Jeremy Jusek named first Poet Laureate of Parma, Ohio

Congratulations to Jeremy (and Parma)! 

Read all about it at Cleveland.com.

And you can find him at jeremyjusek.com.

 Folks, we at Bottom Dog Press can use your support in this big project to work for reason in gun control. We will be publishing a  book of memoir by JRW (Robert) Case.

Cycling Through Columbine

A Memoir of American Democracy in Crisis

The book follows Robert on a cross-country bike-packing adventure while reflecting on the Columbine school massacre near his hometown in Colorado.

You can help through our GoFundMe campaign. 

https://gofund.me/639ffd7a

Thanks

Paid $1,000 Internships with Literary Cleveland

Literary Cleveland is now accepting applications for two $1,000 internships for spring 2022.

Interns will have the opportunity to assist with literary arts programs and events, support Gordon Square Review literary journal, and develop their own project.

These internship opportunities are intended for members of historically underrepresented groups in the writing and publishing industry. Our goal is to provide skills training, career advancement opportunities, and support to these writers to help address the longstanding lack of diversity in the writing community.

Internships are 5-10 hours per week, and each intern will be compensated $1,000 for 10 weeks of work from February through April 2022. Most of the work will be done remotely via Zoom.
 
Application deadline: December 20.

Learn more and apply here.

Dec. 1st - Last Day to Register for Lit Youngstown Poetry Intensives

Lit Youngstown is offering a monthly, in-depth poetry writing workshop from January to September, 2022. Each participant will set their own goals for writing, publishing and participating in other opportunities in the literary community. Workshop leaders will offer a variety of topics and influences.

The workshops will meet from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on the second Saturday of each month (after January's session on the 15th), in Lit Youngstown's office at St. John's Episcopal Church, 323 Wick Ave. The course cost is $200 per participant; the course will run when we reach a minimum of ten participants.

Register here by December 1 to save a seat. For more info, including FAQ and presenter bios, please click here. Feel free to reach out with any other questions: LitYoungstown@gmail.com.

January 15
10-12 Morning topic: contemporary poetry books
1-4 Guest Workshop Leader Robert Miltner & Molly Fuller, on the sounds of music in poetry

February 10
10-12 Morning topic: craft books on poetry writing
1-4 Guest Workshop Leader Mary Biddinger, on inviting strangeness into your poems

March 12
10-12 Morning topic: journals, submissions
1-4 Guest Workshop Leader Steve Reese, on abstract vs. concrete in poetic language

April 9
10-12 Morning topic: chapbooks
1-4 Guest Workshop Leader Marion Boyer, on revision

May 14
10-12 Morning topic: full-length books
1-4 Guest Workshop Leader Barbara Sabol, on beginnings and endings

June 11
10-12 Morning topic: residencies, contests, retreats, conferences
1-4 Guest Workshop Leader Allison Pitinii Davis, on linebreaks

July 9
10-12 Morning topic: creating a workshop group
1-4 Guest Workshop Leader Diane Kendig, on time

August 13
10-12 Morning topic: performance reading
1-4 Guest Workshop Leader Susan Grimm, on how the poem happens: thinking about the parts and the whole

September 10
10-12 Morning topic: trade magazines
1-4 Guest Workshop Leader David Hassler, on finding the hidden energy in language

Coffeehouse Reading: Steve Goldberg & Russell Vidrick

Join us in beautiful and funky downtown Sandusky, Ohio

On the Bay.

 

Award-winning poet Michael Steffen comes to Lakewood on 11/7

Award-winning poet Michael Steffen will be featured in a reading/book signing at The Bookshop in Lakewood, 15230 Madison Avenue, Lakewood, OH  44107 on Sunday, November 7^th, 2021 from 2-5 pm.  Michael will read at 4 pm from his recently-published collection, Blood Narrative (Main Street Rag Press, 2021). 

Praise for Michael Steffen’s Poetry

These warm, generous, and lively poems speak to the narrative of body and spirit, of family, marriage, community and culture, as they come to terms with past and present losses. They do it best by living in the present, grateful for the whole of every moment—luscious, embarrassing, lonely, or loving, reveling in the sensual. Steffen’s capacity to surprise with sudden humor or beauty or truth infuses every poem, reminding us to live fully, because “somewhere offshore in the eye of apocalypse,/angels raise their trumpets—” as I raise mine, to this wonderful blood narrative.

