Some background and credentials:
Thinking freely, operating independently and inquiring openly, Jeffrey Zygmont writes to stimulate his readers’ minds, while also entertaining them. One-quarter of the way into the 21st Century, Jeff has published 18 books.
He packages his poetry in books that also include large-format Nature photographs, making them art books and gift books that aim to attract people who don’t ordinarily read poetry. They expose a large general audience to Jeff’s poems, from his belief that poetry should enrich and entertain a wide cross-section of people and serve the entire population.
“I write poetry that elevates common experience, that strives to remind us all of the beauty and magnificence that surrounds us and infuses our ordinary activities,” Jeff says. “I write it in forms and language that can be understood by and will appeal to very many people, not just to literary specialists.”
While his poetry books — White Mountain Poems, More White Mountain Poems, Celebrating New England Wildlife, and others — illuminate the beauty and mystery of common experiences, Jeff’s three novels that are currently available — I am Bill Gates’Dog, The Dropout, and Ad Man in the Games of 2046 — tell about independent people in conflict with collected groups and their constraining beliefs.
The children’s books, now eight in number, came very recently. After Jeff formed a regionally focused publishing company, stores and shops throughout New England asked him for children’s books with regional flavor and flair. When writing the stories, Jeff discovered that he could reach young people by adapting the same artistic literary principles he had acquired over nearly four decades of writing for adults.
“To reach kids,” he explained, “I simplify vocabulary, and I create straightforward sentences. But I remain just as careful about the rhythm and content of those sentences, and I choose words with the same concern for sound, syllables and meaning. I construct the story with the same concern for plot and movement, and with the same aim of involving and engaging readers, that I apply to adult stories.”
While venturing toward today, Jeff published short fiction in the anthology The Literature of Work, and in periodicals ranging from New Hampshire Journal to the magazine Twin Cities Business Monthly. The pioneering web publisher Online Originals named Jeff’s novel The Dropout its “Featured Selection” in July 2002. His poetry appeared in the journal Not Just Air, and two of his poems received nominations for the annual Pushcart Prize, a respected literary award. As a journalist, he published articles in many, varied magazines and newspapers, including Boston Magazine, Boston Woman, Business Week, CFO Magazine, The Christian Science Monitor, Cigar Aficionado, Gannett Newspapers, Inc Magazine, The Boston Globe Sunday Magazine, and Robb Report. He was the automobile columnist for Omni Magazine, a technology columnist for PC Computing Magazine, and an editor and staff writer for High Technology Magazine. The publisher Perseus Books produced his non-fiction books Microchip; An Idea, Its Genesis and the Revolution It Created, and The VC Way; Investment Secrets from the Wizards of Venture Capital, which was translated into Chinese for sale in that market. Also, The VC Way was listed as the “top most checked book” in the general business collection of the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, England, as announced by the university in August 2023.
Currently Jeff Zygmont is writing poetry and fiction that focus on his home region of New England. His work supports his publishing company, Free People Publishing, which strives to produce enduring works of literature that capture the New England experience. Jeff is the publisher, primary editor, and a principal author at Free People Publishing.