Jim Lang Book Club at Cleveland Clinic

		Lerner Research Institute   Jim Lang Book Club Local Author Series
	Please join us to hear Dr. Bilgere read Jim Lang's poems in celebration of the inaugural Jim Lang Book Club, a series that will feature local authors. Dr. Bilgere has published seven poetry collections, and his poems have also appeared in many distinguished journals and several anthologies. His collections and individual poems are award-winning, garnering the Devins Award for Poetry, the May Swenson Poetry Award, the Midland Authors Award, and a Pushcart Prize, among others. In 1991 he was a Fulbright Scholar in Spain, and he was later named a Witter Bynner Fellow, a prestigious honor bestowed in conjunction with the Library of Congress. Dr. Bilgere was awarded the Cleveland Arts Prize for Literature in 2003 and received a Creative Workforce Fellowship from Cleveland's Community Partnership for Arts and Culture in 2014. The National Endowment for the Arts and the Ohio Arts Council have also recognized and supported Dr. Bilgere. In addition to teaching at John Carroll University and writing, he hosts a popular weekly WJCU radio program, Wordplay, that explores the craft of poetry and celebrates the spoken word.
	Jim Lang passed away in 2017, but his presence is still felt by those who knew him during his more than 25 years as the LRI Photographic Services Core Director. Jim was much more than our resident photographer – he was a friend, poet, artist, philosopher, potter, scholar, and above all, a true humanitarian. He had the unique ability to light up any space with his love of life and literature. He willingly shared his knowledge on a wide variety of topics and his expertise in many areas, and he instilled in us a deep appreciation for all that enriches our lives beyond our chosen professions and everyday responsibilities. Jim organized poetry slams in his early days and book clubs most recently, so we will continue the book club in his honor.
Hosted by Vince Tuohy, PhD and Justin Johnson, Dept. of Inflammation and Immunity
Monday, April 1   3:00 pm    LRI Commons
Light refreshments will be provided. Cleveland Clinic - Lerner Research Institute 9620 Carnegie Avenue (N building) Cleveland, Ohio 44106

Poetry for People Who Hate Poetry- continued

Back in November, I linked to Ohio Poet Laureate Dave Lucas's series "Poetry for People Who Hate Poetry".  Since then, he's continued on, with four new installments:

• Poetry for People Who Hate Poetry, No. 4
• Poetry for People Who Hate Poetry, No. 5
• Poetry for People Who Hate Poetry, No. 6
• Poetry for People Who Hate Poetry, No. 7

Alternate source: Arts Ohio Blog

Words On Fire: A Remembrance of the Cuyahoga River Fire, 1969

For the third consecutive year, Literary Cleveland will host a free staged reading of original work by Cleveland writers at the Cleveland Humanities Festival

This year's performance, titled “Words On Fire: A Remembrance of the Cuyahoga River Fire, 1969,” will be held Saturday, March 16 and Sunday March 17 at 7pm in Cleveland State University's Student Center Ballroom (2121 Euclid Ave, Cleveland), in partnership with the Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities at Case Western Reserve University. 

And, check out an interview with the show's director, Chennelle Bryant-Harris on the lit Cleveland blog.

• Words On Fire: A Remembrance of the Cuyahoga River Fire, 1969
• Cleveland Humanities festival

Cuyahoga River Fire Nov. 3, 1952. Courtesy of Cleveland Press Collection at Cleveland State University Library

Celebrate Indy Bookstores!

• Cleveland.com celebrates Cleveland's wonderful independent bookstores!

Loganberry Books - Photo by Stu Spivack

Mac's Backs - Photo by GL

Appletree Books - photo by Lute Q.

... and the Cleveland Scene also celebrates https://photos.clevescene.com/where-to-find-the-best-independent-bookstores-in-cleveland/!

Ohio Haiku Anthology Call for Submissions

Ohio Haiku Anthology Call for Submissions

The Ohio Haiku Anthology is an anthology celebrating contemporary English Language Haiku haiku written by Ohio poets, past and present.

