Charles Rammelkamp is Prose Editor for BrickHouse Books in Baltimore, where he lives with his wife, Abby. Rammelkamp is the author of several collections of “historical” or “biographical” poetry sequences, written in dramatic monologue form, including Fusen Bakudan (Time Being Books), about World War Two Japanese balloon bombs and leper colony missionaries in Vietnam; Mata Hari: Eye of the Day (Apprentice House), about the life and career of the World War I femme fatale spy; American Zeitgeist (Apprentice House), which deals with the populist politician and Scopes Trial buffoon, William Jennings Bryan; Catastroika (Apprentice House), another collection of dramatic monologues in the voices of Maria Rasputin, the mad monk’s daughter, who escaped Russia after the Revolution and became a lion tamer for Ringling Brothers, and a fictional Jewish character, Sasha Federmesser, who likewise escapes and immigrates to Baltimore. A chapbook of poems about female sailors in the British Royal Navy from the 17th to the 19th centuries, Jack Tar’s Lady Parts (Main Street Rag Press), is also written in this style.
Rammelkamp’s poetry also includes lyrical and narrative collections, including The Book of Life (March Street Press) and an earlier collection from Kelsay Books, Ugler Lee, as well as several chapbooks—Me and Sal Paradise (FutureCycle Press), Mortal Coil (Clare Songbirds Publishing), and most recently, Sparring Partners (Moonstone Press).
He has also published a novel, The Secretkeepers (Red Hen Press), and a collection of short stories, Castleman in the Academy (March Street Press).
Now retired, he has enjoyed careers that included editorial work and technical writing in a variety of industries and government agencies. He was also on the adjunct English faculty at Essex Community College for ten years.
Charles and Abby are the parents of two daughters, Anna and Zoe, and grandparents of a girl, Paloma, and a boy, Emilio.
Paperback: 156 pages
Publisher: Kelsay Books (April 26, 2022)