By Molly Snyder Senior Writer Published Jul 04, 2004 at 5:10 AM

Last year OMC told you about former Milwaukeean Jen Benka's new book called "A Revisioning of the Preamble to the United States Constitution." Benka, who is managing director of Poets & Writers magazine in New York City, recently found out Soft Skull Press will publish her collection.

Soft Skull is an independent, alternative press based in Brooklyn. They published Michael Stipe's "The Haiku Year," and a collection of poems by Milwaukee's original poet laureate, Antler. Their books have been regularly receiving attention in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and Publishers Weekly.

Benka's book is a collection of 52 poems, one for each word in the preamble, in an effort to "examine, expose and rewrite the document one word at a time." It was inspired by a class assignment given by Milwaukee artist and writer Nicholas Frank during a Woodland Pattern writing workshop about five years ago.

"When Nick gave the assignment, I began thinking about ways in which I could work with the Constitution ... Eventually, I became interested in applying a kind of investigative poetry to uncover the underside of the words that comprise the preamble," says Benka, 36.

The new manuscript has been revised since The Brooklyn Artists Alliance published it as an artist book in March. The book was acquired by special collections departments at libraries and museums including Swarthmore, Wellesley, Wesleyan, the University of Washington, Long Island University, Louisiana State University, Boston Public Library, the Brooklyn Museum and the Klingspor Museum in Germany.

The Soft Skull version will contain many new versions of the poems, and Benka thinks the book will be re-named "to make it a little less of a mouthful."


Molly Snyder started writing and publishing her work at the age 10, when her community newspaper printed her poem, "The Unicorn.” Since then, she's expanded beyond the subject of mythical creatures and written in many different mediums but, nearest and dearest to her heart, thousands of articles for OnMilwaukee.

Molly is a regular contributor to FOX6 News and numerous radio stations as well as the co-host of "Dandelions: A Podcast For Women.” She's received five Milwaukee Press Club Awards, served as the Pfister Narrator and is the Wisconsin State Fair’s Celebrity Cream Puff Eating Champion of 2019.