Ohio Poet(s) of the Year

On Ohio Poetry Day, Terry Hermsen and Stephen Haven will be named the (co) Ohio Poet of the Year*.

Congrats to them both!

Stephen Haven will be reading at the Ohio Poetry Day celebration at Mount Union College in Alliance, on October 17.

Stephen Haven, a professor at Ashland University, was chosen for his book Dust and Bread. (For a review, and some sample poems, look here). He is also the author of one earlier collection of poems, The Long Silence of the Mohawk Carpet Smokestacks, and of a memoir, The River Lock: One Boy’s Life along the Mohawk**.

Terry Hermsen, on the other hand, won't be at the Ohio Poetry day celebration-- but he's got a good excuse: he is currently doing a poetry residence in Chile! Hermsen was chosen for his book The River's Daughter, from Bottom Dog Press. Hermsen lives in Delaware, and teaches at Otterbein College. He is the author of several previous books of, and about, poetry.

• find Dust and Bread by Stephen Haven at Mac's Backs (along with other books by Steven Haven)
• find The River's Daughter by Terry Hermsen from Bottom Dog Press, or at your local independent bookseller
  

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* This is the fifth time in the last 30 years that the poet of the year award is split between two Ohio poets.
**A review of The River Lock: One Boy’s Life along the Mohawk, from Contrary Magaine, can be found here.