About

Camille Martin on The Robert Zend Website:

"Since I started writing about Zend, people have emailed me asking where they can find his work, as many titles are scarce and out-of-print.

"The great news is that most of these are now readily available for purchase on The Robert Zend Website, for as long as inventory lasts. The titles include books such as Daymares, Nicolette, and From Zero to One. And of special note to aficionados of typewriter art and concrete poetry, Zend’s portfolio of sixteen “typescapes” entitled Arbormundi (1982), published by bill bissett’s legendary blewointmentpress, is now available.

"The website is [...] a terrific repository of visual art and audiofiles. In addition, electronic versions of both published and hitherto unpublished materials, including Zend’s magnum opus, Oāb, are available on the site by voluntary donation.

"Soon after I began publishing Robert Zend: Poet without Borders, poet Mark Truscott wrote me to express his support of my project, saying that we need to take better care of our literary forebears. The website that Natalie Zend has created does just that, and helps to ensure that her father’s legacy lives on.

"Please have a look, enjoy his creative effervescence, consider purchasing one or more titles and offering a donation for the free materials, and leave a comment in the guest registry.

"Do you know any Zendophiles-in-waiting? Invite them to check out the website too!"

- Camille Martin, "Announcing...The Robert Zend Website," rogueembryo.com, March 31, 2014

Check out Camille Martin's blog series:

Camille Martin, Robert Zend: Poet without Borders

The story of how The Robert Zend Website came to be

I'm Natalie Zend, Robert's younger daughter. When my father died in 1985, much of his work was not yet published. My mother, Janine, an engineer with her feet firmly planted on the ground, spent the following eight years sorting through the effervescent chaos of our house and turning it into five books and 15 shelf metres of material for the University of Toronto Archives. Then she turned to me and said, "I'm done. The rest is up to you."

A decade went by. By now, his publications were only scantily available, some of them even out of print. But what a different world it was! He would not even have heard of the internet, but it could have been one of his dream-creations. Nothing in his lifetime would have allowed unfettered global distribution of his work the way the web would twenty years later. He was uncommonly versatile and multi-media in his creativity--not just poems and stories, but sound poetry, piano compositions, concrete poetry, typescapes, collage, and photography. A printed book could hardly do him justice. But with the web, all of it could now be published on a single website, and instantly shared throughout the net. The dream of a Robert Zend Website was born.

But my life took me in other directions and another decade went by. Then in 2013 onto the scene strode Camille Martin, an American-Canadian poet and collage artist. A long-time neighbour of ours loaned her Daymares, and she was hooked on Zend. She spent hours with his work in the archive Fonds at U of T, wrote an entry on him for the Canadian Encyclopedia, gave presentations on the cosmic and cosmopolitan nature of his work at universities in the US and Canada, and wrote a wide-ranging blog series on his life and work. Her enthusiasm reignited mine. Simultaneously, I discovered Weebly, which allows me a direct, unmediated hand in drawing together a website to share his material. And scanning and optical character recognition has vastly dropped in cost and risen in quality since I had last checked.

The result is this website. It is my way of communing with my father as he lives through his work and through me.

Help us share more of Zend's work.

Keeping this site posted on the web costs us $110/year in domain name and web hosting fees. We've also invested in OCR software for another $110, and scanning services at $650. Not to mention the many hours of loving labour. And there's so much more still to share here! In particular, we're looking at how to republish Oāb and Beyond Labels, which are out of print. If you've been inspired and entertained by Zend's work, would you please consider helping us at least defray our costs? We would be truly grateful for your contribution.

Deep gratitude to...

Janine Zend, Camille Martin, and Ibi Gabori (August 2014)

Janine Zend, my mother, for permission and encouragement to share Zend's work, management of book storage and shipping, access to her personal collection, and the countless other ways in which she supports this endeavour with her characteristic efficiency and competence. This is truly our collaboration.

Ibi Gabori, my father's first wife and mother of my only sister, Aniko, for her help in writing Camille's remarkable biography of Robert Zend.

Camille Martin, for the inspiration I needed to relaunch this project, for her insight into Zend's work, for finding such apt words with which to present it to the world, and for digitizing a number of the pieces published here.

Brian Wyatt, for the reproduction of Robert Zend's signature that forms the website banner.

Sari Anabtawi of SABA Imaging Solutions for scanning all of Zend's published works.

Patricia Kambitsch, Robert Zend, Natalie Zend, Kambitsch, Zend

I was so touched by the original photograph of Natalie [above] and her father and of Natalie’s poem “Apukám” [below]. The portraits show what I feel when I witness love and deep connection that continues to grow beyond time and place and even death.
- Patricia Kambitsch, interdisciplinary artist and author of a memoir about how her father's untimely death spurred a lifetime of storytelling.

"Apukám," (Hungarian for "my daddy")
by Natalie Zend

Natalie, portrayed as a Zend creation
by Robert Zend