Montag, Tom

Thomas D. Montag (1947- ) is a poet, author, editor and critic. He founded a small publishing company called Monday Morning Press in 1971, and in 1972 co-founded the journal: Margins: A Review of Little Magazines and Small Press Books. Montag also published numerous books of poetry and commentary including Making Hay & Other Poems, 90 Notes, Naming the Creeks, Learning to Read/Again and Concern/s. After moving to Fairwater, Wisconsin in 1976, Montag began publishing the Fox River Patriot, a magazine in newspaper format, and additional works such as Mapping America, Naming the Creeks, The Afflication of Goody Clason and The Sun/Farm Monologues. Between the years 1978 and 2002, Montag worked for the Ripon Community Printers during which time he published Letters Home (Civil War poems), This Gathering Season, and Between Zen and Midwestern. Montag and his wife, Mary, also co-edited and co-published the Wisconsin Poet's Calendar from 1982-1984. From 1992 to the present, Montag's poems have appeared in The Essential Ben Zen, Starting from Home (1994), The Ox of Paradox (1999), and The More I Know (2000), Curlew: Home (2001), Kissing Poetry's Sister (2002), The Sweet Bite of Morning (2003). In 2002, Montag began undertaking a five-year "Vagabond" project, an exhaustive look at the Middle West and at what makes people in the area Middle Western.

Correspondence includes that to and from Carol Berge, Joseph Bruchac, Kirby Congdon, Victor Contosk, Len Fulton, Dick Higgins, John Jacob, John Judson, Richard Kostelanetz, Diane Kruchkow, Rich Mangelsdorff, Paul Mariah, John Martin, Noel Peattie, Robert Peters, Martin J. Rosenblum, A.D. Wians, and Karl Young.