Nolan Zavoral • Heretic Hotel

The Heretic Hotel, by Nolan Zavoral is a wonderful collection of first poems with amazing range. The book includes poems of memory, poems of family, poems of political unrest — many reaching back to people, places, and events that shaped the lives of Baby Boomers. In these, Nolan offers a history clearly distilled and articulated through image. The pieces in th is collection are funny, tough, and sometimes heartbreaking. All are presented with the deftness of a writer with 30 years of journalism experience — decades of noticing the little details that give language meaning.

About Nolan

As a staff writer for USA Today, The Milwaukee Journal, and
The Minneapolis Star Tribune, Nolan Zavoral has won numerous state and national journalism awards. He is the author of
“A Season on the Mat: Dan Gable and the Pursuit of Perfection," published by Simon & Schuster (1998). Since retiring from
journalism Nolan has focused on poetry and fiction writing. In 2009 he earned an M.F.A. degree in children’s and young adult
literature from Hamline University in St. Paul.

One Day

One day newspapers will banner

“World Disarmament Begins.”

Sea turtles will multiply furiously,

waddle inland, defecate on Craford, Tex.

Cars will run on crushed cell phones.

We will learn to talk intelligently

to animals—they’ve waited for so long.

Especially cats.

From The Heretic Hotel, by Nolan Zavoral

Nolan on Writing Poetry

The poem leads me into it. If I’m watchful and respectful, it carries me away, and sets me down changed.

From The Double Meaning of Yield: Laurel Poets on Writing Poetry