-     April Ossmann (author of Event Boundaries)

Steffen scrupulously avoids flamboyance, the sort of surface dazzle we find in poems that, like the stereotypical Chinese meal, are immediately appealing but leave us hungry instants later. His plain style approach allows his insights, as it were, to sneak up on us...until we discover ourselves (how did it happen?) in a world so full of pathos that we catch our breaths.

-     Sydney Lea

 About the Author

Michael Steffen is the author of three previous poetry collections: No Good at Sea (Legible Press, 2002) won the Legible Press Poetry Prize.  Heart Murmur (Bordighera Press, 2009) won the Bordighera Poetry Prize, appearing as a bilingual edition in both Italian and English.  His third collection, Bad Behavior (Brick Road Poetry Press, 2012), won the Brick Road Poetry Prize.  While a resident of Pennsylvania, Michael was granted a 2002 Fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.  His poems have appeared in Poetry, Potomac Review, Chiron Review, Poet Lore and the American Journal of Poetry among other literary magazines.  He has read and lectured widely and been a mentor in the PEN Prison Writing Program.  Michael is a graduate of the MFA in Creative Writing Program at Vermont College and currently lives in Buffalo, New York.

Please go to www.mnsteffen.com for more.      

"Victims"

 

I should mention that collaborators Mary Turzillo and Marge Simon have a new book of dark poetry out, Victims, from Weasel Press. Seems like a lot of literature celebrates villains; it's a little more unusual to see the other side.

Both paper and e-versions are available, either from the publisher, or from Amazon.

This is one of the braver dark poetry collections I’ve seen in a while. Horror poets generally employ victims in their work, but the focus is generally on the Evil. Turning the camera the other way is unusual, unsettling, emotionally risky, and surprisingly effective. From their stark opening take on Pygmalion, to the ending poem about the wasted life of Stateira of Persia, this powerful collection teases apart an impressive number of the threads of victimhood. Some are the usual cases, but quite a few are surprises, or reversals, or cases with unexpected layers. There is nothing repetitive about this collection.

 —Timons Esaias

The People Poetry Slam is Back at the B Side

Their next slam is October 13th 2021, 6:30 to 9:00 pm, at the B Side Lounge, 2785 Euclid Heights Boulevard in Cleveland Heights. Please follow them on Instagram to stay updated.

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The passing of Ohio poet Timothy Russell (1951-September 2021)

Tim grew up along the Ohio River and worked at Weirton Steel as a millwright until lupus forced him to retire. He and wife Jodi lived on in Toronto, Ohio with four children, always close to nature. Tim won awards for his poetry and was praised by Gary Snyder, “There is discipline, spirit, clarity, no easy optimism, sensibility, heart in these poems.” His chapbook “In Medias Res” was published in A Red Shadow of Steel Mills: Photos & Poems (Bottom Dog Press 1991). He was a fine poet and had a wonderful ability to combine people with nature and industry. Here are a few lines.

If what I have written

in my own hand

had been origami

it would have been considered

lovely and miraculous:

the blue/orange flames

roosting at night

instead of the moon

above the blast furnaces,

like birds with litmus plumage,

miraculous and lovely.

Anthology of Ohio's Appalachian Voices Seeks Submissions

Ohio Poet Laureate Kari Gunter-Seymour invites all poets with ties to Ohio and Appalachia (and so on - watch the video for details) to submit to the new anthology I Thought I Heard a Cardinal Sing. Deadline: October 30, 2021.

Video link: https://www.facebook.com/kari.gunter.seymour/videos/164094779131517.

More info: https://www.karigunterseymourpoet.com/submit.

