“This book explores the joys of newfound love in old age, the miraculous blossoming that can occur when two lovers find each other after a lifetime of searching…The crystalline poems in The Kama Sutra for Senior Citizens are shot through with a gentle melancholy leavened by wit and eros.”
— Alison Luterman, Catamaran Poetry Prize Winner
“I love this book for its reassuring frankness, subtlety, and genial intelligence.… a mind so inventive, so alive to possibility, always at the heart of loving and delight… This book isn’t just for seniors, it’s for anyone who wants to feel what it is to be fully alive.”
— Tess Gallagher, Author of Midnight Lantern: New and Selected Poems
“These poems come to grips with the melancholy of aging set against the backdrop of love and sex, community and loneliness, laughter and tears.”
— Joseph Millar, Guggenheim and NEA Fellowship Recipient
What does love look like in life’s later chapters? In this tender, mischievous new collection of poetry, Zack Rogow answers with the hard-won wisdom of a man newly single in his senior years.
“After being with the same person for over three decades, I found my life upside down, dating again after the age of 65,” says Rogow, a teacher, playwright, poet, and translator. “I went on over 75 first dates and tried every-which-way to meet someone that I could feel a loving connection with. Luckily, I did, but it was not easy.” Rogow adds: “I didn’t succeed in finding a long-term partner by dating online. I finally met my current partner through our mutual interest in French literature. In an interview, he will share the following:
How he survived 75 first-time dates until he found a second chance at deep intimacy
The challenges and rewards of aging
What he discovered on the singles scene after not dating for 35 years
Why the three-time Pushcart Prize for Poetry nominee writes about love
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Zack Rogow is the author, editor or translator of more than 20 books and plays. Nominated three times for the Pushcart Prize for Poetry, his previous nine collections of poetry include Irreverent Litanies, Talking with the Radio: poems inspired by jazz and popular music, and The Number Before Infinity. His memoir, Hugging My Father’s Ghost, was released in 2024. Zack’s co-authored play, Colette Uncensored, had its first staged reading at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, and later ran in London, Indonesia, Catalonia, San Francisco, and Portland. His blog, Advice for Writers, features more than 300 posts. He has received the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Prize, the Northern California Book Reviewers Award in Translation, and the Celestine Award for Poetry. He also edited the anthology The Face of Poetry (University of California Press).
Additional career highlights include:
Bay Area Book Reviewers Association Award for translation of Horace by George Sand
Lili Fabilli-Eric Hoffer Essay Prize, UC Berkeley
Co-authored play Colette Uncensored, nominated for outstanding solo show by Theatre Bay Area, and co-authored play Groucho for President selected for JETFest, festival of new plays; staged reading
Taught at University of Anchorage and California College of the Arts
Contributing editor for Catamaran Literary Reader
Served as managing director of The Poetry Center at San Francisco State University
Wrote lyrics for several jazz songs, one of which was recorded by the chanteuse Carrie Wicks. Listen here: https://originarts.com/oa2/recordings/recording.php?TitleID=22175
His dad, Lee Rogow, was a widely published writer and man-about-town in Manhattan in the 1950s, before dying tragically in an airplane crash when he was three years old. Zack writes about this in his memoir, Hugging My Father’s Ghost.
Rogow earned his Master of Arts in English from City College and BA in English from Yale University, graduating Cum Laude. He resides in Northern California. For more information, visit www.zackrogow.com.
Social Media:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/zackrogow
X: @ZackRogow
Bluesky: Zackrogow.bsky.social
His blog is here: https://zackrogow.blogspot.com/
