writing, editing, researching
Hi, I’m Zac.
Among other things, I used to be: in broadcasting (radio), a baseball scorekeeper, and an academic.
And among other things, I currently am: a stay-at-home dad, an advisor for a film festival
(that I helped co-found), and a freelance writer.
My LinkedIn profile can help connect these dots, if you’re interested… otherwise, feel free to browse through some of my work, below (more available upon request)—and if any of this piques your curiosity, please don’t hesitate to contact me with relevant opportunities.
Thanks!
A Spring Hike in Ohio's Appalachian Foothills,
Midwest Living Magazine
The wildflower education begins at the foot of Spruce Hill, where delicate sun-yellow blooms flourish between the thick, rough-barked roots of an ancient oak. “You see these yellow guys? They’re trout lilies,” John Jaeger says. He’s a field naturalist and guide on the three-day Arc of Appalachia Wildflower Pilgrimage. “These flowers are tenacious. A colony might be decades old, and an individual flower can wait up to seven years [for the right conditions] to bloom...”
Topics
travel//culture
Highlight Clips,
Stadium Journey Magazine
Columbus, Ohio has the reputation of being a football town- and with good reason, given the rabid Ohio State Buckeye fan base. Not to be overlooked is an admirably loyal baseball following. The community has been rewarded in recent years with a pair of Triple-A National Championships, an affiliation with the Cleveland Indians, and a wonderful new home in Huntington Park...
Topics
sports//travel
Republic of Baseball: The Dominican Giants of the American Game,
Journal of Sport History
There is an inherent paradox in the sport-themed documentary. The comparatively few topics considered stimulating enough for airtime on an outlet such as HBO, The History Channel, or PBS are, at the same time, generally limited to an hour: just long enough to attempt some historical context and then breeze through the actual proceedings to allow room at the end for underscoring the event, team, or individual’s social significance...
Topics
film//sports//academia
Three Days in L.A.,
Stadium Journey Magazine
Possibly it’s to treat a case of football overkill, at the end of a long Bowl season and as the NFL playoffs kick into gear. Perhaps there’s a desire to jumpstart focus on the other, often overlooked seasons also in play (the NBA, NCAA basketball, the NHL). Or maybe there’s just a desperate need to escape the winter doldrums. Regardless, arguably the all-around best, and most accessible sports getaway in January, can be found in Los Angeles during the second weekend of the month...
Topics
travel//sports
Jack Johnson's Cinematic KO Deferred,
North American Society for Sport History Annual Conference Presentation
While the boxing game tends to recycle its once-in-one-hundred-years matchups almost as frequently as it does its champions, the Fourth of July, 1910 “Fight of the Century” between Jack Johnson and Jim Jeffries truly was one of a kind. The combatants themselves were polar opposites—with the son of a former slave, and the first black boxer to fight for and win the heavyweight title in one corner; and in the other, a revered, undefeated champion, compelled out of retirement to defend the honor not only of his championship belt, but also of white America as a whole...
Topics
sports//film//academia
Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum review,
Midwest Living Blog
With my 6-month-old boy strapped to my chest in a baby carrier, we head into something I think he’ll enjoy and that I’m confident I will: the recently-opened Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum on the Ohio State University campus in Columbus. This newly-renovated complex now allows the public to experience a vast array of original drawings and related holdings: a collection amassed over many years, but which was predominantly archived in the past as research material...
Topics
culture//travel