The closing date for entries is March 31, 2019. Poets selected will be announced by June 30, 2019.

Poets selected for the anthology will be paid one copy of the anthology.

Your work

Your submission should comprise of 5-10 haiku and senryu. We are specifically looking for poems that follow the contemporary English Language Haiku format as described by The Haiku Society of America.  (http://www.hsa-haiku.org/archives/HSA_Definitions_2004.html)  While we will not reject poems that are 5-7-5 outright, they must follow the other HSA guidelines for haiku.

We are primarily looking for poems that have been previously published by leading haiku journals and presses. After each poem, please indicate the publication name and date. While we will not reject unpublished poems outright, the emphasis for this anthology is on previously published work.

Your submission should be in English and must be entirely your own work. You must have reprint rights for your poems. By submitting your poems, you are agreeing that you have reprint rights.

Your name and e-mail address should appear on the top of your submission. A cover sheet should include your name, address, email address, and your relationship to Ohio. If you are currently living in Ohio, please let us know where. If you are a past resident of Ohio, please let us know when and where you lived in Ohio.

Where to send your entry

Entries must be sent by email.

Email entries should be sent to CuttlefishPoetryBooks@gmail.com. Electronic manuscripts and cover sheets should be sent as MS Word or PDF files attached to the email.

Rights

Copyright remains with the authors. For previously published poems, Cuttlefish Books will seek Anthology Reprint Rights for the purposes of this anthology. For unpublished poems, Cuttlefish Books will seek Anthology Rights.

Russell Vidrick comes to Mr. Smith's Coffeehouse

We are pleased to host Russell Vidrick as our featured writer for the March 16th Reading at Mr. Smith's Coffeehouse in Sandusky....Sponsored by the Firelands Writing Center and Bottom Dog Press. Come on out and enjoy the lake and the beauty of Sandusky in the winter....Russell will warm you as will the good drinks at Mr. Smith's...Open mic to follow....2 - 3:30 pm

Daniel Thompson: One Tough Poet

Documentary - Daniel Thompson: One Tough Poet (2019)

Daniel Thompson at Cafe Noir, 2003
foto © Steven B. Smith, agentofchaos.com

This new film, directed by Jim Wolpaw, is the culmination of a twelve-year effort to document the life of a cultural hero. Daniel Thompson was a fearless poet and social activist. In 1992, he was proclaimed the first poet laureate of Cuyahoga County. The resolution states, “Daniel Thompson has distinguished himself as one of Cuyahoga County’s most colorful, talented and concerned citizens.” Well-known for his humorous, playful and poignant work, Thompson’s legacy lives on in the Northeast Ohio poetry community. 

Two showings:

Tuesday, March 26, 2019 at 7 p.m.

Cleveland Heights-University Heights Public Library

2345 Lee Road
Cleveland Heights, OH 44118
(216) 932-3600

Wednesday, March 27, 2019 at 6:30 p.m.

Lakewood Public Library

Main Library Auditorium

15425 Detroit Avenue

Lakewood, Ohio 44107

(216) 226-8275

South Euclid Poet Laureate to launch Second Sunday Poets open mic

[From John Burroughs:]

My next reading is March 10th at 3 p.m., where I'll have the honor of being the first featured poet for a new monthly series curated by M. A. "Doc" Janning, Poet Laureate of South Euclid, OH, at the Cuyahoga County Public Library's South Euclid-Lyndhurst branch. I hope you'll join me in supporting Doc in this new endeavor and bring something to share at the open mic.

