Study with
Craig Czury
Studying with Craig brings 40 plus years of teaching experience directly to you - whether you work with him online or in-person. Join a weekly online group writing class. Bring Craig to your site for a single day event or multiple week workshop series. Request to work privately with him to jumpstart your new book or fine-tune a work in progress.
WEEKLY ONLINE WRITING WORKSHOPS
Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced
JOIN A WEEKLY ONLINE WRITING CLASS
Give yourself the gift of time dedicated to you, to your creative self. Weekly classes are a way to truly progress in your writing craft.
Classes are held online with a maximum of 10 people per class. Writers of every level can find a class of their comfort level.
Fundamentals Class (openings available):
Monday Evenings 7:00 - 9:00 pm (EST)
For writers of every level - from just starting
out, to more experienced writers wanting to
remember of some of the core concepts.
Open Writing Class (openings available):
Tuesday Evenings 7:00 - 9:00 pm (EST)
Advanced Concepts Class:
Wednesday Evenings 7:00 - 9:00 pm (EST)
For writers 21+ years old. $25 per session
To Register, email craigczury@gmail.com
Craig challenged me to share my voice with others, without feelings of shame or insecurity, but with a deep, courageous celebration of the magic of words and humanity. - E.B. (Participant)
.
He is gentle and challenging all at the same time. You might want to tighten your seatbelt.
~ R.F. (Participant)
PUBLIC POETRY PROJECTS
Including Czury's Signature,
The "Poem Fusion"
Craig builds public arts infrastructures that enable the voices of the participants to speak and to be heard. A pioneer of what he calls "Poem Fusion," Craig has traveled the world to bring diverse voices together into stunning, revelatory, and collaborative poems.
A Poem Fusion is a social adventure, a powerful and spirited series of creative writing workshops, resulting in a multi-voice poem. Participants work under his direction, combining their voices into a group voice - a poetic choir, if you will. This is a transformative experience, one of gestalt, where the combined voices create a narrative and a poetic much larger and more inclusive than any of the single voices from which it was born.
The entire experience culminates with an in-house or public performance featuring the participants performing their individual writings as well as the collective voice of the Poem Fusion. In rural communities, in cities, among the elderly, the incarcerated, the disenfranchised, and especially in situations of conflict, Craig facilitates Poem Fusion projects for all age groups and cultures hungry for socially transformative experiences.
Info and Bookings for Poetry Projects
and Poem Fusion Events - Contact:
Email: Kimberly@CraftonCultural.com
Phone: +1 570-702-1787
“Poetry is an experiment in the music of language. It is the rhythm of the human voice that creates the music of language with poetry. We sing back and forth to each other daily with the rising and falling tones of our voices.” ~ Craig Czury
POET-IN-RESIDENCE
For over 40 years, Craig Czury has been teaching poetry and crafting student poetry performances all around the world. A master craftsman at both poetry and education, Czury enlivens the minds and broadens the creative vision of students of all ages - and teachers report that their teaching is more inspired as a result from his time in their classrooms, as well.
Craig has demonstrated unflagging commitment to the transformational value of Poetry in the Classroom. Every time he enters a classroom, he leaves the students (and their teachers) transformed by an unforgettable experience that catalyzes improved learning. What he makes happen in a classroom is so eye-opening and powerful that students, awakened to themselves and their potential, seem to perform better on tests afterward.
Czury teaches them to "see" through writing; To work together peacefully and productively in collaborative effort; To celebrate themselves and life around them. What more could we ask of a teacher? What more could we want of a poet as a cultural worker?
~ Heather Thomas, Ph.D., Kutztown University
FOR SCHOOLS, UNIVERSITIES,
AND COMMUNITY GROUPS
To request Craig for a Residency, email:
craigczury@gmail.com
.
THUMB NOTES ALMANAC
Hitchhiking The Marcellus Shale
An exciting collection of "docu-poems" crafted from a collage of voices gathered while Craig hitchhiked Route 29 in Susquehanna and Wyoming Counties during the height of the Marcellus Shale gas drilling in Pennsylvania.
The result is a fascinating, multi-voice snap-shot album, or almanac, of people and their varied thoughts while living through a dramatic energy play.
"The voices Czury chronicles in his Thumb Notes Almanac are of everyday people trying to navigate through the thunderous noise of this region's divide. From shards of conversation struck up in the cars and trucks of people open enough to pick him up when he had his thumb out, Czury creates a verbal mosaic: fractured pieces of fractured conversations from a hydro-fracked region."
