Marc Jampole

Marc Jampole (born July 24, 1950) is an American poet, public relations executive, former television news reporter and political blogger.

Marc Jampole was born in New York City and graduated high school at age 16. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee summa cum laude and received the outstanding student scholarship. Jampole then received a Master of Arts from the University of Washington and conducted independent research at the University of Berlin, Germany on a Fulbright Fellowship.

In the 1970s, Jampole taught French and German language and literature and filmmaking at the University of Washington. He also made several avant-garde films that were shown at a number of independent film festivals.

Jampole began his career as a television news reporter in San Francisco. His coverage of the 1980 presidential election at KRON-TV, the San Francisco NBC affiliate, was nominated for an Emmy. He was also a writer for KGO-TV and KTVU-TV in the San Francisco Bay Area.

From 1981-1982, Jampole was a reporter for Business Today, the first nationally syndicated daily business news program for KSTS-TV. During his time working for Business Today, Jampole was the first reporter in the mass media to report on the impact on American society of the graying of the baby boom generation and the shrinking middle class.

In 1982, Jampole transitioned to working in public relations when he moved to Pittsburgh, where he worked as vice-president for the Pittsburgh offices of Burson-Marsteller and Ketchum Communications.

Jampole formed Jampole Communications, Inc. in 1989. As principal, Jampole has written more than 1,800 articles, is a well-known speaker on matters of media-relations and crisis communications, and is frequently quoted in the mass media as a public relations expert. Jampole also developed communications plans for more than 100 crises and handled three of the largest Chapter 11 bankruptcies in American history - the bankruptcy of Allegheny International and two Penn Traffic Company bankruptcies. At the end of 2016, Jampole sold the operations of Jampole Communications to Pittsburgh-based Wordwrite Communcations, where he serves as executive vice president.”

Jampole also writes for Jewish Currents and serves on its editorial board.

Jampole has published one book of poetry, Music From Words (Bellday Books 2007). His poems have been published in many poetry journals and anthologies, including The Mississippi Review'', The Evansville Review, The Courtland Review, Vallum, Cutthroat, Slant Magazine, Illumen, Oxford Magazine, Janus Head, Only the Sea Keeps (2005 Bayeaux Arts Press), Wilderness House Literary Review, Ellipsis, Journey (2009 Eden Waters Press), and Acapella Zoo, among others. Four of his poems were nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2008.

About Jampole's style, critics said:

"Like the music of an opera, Music from Words poetic words have an intensity which evokes emotions and feelings from the reader. . .His syntax, use of enjambment, and language all flow together in almost a musical way, as if John Cage wrote the piece, because technically there is no music heard out loud, or is there? Jampole's style of writing triggers either powerful enjoyment or severe sadness and disillusionment, even fear and anger." - Pam Rosenblatt, Wilderness House Literary Review.

“The poems not only replicate musical forms, they also appear as abstract landscapes, Cezanne in verse, depths and perspective presented simultaneously, so that we experience a kaleidoscope of images, voices, music, all at once. Jampole is a composer of poems, and Music from Words is a premiere score in five movements, ringing out in seemingly disparate musical styles that speak to us about what matters most.” - Janlori Goldman, Jewish Currents.

"The poems are densely cerebral, the product of extensive reading, and language-crammed. There are echoes of Hopkins' mouth-filling sprung rhythm, Stevens' vibrant wordplay and Pound's obsurantist intertextuality." - Adam Sobsey, Indy Week.

"Here is a poet of tremendous range, whose subjects occupy the span between Audubon's bird paintings and a suffocated Moses in the suburbs…Jampole's poems really sing, remarkably in a diverse chorus of registers, often with affection and humor." – Janlori Goldman, Jewish Currents.

Slant: A Journal Of Poetry references Marc Jampole as a poet whose work verges on the experimental or brash. Jampole's work is rarely autobiographical. The narrators in his poems are sometimes famous people, biblical or historical figures and sometimes ordinary people at a point of epiphany or anagnorisis. In one poem, a real-estate agent who thinks he's Moses sees the burning bush in an upscale suburb. In others, Gilgamesh gets caught in a traffic jam, Blaise Pascal faces a crisis of faith and faith in reason, a former whiz kid disassociates into psychosis and Hugo Ball, one of the founders of the Dada movement, sells his wife to soldiers. He also writes in reaction to world events, such as the 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia.

Jampole is the author of the OpEdge blog, which "takes on the weird and harmful myths advertisers, media and right-wingers try to sell us." Jampole's leftist views and outspoken criticism of mass media and culture in his controversial blog has drawn the attention of both liberal and conservative critics and supporters.

OpEdge articles are also published by Jewish Currents and The Progressive Populist and Vox Populi. He has also appeared on National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered” talking about topics he developed for OpEdge.

• Fulbright Fellowship - 1976-1977
• The Silver Anvil - 1987
• Financial World's Annual Report Award - 1993

Nominations

• The Pushcart Prize - 1989 and 2008

Books

• Music from Words (Bellday Books 2007)

Anthologies

• The Great American Wise Ass Poetry Anthology (2016)
• And Love (Jacar Press 2012)
• Fusion of Form (2009)
• Bagel Bards IV (2009) and V (2010)
• Natural Language (Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh 2010)
• Journey (Eden Waters Press 2009)
• A Poet's Haggadah (Ain't Got No Press 2008)
• Along These Rivers (Quadrant Publishing 2008)
• Only the Sea Keeps (Bayeaux Arts 2005)

Literary Publications

• 580 Split
• Acapella Zoo
• Big City Lit
• China Grove
• Cortland Review
• Curbside Review
• Cutthroat
• Ellipsis
• Illumen
• Janus Head
• Jewish Currents
• Main Street Rag
• Miracle
• Mississippi Review
• Orphic Lute
• Oxford Magazine
• Paper Street
• Peralta Press
• Pittsburgh Poetry Review
• Pittsburgh Quarterly
• Rat’s Ass Review
• Recours au Poéme
• Rune
• Sin Fronteras
• Slant: A Journal of Poetry
• The Evansville Review
• Vallum
• White Pelican Review
• Wilderness House Review
• Yawp!

Films

• Landscapes of Desire - 2012
• The Judgment of Paris - 1978
• Preludes - 1976
• Tinbad - 1974