William N. Skirball Writers' Center
Cuyahoga County Public Library
1876 South Green Road

South Euclid, Ohio 44121

Coming Up at the Lakewood Public Library

This spring Lakewood Public Library and Wick Poetry Center will be presenting an interactive poetry exhibit with a plethora of supporting programs focusing on poetry and the immigrant experience. Here are a few highlights:

Exhibit ─ Traveling Stanzas: Immigrant Voices

Presented by The Wick Poetry Center at Kent State University

Main Library Second Floor Gallery  

Lakewood Public Library and Wick Poetry Center present Traveling Stanzas: Immigrant Voices, an interactive exhibit including creative writing tools and activities. Acknowledging the unique experiences of immigrants in our community, this public display engages a dialogue through the intimate and inclusive voice of poetry. The exhibit is open to visitors from March 1, 2019 through April 30, 2019, with supporting programs throughout the spring and summer.

Poetry ContestSubmissions accepted between Monday, March 4, 2019 and Monday, April 22, 2019 at 9:00 p.m. To submit a poem, visit the Traveling Stanzas exhibit and use the theme, Immigrant Voices, to compose your work. Poems will be judged by local poets. Winners and two runners up will be selected from the following age groups: K-8 grade, 9-12 grade and over 18. The contest will culminate with a poetry reading by the winners. Submissions accepted at any Library service desk or can be emailed to events@lakewoodpubliclibrary.org. Please include your name, contact information and age group.

Traveling Stanzas: Immigrant Voices Opening Gala

Featuring: David Hassler, Director Wick Poetry Center; Katie Daley, Teaching Artist Wick Poetry Center and a performance by Global Connections

Friday, March 8, 2019 music starts at 6:30 p.m., opening remarks begin at 7:00 p.m.

Main Library Grand Reading Room

We invite you to celebrate the opening of Traveling Stanzas: Immigrant Voices. David Hassler will speak about the history and impact of the Traveling Stanzas exhibits, and Katie Daley will speak about leading workshops in our community to create poetry featured in our exhibit. The poetry created in these workshops is directly reflected in this public display. There will also be a performance by Global Connections and a poetry reading.    

Poetry Workshops

Led by Leanne Hoppe

Thursdays: March 14, 2019; March 28, 2019; April 11, 2019 and April 25, 2019 at 7:00 p.m.

Tuesdays: March 19, 2019 (18 and younger only); April 2, 2019 and April 16, 2019 at 7:00 p.m.

Main Library Second Floor Gallery

From the Italian, stanza means a room—a place to pause. Indeed, Traveling Stanzas offers individuals moments of pause, with which to reflect on their lives, their city and a shared experience of their community. Leanne Hoppe, local teacher, editor and translator will lead workshops in the Traveling Stanzas Exhibit to give attendees a structured moment to explore the interactive tools. Tuesday, March 19, 2019 is reserved for individuals 18 and under.  

WordStage- Give Me Your Tired: Expressions of Immigration

Sunday, April 28, 2019 at 2:00 p.m.

Main Library Auditorium

Poet Emma Lazarus wrote, “The New Colossus”. Its most iconic line reads, “Give me your tired, your poor, / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”. Join us for this performance featuring immigrant stories through the poetic voice. The poems featured will come from community members and influential poets. WordStage is a chamber music reader’s theater dedicated to the presentation of works with special literary, historical and musical merit.

Traveling Stanzas: Immigrant Voices Poetry Contest Reading

Tuesday, April 30, 2019 at 7:00 p.m.

Main Library Auditorium

The Traveling Stanzas: Immigrant Voices Poetry contest will culminate in a poetry reading featuring the winners and two runners up from each of the three age categories. The winners will be selected by a panel of local poets. Each submission is inspired by the Traveling Stanzas Exhibit, exploring the theme of immigrant voices and reflecting on the impact of immigration in our community. Join us to hear from the winners as well as from a local poet.

For details on these and additional programs, visit lakewoodpubliclibrary.org.

Lakewood Public Library

15425 Detroit Avenue

Lakewood, Ohio 44107

(216) 226-8275

Speak of the Devil--

From the Chronicle Telegram:

• Ohio poet laureate Dave Lucas among readers at Lorain's Speak of the Devil, by Carissa Woytach

Valentine's Reading in Sandusky

Saturday Feb. 9th we will feature author Robert Smith and an Open-Mic Valentine's Reading. We have been doing Coffeehouse Readings for about 18 years here in Sandusky, Ohio...sponsored by the Firelands Writing Center and Bottom Dog Press. All are welcome...The writing is celebrated.

