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Zachary Kluckman lives in a state of animated suspension in Albuquerque, where he publishes and produces poetry for television, page and stage. An actor, writer, spoken word artist and producer, he has many accomplishments under his belt. Among these are many film and television appearances, several episodes of Page Street Poetry TV which he produced and filmed in 2007, publication in magazines and anthologies nationwide, appearances on several albums of spoken word and poetry collections, and a top ranked position among Albuquerque’s most established slam poets.
Kluckman is also the founder and Executive Director of the world’s premier poetry advocacy agency, NM Poetry Tangents. In 2008 Kluckman founded the world’s first and only Slam Poet Laureate program with the city of Albuquerque, set to appoint the first new laureate in 2009, where he will serve as host and Executive Director. With these distinct programs, he has worked to solidify and re-imagine the power of poetry in the lives of individuals and children in his community. In keeping with this vision, he also works in the schools, community centers and outreach programs using poetry as a tool for literacy and self-establishment. Kluckman has served as poet-in-residence for McKinley Middle School, where he coached a team of first-time student poets to a third place finish at the state-wide middle school championship called VE=NT. The following year he served as Educational Co-Director with Danny Solis, and will be stepping into the shoes of his predecessor as Producer of the event in 2009. In 2008 he served as Slam Poetry Teacher for the nationally funded Upward Bound program through LULAC at Highland High School in Albuquerque.
Kluckman believes in the fundamental community behind art communities, and in an effort to support and bolster this relationship between artists, he published an anthology of New Mexican poets titled Earthships: A New Mecca Poetry Collection, which became a finalist for the New Mexico Book Awards in 2008. This collection featured guest poets Jimmy Santiago Baca, Sandra Cisneros and Ana Castillo, along with many local poets and a section for writers under 20 who were given their first publication in this collection. Kluckman also organizes and hosts many specialty shows, themed slams and unique events including street poetry, graffiti art, raves, glow-in-the-dark performances and more. In addition, he has helped to professionally edit and publish many chapbooks for local poets and artists as well as organizing and hosting a series of free writing workshops for almost 2 years for slam poets and academic poets alike.
Kluckman is an active member of the Albuquerque Slam Council and a contributing editor to Sotto Voce magazine as well. Aside from Earthships, Kluckman has published 2 chapbooks (Per-City Poems and Scratching the Negative, available through Lulu.com), and is currently at work on a full-length manuscript titled The Bone-Fly Files, as well as a novel; A Lucid Angel. Past publications include the Dos Passos Review, Cutthroat and Plain Spoke, as well as the anthologies A Walk Along the River, and Looking Back to Place, among others. Kluckman has published and performed broadly, including features in New York and Chicago, and was invited by the Canadian Arts Council to perform in 2007. His intense and direct-from-the-heart delivery of often startling topics have earned him a reputation as someone who holds nothing back.
Kluckman, who grew up in extreme poverty and situations of abuse and dysfunction in the war zones and outskirts of many cities, has taken all of the lost years and begun refining them with a refusal to let the past define his future. Known for his strong emotional presence and fearless presentation, Kluckman has become one of New Mexico’s most sought after performers and teachers of poetry. His refusal to compromise a unique and direct style of writing delivers abstract thought and complex weavings of insight and experience in unexpected ways. Influences include; Dylan Thomas, Theodore Roethke, Yusef Komunyakaa, Dr. Sonia Sanchez, Patricia Smith, Bob Hicok, Corbet Dean and more. A firm practitioner of blended poetry styles who is not afraid to go in entirely unexpected directions, his themes and set-lists range from raging social injustices to hilarious satirical implosions, from haiku to rap.
Kluckman, never known for sounding like the next guy in line, has proven again and again that for someone with something to say, the rules may apply, but the expectations never have to.

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