculture for Science and Education

 

“After reading Country Views, I felt like “someone had remembered me.” The commentaries are a delightful mix of sentimental journeys, statistical analysis, and rural policy issues relevant for any legislator to ponder.”

–Dr. Jeff Kaufmann, Former Speaker Pro Tem, Iowa House of Representatives, Professor of History, Muscatine Community College

 

“Zachary Michael Jack has given us more of his witty, insightful commentaries in his newest book. Jack offers a unique perspective on the lighter side of complex agrarian issues, addressing everything from “barnyard English” to “rural ghouls.” I highly recommend Country Views.”

–-Dr. Dana Hoag, Professor of Agricultural Economics, Colorado State University

 

Reading Country Views is like sitting down to a plate heaping with delicious home-cooked servings…. Whether you grew up agrarian or are tasting agrarianism for the first time, you are not only in for a treat but also may be surprised by what you learn that will influence how you think about rural America.

 

—Loren Kruse, retired editor-in-chief, Successful Farming magazine

New Books

Votes for Women! New Historical Drama Debuts at Madden Theatre

VotesforWomen1913Votes for Women! a new historical drama written by Zachary Michael Jack opens the weekend of March 2 and 3 at Madden Theatre in the Wentz Fine Arts Center on the campus of North Central College in Naperville. The stage play is part of the Illinois Humanities’ Forgotten Illinois series  and celebrates both Women’s History Month and the Illinois Bicentennial. Read more about the unique collaborative production here.

New Books

New Nonfiction Book Named Reviewer’s Choice by Midwest Book Review

midwestbookreviewlogoZachary Michael Jack’s new memoir Wish You Were Here: Love and Longing in an American Heartland has been selected as a Reviewer’s Choice  by the Midwest Book Review, who says of the 2017 release “Heartwarming, candid, and penned directly the depths of the soul, Wish You Were Here is highly recommended.”

New Books

New Nonfiction Featured on National Radio

SF logoWish You Were Here: Love and Longing in an American Heartland by Zachary Michael Jack was featured on this week’s Successful Farming Radio Magazine. Hosted by Darrell Anderson, the show, now in its twentieth year, is syndicated on over 360 stations across the nation.

New Books

Wish You Were Here: Love and Longing in an American Heartland Out Now

Wish You Were Here Cover smallTruman State University Press has recently released the long-awaited Midwest memoir by Zachary Michael Jack Wish You Were Here, Love and Longing in an American Heartland. Early news and reviews may be found at the publisher website.