Madhouse is coming to Cleveland!

Madhouse, a Michigan-based arts event, is coming to Cleveland at Guide to Kulchur, 5222 Lorain Ave., February 1st @ 7 pm.

Self-described as an artistic spectacle of music, poetry, and mayhem, Madhouse has been a flourishing community series staple in lower Michigan.

The initial Northeast Ohio event features the following performers:

Donora Rihn
Andrew Rihn

Michelle Smolarski

Erika Blakemore

Ray Swaney

Leo Todd Jarret

Barry Graham

John Burroughs



w/ musical guest, Pavlica


Open mic to follow!!!!

• Guide to Kulchur facebook page

Poet Claudia Rankine at Cuyahoga County Public Library

Claudia Rankine will visit the Parma Snow Branch of Cuyahoga County Public Library on January 23 at 7pm.
(2121 Snow Road, Parma, OH  44134)

The event is FREE but registration is required.  Register here.

Claudia Rankine is the author of Citizen: An American Lyric and four previous books, including Don’t Let Me Be Lonely: An American Lyric. A provocative meditation on race, Citizen recounts mounting racial aggressions in ongoing encounters in twenty-first-century daily life and in the media. The book was a finalist for the 2014 National Book Award in Poetry and the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism and has won the National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry, the NAACP Image Award, L.A. Times Book Prize and PEN Open Book Award.

Rankine is a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, the winner of the 2014 Jackson Poetry Prize, and a contributing editor of Poets & Writers. She is also the Frederick Iseman Professor of Poetry at Yale University.

Rankine will be joined at this event by Ohio Poet Laureate, Dave Lucas. Born and raised in Cleveland, Lucas earned his B.A. (English) at John Carroll University, M.F.A. (Creative Writing) at the University of Virginia, and M.A. and Ph.D. (English Language and Literature) at the University of Michigan. His first book of poems, Weather, received the 2012 Ohioana Book Award for Poetry. He has been awarded a Creative Workforce Fellowship from the Community Partnership for Arts and Culture and a 2016 Cleveland Arts Prize. 

Books will be available for purchase and signing courtesy of Mac's Backs - Books on Coventry.

---

This event is part of the NEA Big Read and is presented in partnership with The Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities at Case Western Reserve University and The Center for Arts-Inspired Learning.

This program is made possible, in part, by Ohio Humanities, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Looking back at Poetry in 2018

Michael Dirda, discussing the Best American Poetry 2018 volume, says that the theme that most characterizes American poetry is "American poetry’s reverence for genuineness, for authenticity":

• How do you define authenticity? A poetry collection explores a modern problem

In the introductory essay, Dana Gioia points out an odd statistic: for years, surveys show that youngest group of adults (ages 18–24) read more poetry than any other segment, and poetry reading is increasing, not decreasing.  He suggests that a huge cultural shift has occurred with literary performance and digital media. Technology has allowed poetry to reconnect with its auditory origins:

"The chief way American poets now reach their audience is through readings, either live or transmitted by radio, television, and internet... Print now coexists with other equally powerful media for poetry."

and Tracy K. Smith, in the New York Times, proclaims "political poetry is hot again".

(but I still hate political poetry*).

"We Need Writers Now More Than Ever..."

"Authoritative lying debases the truth. The resulting confusion of fantasy and reality is the definition of psychosis, a perilously vulnerable mental state.

     "...By writing and reading, we remind ourselves of the value of empathy, subtlety and contradiction. Literature is an antidote to the blunt distortions—good vs. evil, us vs. them—that are so easily exploited by those who would manipulate us."