~ Kimberly Crafton, excerpt of Preface
IN PRINT. $15 USD
To order, email craigczury@gmail.com
FootHills Publishing, 2016
87 pages, Paperback
Hand-Stitched Binding
GOD'S SHINY GLASS EYE
Second Edition
From God's Shiny Glass Eye:
Uncovering The Mine Shaft
by accident
we stumbled upon the last breath
and knelt down
our one good ear tight against its lips
and rotting teeth
we could not tell
if it was night or the eclipsing sun
but from somewhere deep within its wound
we heard drums
and a circle of clapping bones closing in
again the wooly mammoth being roused
from its black slumbering dust
crude figures of men with sticks
and mud-sling barrows
illumined the cankerous mouth
IN PRINT. $20 USD
To order, email craigczury@gmail.com
FootHills Publishing, 2016
68 pages, Second Edition Paperback Hand-Stitched Binding
KITCHEN OF
CONFLICT RESOLUTION
From Kitchen of Conflict Resolution:
Between where I live and where I feel alive
the story's already there,
I just have to configure the words.
Rain gutters and storm windows.
I'm sitting here at the open window sweating like (1) a hurricane (2) this iced glass (3) a stop sign. I'm waiting for the click and I don't get it unless I'm alone.
My sister and I can't wait for TV trays in front of the television.
Boston Blackie's pulling a double-cross on a warehouse heist in the radio and it's 1945. I'm not born yet, and the world's all worked up over something I'll never understand my old man yelling at me for.
IN PRINT. $15 USD
To order, email craigczury@gmail.com
FootHills Publishing, 2009
44 pages, Paperback
Hand-Stitched Binding
Out of Print Titles
But We May Have Copies - It Never Hurts to Ask!
Email To Request Copies of the Following Titles:
AMERICAN KNOW-HOW:
Patent Pending
Paper Kite Press, 2016. 48 pages
Paperback, Glossy Cover, Flat Spine
From American Know-How: Patent Pending
write a poem
on the back of a door
lock it from the other side
and knock three times three times
. . . _ _ _ . . .
three short three long three short
it's a mystery of the kabbalah
poems and doors open a deaf ear to morse code
INQUIRE ABOUT AVAILABILITY - Email Craig
IN MY SILENCE TO JUSTIFY
FootHills Publishing, 2003. 72 pages Paperback, Hand-Stitched Binding
From In My Silence To Justify
we're sitting in dark
corners smoking
the middle of the day
sitting in dark corners
talking in low tones
middle of night
in dark corners filled with
our dead
hours into centuries
the dead who are also
tucked away in dark
corners
as if they're thinking
as if they're quietly reading
the situation
as if almost an air of self-satisfaction
walking our women home at night
confident nothing's wrong
our women who're acting uptight
nervously pretending
nothing's wrong
SHADOW ORPHAN SHADOW
Pine Press, 1996. 32 pages
Paperback, Machine-Stitched Binding
From Shadow Orphan Shadow
when I take the leap
will my shadow take the leap
as an act of love
and grow wider on the ground
when I fly to get a better view
Bi-Lingual Edition - Spanish/English
(Spanish version by Roseann DeCandido Kamin & Alicia Partnoy)
EXCEPT
FootHills Publishing, 1990. 58 pages Paperback, Hand-Stitched Binding
From American Know-How: Patent Pending
King Douglas Hotel
Day of rain and caffeine
before sun-up.
A deep bronchial coughing
through the wall -
one of the children.
The woman lifting herself up
out of bed with her voice fed up...
She could have been saying my name,
the way it woke me.
A FINE LINE THAT SCREAMS:
Prison Poetry Anthology
Endless Mountains Review, 1992
Craig Czury, Editor
OBIT HOTEL
Pine Press, 1993. 35 pages,
Paperback, Machine-Stitched Binding
From Obit Hotel
Misery
i have grown
to collect you a long time
burning in a pool of salt
like winter
you rise without your gown
i cup my hand
we drink from the same face
A Small Sampling of Titles In Translation
With Enormous Thanks to The Translators and Editors!
TECHNOLOGIA NORTEAMERICANA: Patente en Tramite
ArbolAnimal Editiones,
Buenos Aires, Argentina. Paperback
No. 4 in the Series: COLECCION el ULTIMO POETA (Collection of the Ultimate Poets)
The series features by 15 premier poets, including Raymond Carver, Charles Butkowski, Dylan Thomas, Sylvia Plath, Bob Dylan, Janice Joplin, Alan Ginsberg, John Lennon and others.