Tongue-in-Groove Poetry Jam Returns to the Fillmore September 19th

Cleveland, it's time to celebrate the return of Tongue-in-Groove! Hosted by Heights Poet Laureate Ray McNiece (Cleveland Arts Prize Lifetime Achievement Award Winner) with Al Moses on guitar, Nick Marino on bass, Michelle Clark on percussion and Tim Lachina on harmonica at the Millard Fillmore Presidential Library at 15617 Waterloo Road in the North Collinwood neighborhood of Cleveland. The Poetry Jam happens at 6 p.m. starting on Sunday, September 19th. This month's featured poet is Renay Sanders. An open mic with the band will follow.

About the feature:

S. Renay Sanders learned to love the spoken word amidst a family of Appalachian storytellers and musicians. She secretly wrote poems for years, but came out of the poetry closet with a piece in the Hessler Street Poetry Anthology in 2010. Her poems have been included in anthologies published by the Writing Knights and Poet's Haven. Her work can also be found in ETERNAL SNOW (Nirala Publications, 2017), a worldwide anthology. Renay received a third place award for her poem, "Awakened to Bear Witness of Sweet Atrocities" in the 2012 Hessler Street Poetry Anthology. "Noteworthy Travelin" was the title poem of a broadside published by NightBallet. Her work was selected to be included in the 2016-2017 Women of Appalachia project "Women Speak." Most recently, Sanders is the author of DANCING IN PLACE: POEMS (Nirala Publications, 2020). A native Clevelander, her poems are inspired by the characters she encounters in life, her male-dominated family, husband, sons, grandsons and the beauty of the Cuyahoga Valley, where she now resides.

The Return of Brews + Prose!

Our friends at Brews + Prose are re-starting up their acclaimed reading series at Market Garden Brewery on Wednesday September 15th at 7 p.m.

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The following is from their Facebook event page:

Brews + Prose is back! And for now, like so many other things, Brews + Prose, will look a little different. We will be gathering upstairs on the Market Garden Brewpub Patio in an effort to spread out in the fresh air.

On September 15, we will be hosting three incredible readers:

Claire Luchette has published work in the Virginia Quarterly Review, the Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, and Granta. A 2020 National Endowment for the Arts Fellow, Luchette graduated from the University of Oregon MFA program and has received grants and scholarships from MacDowell, Yaddo, the Millay Colony for the Arts, Lighthouse Works, the Elizabeth George Foundation, and the James Merrill House. Agatha of Little Neon is Luchette’s first novel.

Dotun Akintoye is a Nigerian American writer from Philadelphia. His work has appeared in outlets like The Los Angeles Review of Books and O, The Oprah Magazine. He is currently a staff writer at ESPN.

Natasha Oladokun is a poet and essayist. She holds fellowships from Cave Canem, the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, the Jackson Center for Creative Writing, Twelve Literary Arts, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she was the inaugural First Wave Poetry fellow. Her work has appeared in the American Poetry Review, The Academy of American Poets, Harvard Review Online, Kenyon Review Online, and elsewhere. You can read her regular column The PettyCoat Chronicles—on pop culture and period dramas—at Catapult. She is Associate Poetry Editor at storySouth, and currently lives in Madison, WI.

We are hoping to find a way to safely host more great writers in the coming months, and we hope you'll be there with us.

 

Quartez Harris named Ohio Poet of the Year by the Ohio Poetry Day Association

Congratulations to Cleveland's very own Quartez Harris, who has been named 2021 Ohio Poet of the Year for his acclaimed book We Made It to School Alive (2020, Twelve Arts).

Click here to read more about it on the Ohio Poetry Association blog.

To contact the author, visit www.quartezharris.com.

Buy We Made It to School Alive from Twelve Arts Press.

Haiku Hikes and Ekphrastacy Events in Cleveland Heights

 From our friends at Heights Arts. The first Haiku Hike is this Saturday, August 28th, at Cain Park.

