Tag Archives: featured

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.


News and Reviews

Rosalie Gardiner Jones biography marches into Women’s History Month

Websigte Rosalie Cover ImageCelebrate Women’s History Month and the centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment by sharing the story of one of America’s original social justice warriors in Zachary Michael Jack’s 2020 narrative nonfiction Rosalie Gardiner Jones and the Long March for Women’s Rights.

In February 1913 young firebrand activist “General” Rosalie Gardiner Jones defied convention and the doubts of better-known suffragists such as Alice Paul, Jane Addams, and Carrie Chapman Catt to muster an unprecedented equal rights army. Jones and “Colonel” Ida Craft marched 250 miles at the head of their all-volunteer platoon, advancing from New York City to Washington, DC in the dead of winter, in what was believed to be the longest dedicated women’s rights march in American history. Along the way their band of protestors overcame violence, intimidation, and bigotry, their every step documented by journalist-embeds who followed the self-styled army down far-flung rural roads and into busy urban centers bristling with admiration and enmity. At march’s end in Washington, more than 100,000 spectators cheered and jeered Rosalie’s army in a reception said to rival a president’s inauguration.

This first-ever book-length biography details Jones’s indomitable and original brand of boots-on-the-ground activism, from the 1913 March on Washington that brought her international fame to later-life campaigns for progressive reform in the American West and on her native Long Island. Consistently at odds with conservatives and conformists, the fiercely independent Jones was a prototypical social justice warrior, one who never stopped marching to her own drummer. Long after retiring her equal rights army, Jones advocated nonviolence and fair trade, authored a book on economics and international peace, and ran for Congress, earning a law degree, a PhD, and a lifelong reputation as a tireless defender of the dispossessed.

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.