Saying Farewell to Karl Pohrt

By: Meredith Kahn | Date: July 19, 2013
Saying Farewell to Karl Pohrt

NB: This remembrance of our friend and colleague Karl Pohrt was written by Aaron McCollough, Director of Editorial for the University of Michigan Press.

In one of his final posts on his personal blog, Karl Pohrt signed off with these lines from a Navajo prayer: “It is finished in beauty, it is finished in beauty.” Less than a month later, on July 12, 2013, Karl passed away in his Ann Arbor home from thyroid cancer. Most well known as the founder and owner of the Shaman Drum Bookshop, located in downtown Ann Arbor, Karl is also remembered by many as a local community leader, an avid reader, and an influential and kind mentor.

Karl will be missed by an enormous community of readers, writers, scholars, and publishers. We here at Michigan Publishing are squarely in that number, as Karl was always a great friend to the University of Michigan Press, eager to stock our books on the Shaman Drum shelves even as the traditional market for academic books was declining. He was an inspiration and a guide. A beacon of hospitality and insight. We mourn his passing.