Meet Zack Kopp | Writer/Editor, Musician, Podcast host

We had the good fortune of connecting with Zack Kopp and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Zack, how do you think about risk?
I grew up wanting to be a writer or a rockstar and expecting it to work somehow. It wasn’t realistic but I’m glad I took that risk. I ghost wrote a few books for Jim Morrison’s brother-in-law after writing an article about Jim possibly faking his death. Paul Krassner and Dan Fante became my pen pals after I wrote to them, may God rest them both. It all started when I co-edited a zine in college and grad school and decided to reach out to people and start interviewing them instead of being too shy or thinking about the likelihood of response to my emails. This led to a freelance writing career for me that lasted about twenty years and now I’ve got a book full of interviews, articles, and reviews I’m promoting. In a very real sense, that zine led to that book. It was all about taking the risk of doing something I wanted to do without weighing the odds before doing it. Life is more exciting when you take chances, and excitement is my favorite thing about life.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I’ve written about twenty books by now. Most of them are published by me under the imprint Camp Elasticity Productions because I’m impatient but there have been three published by others so far, The Denver Beat Scene by History Press/Arcadia Books in 2015, Market Man, by Big table Publishing in 2018, and Rare But Serious, a collection of interviews, articles, and essays was just published by Red Penguin Books in February of 2025. I’m on a podcast tour promoting it right now, after which I might do a tour of a couple of cities in NM and CA, but we’ll see. You might say I’m a living connection to the beats (my conversation with Jami Cassady-Ratto, Neal’s daughter, appears in Rare But Serious) because of my ability to write without thinking (I call it subconscious fiction) but this is more of a coincidence in my opinion considering the difference in our respective motivations and tones overall. It’s all about channeling, and I do admit the influence by precedent. I aspire to be an example of creativity and imagination over practicality and realism. As a historian, I’m interested in the interconnection of disparate elements.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I’m imagining my best friend in this case would be a beautiful film producer with a literary and punk rock angle who’s been affected by my writing and sought me out in the hopes of talking me into writing a screenplay or letting her adapt something into a movie. “Well, I don’t know.” But to be a good host, I’d agree to show her around. 1. Mutiny Information Cafe, co-founded by Jim Norris and Matt MegaC after a foundational cross-country trip in a series of boxcars, recently relocated to 3483 S Broadway in Englewood after meeting and surmounting a few hardships over the years of its existence. They’ve got a lot of great comics on sale and some food to eat and coffee and tea and whatever you like. Maybe there might be a spoken word reading downstairs or they might have a band playing. That would make a good start to the week. “What about bookstores?” “I’ve got you.” I’d take her to 2. Fahrenheit’s Books the next day, its ever-changing collection of exceptional quality curated all these years by Bill Montague. 3. We’d continue down Broadway to ARC and get some new clothes. “You like thrift stores?” She didn’t like it at first but was able to find a pair of clogs and a nice looking blue dress on the cheap. 4. We crossed the street to check on Sue at Gallagher’s Books but she wasn’t in, then we spent a few minutes at Printed Page Books 5. Denver has lots of great restaurants. We’d go to that Indian restaurant on the corner of Louisiana and Lincoln whose name I always forget Grand Tikka Masala I think with the heavy black curtains on the windows 6. There’s a great Mexican place on Santa Fe called Taco de Mexico. 7. There’s another great Mexican place on Colfax at Dayton called La Cueva, and that’s just a few of the places we’d go. Also Wax Trax, Kilgore Books, Lighthouse Writers Workshop, and The Bug Theatre. “Well, all right, I’ll do it,” I finally told her. “You will? That’s great!” “Sure. Thanks for asking.” The more I thought about it, the more I was looking forward to a film adaptation of my obscure masterpiece, Black Toothpaste. Who would play Eddie Blaha’s wife, Wanda Hilton? Vanessa Bayer would be perfect. Who would play Joe Newsheart? That role was was definitely made for Tom Green. But I digress. The greatest Denver bar for fans of Beat history is My Brother’s Bar on 15th and Platte, where Neal Cassady’s stepbrother Paul used to work–go there and you can still get a free photocopy of Neal’s letter to Justin Brierly asking for a loan to pay his bar tab–and for fans of the modern sound, try Sputnik or the Oriental Theater. A lot of great bands have played there, including recently Jeffrey Lewis and the Voltage.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
A lot of people. My mom and dad, All the friends and girlfriends I’ve had over all these years. People I’ve known who’ve passed like Dan Fante, Alan Graham, Paul Krassner, Pat Fish the Jazz Butcher. Survivors like Eddie Shaw from the Monks. Living angel operations like Joy’s Kitchen and the Bug Theatre and Mutiny Information Cafe and Fahrenheit’s Books and the Lion’s Lair and Printed Page Books, all those are in Denver, and all the other writers, musicians, and artists in Denver for keeping creativity going.

Website: https://campelasticity.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/camp_elasticity_productions/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zack-kopp-209229a/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61568371526552

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@campelasticityproductions

Other: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Zack-Kopp/author/B00G3NMZKQ?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1741064013&sr=1-1&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

Image Credits
Zachary Kopp, Zachary Kopp, Zachary Kopp

Public Domain, Eddie Shaw

Alan Graham, Zachary Kopp, Zachary Kopp