Marc Jampole

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.^[1]

Jampole formed Jampole Communications, Inc. in 1989. As principal, Jampole wrote more than 1,800 articles and was a well-known speaker on media-relations and crisis communications. He was frequently quoted in the mass media as a public relations expert.^[2][3][4][5] 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.^[6] At the end of 2016, Jampole sold the operations of Jampole Communications to Pittsburgh-based Wordwrite Communications, where he serves as executive vice president.”^[7]

Jampole also writes for Jewish Currents and served on its editorial board.^[8]

Jampole has published one book of poetry, Music From Words (Bellday Books 2007).^[9] His poems have been published in many poetry journals and anthologies, including The Mississippi Review,^[10] The Evansville Review, The Courtland Review,^[11] Vallum, Cutthroat, Slant Magazine, Illumen, Oxford Magazine, Janus Head,^[12] Only the Sea Keeps (2005 Bayeaux Arts Press),^[13] Wilderness House Literary Review,^[14][15] Ellipsis,^[16] Journey (2009 Eden Waters Press),^[17] and Acapella Zoo,^[18] among others. Four of his poems were nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2008.^[9]

Slant: A Journal of Poetry references Marc Jampole as a poet whose work verges on the experimental or brash.^[19]

Jampole's work is rarely autobiographical.^[1] 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.^[9] He also writes in reaction to world events, such as the 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia.^[20]

In 2021, Jampole published his first novel, The Brothers Silver^[21] with Owl Canyon Press. This debut novel follows a pair of brothers as they navigate personal trauma against the backdrop of America’s changing landscape during the latter half of the 20th century. Unlike Jampole's poetry, The Brother Silvers incorporates autobiographical elements. The novel is told through multiple perspectives and explores themes such as trauma, politics, and Judaism.

Reception of The Brothers Silver was largely positive, with American Book Review describing Jampole’s writing as “robust with poetic prose and intriguing characters living in extreme circumstances that most of us will relate to in our own individual ways.”^[22] The Vassar Review called it “the kind of book you want to talk with someone about after reading."^[23]The Brothers Silver was a finalist in 2022 for the Next Generation Indie Book Award in Fiction.^[24]