Spanish Translation by Esteban Moore
INQUIRE ABOUT AVAILABILITY - Email Craig
LA COCINA DE RESOLUCÍON DE CONFLICTOS (Version Bilingue)
ArbolAnimal Editiones, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2012. 56 pages, Paperback
From La Cocina de Resolucion de Conflictos
Podria llamar a este pequeno hilo de aire un refugio, un asilo incluso, pero el equipaje para el regreso siempre es mas pesado y siempre casi. Casi puedo acer que conversemos a la hora de la cena.
------------------------------------------------------
I could call this small strand of air a retreat, asylum even, but what's packed for the return is always heavier and always almost. I can almost bring you into conversation at the dinner table.
Bi-Lingual Edition (translated by Esteban Charpentier y Griselda Garcia)
SHADOW/ORPHAN SHADOW
SOMBRA/SOMBRA HUERFANA
(Bi-Lingual Edition)
Pine Press, 1996. 32 pages
Paperback, Machine-Stitched Binding
From Shadow Orphan Shadow
when I take the leap
will my shadow take the leap
as an act of love
and grow wider on the ground
when I fly to get a better view
Bi-Lingual Edition - Spanish/English
(Spanish version by Roseann DeCandido Kamin & Alicia Partnoy)
AMERICAN KNOW-HOW --
IN ATTESA DI BREVETTO
(Patent Pending)
Edizione Empiria, Rome, Italy, 2003
Paperback, Flat Spine
From American Know-How: Patent Pending
American Know-How: #00119
write a poem on the back of a kite
fly it as high as you can
ask a passerby to hold the string
just a minute
you have to go to the bathroom
you'll be right back
never come back.
Bi-Lingual Edition, Italian/English
(Translated into Italian by Riccardo Duranti, illustrated by Dino Patane)
KAM FRIKË TA THEM
(I'M AFRAID TO SAY)
International Literary Manifestation, Tetova, Macedonia, 2006. 30 pages, Paperback
From Ka Frike Ta Them | I'm Afraid To Say:
where did i go when you called my name
into which undertone did i sink
as if hidden in secret or in a dark mist
long ago you asked me a question
now i'm beginning to imagine
and as before you can't find me
PARALLEL´NOYE TECHNIE / PARALLEL RIVERTIME
Petropol Press, St. Petersburg, Russia, 1999. Chapbook, Paperback
Excerpt from book
if it were as simple
as tiny wheels
system of pulleys
to alleviate the weight
each word a galaxy of moons
absorbed in their own light
crucifix of tides
in an election year
at the school board meeting
in those giddy moments of talk
after love
skin would not sound like stone
Bi-Lingual Edition: Russian/English
(translated into Russian by Irina Mashinskaia)
NON PENSARE AI CAMION
Never Mind the Trucks
Crema Italy, 2016
102 pages, Paperback with Tranlator's Notes
Italian Version of Thumb Notes Almanac: Hitchhiking the Marcellus Shale
(Italian version by Aldo Villagrossi)
This is the eagerly anticipated collection of new "docu-poems" crafted from a collage of voices gathered while Craig hitchhiked Route 29 in Susquehanna and Wyoming Counties during the height of the Marcellus Shale gas drilling in the region. The result is a fascinating, multi-voice snap-shot album, or almanac, of people and their varied thoughts while living through a dramatic energy play.
Italian Version by Aldo Villagrossi
Contains translation notes
INQUIRE ABOUT AVAILABILITY - Email Craig
ESTAR EN EL LIMBO
Standing in the Ether
UNAP - Universidad Arturo Prat
Iquique, Chile, 2023. Paperback
A project of UNAP (Universidad Arturo Prat) in Iquique, Chile, during Czury's time as a U.S. Fulbright Scholar to the University. Translated by the students of the English-Spanish-English Translation program Melanie Campos, Valentina Quezada, Paula Guerrero, Lía Muñoz, and Robert Bugueño, the work "Estar en el Limbo" (Standing in the Ether) marks a milestone and opens new perspectives for young people in this career field. A work of over 2 years in the making - see details below.
Faculty Directors of The Project:
Faculty of Human Sciences, Carolina Astudillo and the English–Spanish–English Translation Program, Claudio Vera.
Preface by academician Hernán Pereira.
READ ABOUT THE PROJECT HERE
DNEVNIK BEZ IMENA
Diary Without Names
(Bi-Lingual Edition)
Literature Live, Zagreb, Croatia, 2003
Chapbook, Paperback
From Dnevnik Bez Imena
the dead have no boundaries
no borders
the dead carry no flags
how can the spirit when released
have nationality
what language
does the disembodied soul speak
Bi-Lingual Edition - Croatian/English
Croatian tranlations by Milos Durdevic
INQUIRE ABOUT AVAILABILITY - Email Craig