--"We Need Writers Now More Than Ever. Our Democracy Depends On It," Jennifer Egan, Time

Another Season of The City

With the turn of the weather toward coolness, and the approach of the holiday season like a freight train loaded with turkey and tinsel, it's another season of The City poetry, Kathy Smith's electronic zine of poetry and art:

• The City, August 2018

"Bloom", by JJ Stick

Mark Kuhar celebrates d.a. levy

Collage by d.a levy. "Agent from Vega H.S." , collage by d.a. levy 1967, Cleveland, Ohio" handwiitten by levy verso. The collage was used in levy's underground newspaper The Buddhist Third Class Junkmail Oracle.

On the 50th anniversary of d.a. levy's death, Mark Kuhar celebrates the man and his legend:

• 50 years after d.a. levy’s death, the legend of Cleveland’s visionary poet and provocateur lives on

Dave Lucas: Poetry for People who hate Poetry

The new Poet Laureate of Ohio, Dave Lucas, has been appearing one week every month in Scene Magazine, with "Poetry for People Who Hate Poetry."
You can find it here:

• No. 1 (Sept.)
• No. 2 (Oct.)
• No. 3 (Nov.)

Or, read it at the Ohio Arts Council site: 1 2 3.

--He'll be reading in Arkon on November 21 at Latitudes Poetry Night (which happens the third Wednesday of each month, Compass Coffee, 647 East Market Street, Akron).

Come Write in Appletree Books’ Windows! (Plus Contests!)

Have you ever thought about writing in the windows of an independent bookstore?

For a third year, Appletree Books  invites Cleveland-area writers of all ages, formats, and genres to come write in our store windows this November in celebration of National Novel Writing Month!

You do not need be a novelist.  Whatever you write, whether you write for love or money or a grade or the glory of winning NaNoWriMo, we want you to come write with us!  Bring the tools of your trade; we’ll provide you a small table, a chair, and an electrical outlet in our store windows. Pick up your pen (actual or metaphorical), take a seat in our independent bookstore, a fixture in the Cedar-Fairmount district since 1975, and let your view of our vibrant neighborhood inspire you.  Sign up at https://tinyurl.com/yawkke8n.  For questions or more information, contact Jane Rothstein at jane@appletree-books.com.

2018 Writer in the Window Sign-Up tinyurl.com Welcome to Appletree Books' 2018 Writer in the Window event sign-up! In celebration of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) in November, we are, for a third year, inviting Cleveland-area writers of all ages and all genres (you need not be writing a novel) to spend some time writing in our front windows. Sign up below for Writing in the Window 2018, and our NaNoWriMo coordinator will get back to you ASAP. **Please note: writers under age 12 must be accompanied by an adult. Writers under 12 should have a parent or guardian complete this form and indicate arrangements for adult supervision in the "Requests" area below. Thank you! **Note the second: I try to respond to sign-ups within a day, but that is not always possible. Please be patient. If not, I can be reached at jane@appletree-books.com. (Personal information will not be shared.)

Appletree Books Writing Contests

For the first time, Appletree is sponsoring two writing contests in conjunction with our month-long Writer in the Window program this November.  1) Student writers in elementary, middle, or high school are invited to submit a short work, no more than one page, in whatever format they wish.  2) In conjunction with Heights Arts’ Heights Writes Committee, we invite adults writing poetry to submit 1-3 poems that speak to the part that books and reading play in our lives.  Contestants in both contests must be signed up to be Writers in the Window at Appletree, and they are encouraged to write at least part of their entries in our windows. Entries are due no later than midnight, Saturday, December 1, 2018. Winners will be announced on December 10 and will be invited to read their work at a celebratory reception at Appletree Books on Friday, December 14. Multiple prizes, including Appletree gift certificates, will be awarded in each contest.  Sign up to be a Writer in the Window at https://tinyurl.com/yawkke8n.  For questions or more information, contact Jane Rothstein at jane@appletree-books.com.

Appletree Books
12419 Cedar Road
Cleveland Heights, OH 44106
(216) 791-2665