HAIKU HIKES This Saturday, join Cleveland Heights Poet Laureate Ray McNiece on a seasonal morning ginkgo (haiku walk), through Cain Park learning and creating poetry according to centuries-old traditions. These customs cultivate a seasonal awareness that improves one’s powers of poetic and natural observation.  Hikes will begin with a formal introduction to haiku, continue with 4 stops along the way, then conclude with a final sharing. Sign up for one session or all four seasons in a series we're offering in celebration of Cleveland Heights' centennial anniversary. Find out more about how to register for a single hike or the full series, HERE   EKPHRASTACY EVENTS Each exhibition at Heights arts showcases outstanding visual art which we then celebrate through poetry during the run of that show. Perhaps you've attended one of these readings and wondered how the poets all train to be such impressive performers. With Ray's guidance, selected applicants are provided a structured approach to choosing visual art that speaks to them, developing their poetic response, and then presenting their interpretations at one of our most beloved programs. If you're a literary enthusiast, we encourage you to check out our open call for poets, HERE

Lit Youngstown 2021 Fall Literary Festival Registration Open

From our friends at Lit Youngstown:

Are you a reader, writer, editor, publisher, student or educator of the literary arts? We hope you will join us for the 5th annual Fall Literary Festival in Youngstown, Ohio, October 7-9.

This year’s conference theme is “Our Shared Story” and we are thrilled to host visiting writers Teri Ellen Cross Davis (poet), Jan Beatty (memoirist), Matt Forrest Esenwine (children’s author), Bonnie Proudfoot (novelist), & Mike Geither (playwright).

Over 70 presenters from throughout the U.S. will lead sessions on reading, understanding, writing, editing and publishing creative works. The conference is an affordable (early bird until Sept. 1) $45, with deep discounts for contingent faculty and graduate students, and need-based sponsorships available. Undergraduate and high school student registration is free.

Hope to see you there! This event is made possible with major funding from the Centofanti Foundation. 

To learn more and register, visit: https://www.lityoungstown.org/fall-literary-festival-2021.

William N. Skirball Writers Center Stage 2021-2022 Season Announced

The following is from our friends at the Cuyahoga County Public Library. For more information, visit https://case.edu/maltzcenter/upcoming-events/william-n-skirball-writers-center-stage.

DON'T MISS A SHOW! Writers Center Stage is returning to the beautiful Maltz Performing Arts Center at Case Western Reserve University for the 2021-2022 season. This season we have also added a live stream option. All events will be held at 7:30 p.m. EST.

GET TICKETS

RICHARD POWERS WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2021  Award-winning author Richard Powers is known for writing novels that explore modern science and technology. His best-selling novel The Overstory (2019) won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. His latest novel, Bewilderment, will be released in September 2021.

AMOR TOWLES TUESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2021 When Amor Towles released Rules of Civility, it quickly became a New York Times best-seller and was named by the Wall Street Journal as one of the best books of 2011. His second novel, A Gentleman in Moscow, was on the best-sellers list for more than 52 weeks. Towles' latest book, The Lincoln Highway, will be released in October 2021.

MIN JIN LEE TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2021 Award-winning author Min Jin Lee's debut novel, Free Food for Millionaires (2007) became a national best-seller and Netflix adapted it as a television series. Her second novel, Pachinko (2017), was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction and named one of The New York Times' 10 best books of the year.

CARMEN MARIA MACHADO & RUMAAN ALAM WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 2022 Carmen Maria Machado is known for blending surrealism, fantasy and horror in her writing. She is the author of the best-selling memoir In the Dream House and the award-winning short story collection Her Body and Other Parties. Rumaan Alam's thriller, Leave the World Behind, was a finalist for the 2020 National Book Award and is being adapted into a film with Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington.

ISABEL WILKERSON THURSDAY, APRIL 7, 2022 The New York Times called Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson's latest book, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents (2020) "an instant American classic," and TIME Magazine labeled it a must-read book. Wilkerson's first book, The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration (2010), won the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for nonfiction, among other honors.

ANTHONY DOERR MONDAY, MAY 2, 2022 Anthony Doerr's novel All The Light We Cannot See won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, and was a finalist for the National Book Award. It spent more than three and a half years on The New York Times' best-seller list. His latest book, Cloud Cuckoo Land, will be released in September 2021.

GET TICKETS

The 2021-2022 William N. Skirball Writers Center Stage Series is presented by the Cuyahoga County Public Library Foundation and its academic partner Case Western Reserve University.   Funds raised by this series help support Cuyahoga County Public Library, the nation's top-rated library system for eleven consecutive years.

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