ZU Arts InitiativeZU Arts InitiativeTwelve poets. Twelve months. One poem on your wall every month, from a regional voice who got paid to put it there. Subscriptions are open now.
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Thirty poets applied. These twelve were selected by ZAI shareholders and musician members. Twelve rural voices from Southwest Colorado. Their work will be on walls across the country starting this summer.
Angela Rae Clark is a writer, speaker, community builder and activist in Montezuma County.
Born and raised in Cortez, Colorado. Inspired by everything, and often accused of feeling too much. His poems are raw, personal, and rooted in this place.
Cristy Jenkins is a poet with a BA in English Literature and Language. She received the Arizona State Poetry Award in 2009 and has published several poems. Inspired by the Colorado landscape and high desert, her work is visceral and deeply rooted in nature.
Dante Downey is a multidisciplinary artist whose work has been published in WET and FERTILE, anthologies of water poems and prose from the Four Corners region. His writing navigates self-destruction, addiction, memory, and grief, with moments of tenderness woven throughout.
Emily Tripp Manning is a recovering engineer who lives at the foot of the San Juan Mountains in Colorado. She spends as much time as possible outdoors, preferably skiing or hiking. Her poetry is included in Volume 1 of the anthology Four Corners Voices.
Geneva Toland is a writer, songleader, naturalist and educator living in the juniper-pinon pine foothills of the La Plata mountains. Her debut poetry collection, Council of Thunder, winner of Wayfarer Books' Homebound Poetry Prize, will be available in October 2026. She is a poetry editor at Terrain Magazine and received her MFA in Poetry from the Institute of American Indian Arts.
Mother first, always, by instinct and by choice. Singer because music finds her where words fall short, and still, she writes so nothing she has survived slips quietly away. Born in the mountains, raised by the water. She belongs to both.
Kevin Jones is an archaeologist and writer who lives off grid in southwestern Colorado. He served as Utah State Archaeologist for seventeen years. His novel A Quick Trip to Moab was a finalist for the 2023 Colorado Book Award in General Fiction.
Kirbie Bennett is a Dine poet and journalist whose work has appeared in High Country News, Chapter House Journal, and Four Corners Voices. His writing is rooted in landscape, identity, and the stories that live between.
M Waldron is a spoken word artist, slam poet, and performer based in Cortez, Colorado. Her work is politically engaged, viscerally honest, and built for an audience.
Perritt is a poet and writer based in Montezuma County whose work is quiet, precise, and deeply attentive to the natural world.
Born in St. Lucia, Sabina found her voice early through writing. As an introvert, words became her bridge to the world, a way to capture emotions, question experiences, and make sense of life's complexities.
Your frame ships first so it is ready and waiting. Your first broadside follows, and a new poem arrives every month for the full year. At the end of the year you will have twelve original works from twelve regional poets, framed and lived with.
You are also invited to each monthly reading at ZU Gallery, free and open to anyone who wants to be there.
Your frame ships first, then your first broadside follows. Cancel anytime.
Subscribe MonthlySave $30 compared to monthly. Your frame ships first, then broadsides follow monthly. Helps us plan the full year.
Subscribe AnnuallyBack issues available at $20 each. Email us to order.
A broadside is one of the oldest forms of printed communication. Before newspapers existed, printers would print a single poem on a single sheet and post it on walls for everyone to read. The Declaration of Independence was first published as a broadside. It is not a poster. A poster is printed in bulk, designed to be decorative, and owned by thousands of people. A broadside is a single work of literature. One poem. One poet. The text is the art. That is what arrives at your door every month. Each broadside comes from a poet rooted in Southwest Colorado, selected by the ZAI community, and paid for their work. You are not buying decor. You are acquiring a piece of literary history from someone who wrote it here, in this place, right now.
Your reusable frame ships first so it is ready before your first broadside arrives. Each month a new poem slides right in. Display your favorites alongside each other or swap freely throughout the year.
One poem per month from one of twelve regional poets. Each broadside is designed to be displayed, not filed away. At the end of the year you will have twelve original works from twelve different voices, all from Southwest Colorado.
Each featured poet reads their work during their assigned month at ZU Gallery or another regional venue. Free and open to anyone who wants to be there. Your subscription is your standing invitation.
One poet. One month. One poem printed as a broadside, placed in a reusable frame, and mailed to subscribers anywhere in the United States.
Thirty poets submitted their work for twelve spots in the inaugural cohort. ZAI shareholders and musician members read every application and selected the final twelve.
The twelve selected poets gather inside ZU Gallery before the year begins. They read each other's work and help one another choose the right poem for the right month. Every poet also receives a professional portrait session that day.
Each month one poet is featured. Their poem is printed as a broadside, placed in a reusable frame, and mailed to subscribers anywhere in the country. Swap in a new poem every month. Build a collection over the year.
During their featured month each poet reads at ZU Gallery or another regional venue. Free and open to anyone who wants to be there. The name comes from where it happens. On the patio, on a warm summer evening, in Cortez.
Every featured poet is paid. A flat fee plus an equal share of the annual royalty pool, split twelve ways at year end. We publish the numbers because poets deserve to know what their work is worth.
Every featured poet receives a guaranteed flat fee upon submission of their chosen poem, paid regardless of subscriber count.
Your share of the annual royalty pool at our starting goal. The pool is split equally twelve ways at year end.
The pool grows as the program grows. More subscribers means more money in poets' hands.
Every selected poet receives a full year subscription at no cost. Your frame ships first, then twelve broadsides mailed monthly.
Every poet receives a professional portrait session on cohort meeting day. Yours to keep and use however you like.
Support the poets and the program. Every dollar goes directly toward fair artist compensation.
Pay a full year subscription on behalf of a school, library, senior center, or community member. Your name appears in ZAI communications as a program supporter.
Sponsor a SubscriberSponsor a featured month. Your name appears as a small acknowledgment on that month's broadside. Twelve available per year.
Sponsor a PoetIncludes the full subscription plus named acknowledgment on every broadside printed that year. Limited to twelve. A seat at the table from the very beginning.
Become a Founding PatronA full year subscription for someone else, shipped with a card explaining what is coming. An extraordinary gift for anyone who believes poetry belongs in a home.
Gift a SubscriptionThe 2026 cohort has been selected. Applications for the 2027 program year will open in spring 2027. Join the ZAI newsletter to be notified when they do.