Vermilion City Council Appoints Joette McDonald as City’s First Poet Laureate

Congratulations to Joette McDonald! 

From the press release:

At the July 8th Vermilion City Council meeting Mayor Jim Forthofer put forth the name of Joette McDonald to be named Vermilion and the surrounding area’s first Poet Laureate. In his recommendation to council members he highlighted why Mrs. McDonald was such a deserving person for this honor. Vermilion City Council approved this appointment unanimously.

You might be asking yourself “What is a Poet Laureate and what do they do?”. This is not an uncommon question. A poet laureate is “ a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution as an honorary representative of a particular region”. The state of Ohio’s Poet Laureate is Kari Gunther Seymour, appointed by Governor DeWine in January 2024. There are numerous cities or counties who have appointed a Poet Laureate.

So now you ask, “What does a Poet Laureate do?”. The person appointed is a poet who has written poems, books or other literary pieces that have been published. The Poet Laureate might be asked to read a poem at a ceremonial event that the city holds such as a building dedication or be an advocate for not only poetry, but for any form of the literature. They might help kick of the library summer reading program or a school’s Right to Read campaign.

So who is Joette McDonald? Mrs. McDonald has been a teacher of 1st and 4th grade since she was 19 years of age until she retired from Vermilion Local Schools in 1996. She taught at South Street School and Vermilion Intermediate School and has taught many Vermilion residents during her tenure as a teacher. Joette has an undergraduate degree from Kent State

University where she graduated Cum Laude and later earned a Master’s degree from Ashland University.

Joette’s poetry has won numerous awards, has been read on the radio and been published in several periodicals and anthologies. Her poetry books include Seasons of the Soul (2013), It Seems Like Happiness Is Just a Thing Called Joe (2007) and Waiting for the Bus at Protemus (2005). Mrs. McDonald has also published a book on how to write poetry titled I Feel Like a Poem Coming On-Now What (2007). Composer Dr. H. Leslie Adams has used her poems as art songs, many of which have been performed in concerts and recorded. Joette has also penned two books for young adolescents about Vermilion -The Lighthouse Mystery and The Haunted Hall, a story of Vermilion’s Old Town Hall (now Harbourtown Fine Arts Center).

The Vermilion Poetry Society, who encouraged the Mayor and City Council to establish a Poet Laureate for Vermilion and the Surrounding Areas, will honor Joette McDonald as our first Poet Laureate with a reception on Thursday, August 8th from 7:00-9:00 pm at Harbourtown Fine Arts Center, 736 Main Street. Those interested in attending should email Dr. Jim Chapple at chappjw@aol.com or call him at 440.225.1547 to attend this reception.

Also read in Lorain's Morning Journal.

July 13th: Jeremy Jusek, Dianne Borsenik & Alissa Sammarco in South Euclid

See poets Dianne Borsenik, Jeremy Jusek and Alissa Sammarco on Saturday the 13th, 2 p.m. at the South Euclid-Lyndhurst branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library.

Register at https://attend.cuyahogalibrary.org/event/10323147. 

About the authors:

Dianne Borsenik is active in the northern and mid-Ohio poetry communities. Recent work has appeared in I Thought I Heard a Cardinal Sing: Ohio’s Appalachian Voices, Songs of Wild Ohio , and Poem for Cleveland. Raga for What Comes Next, a full-length collection of Borsenik’s poems, was studied as part of the Modern & Contemporary American Poetry course at Muskingum University. Flight of Honey, another full-length collection, was published in May, 2023. Actor Jonathan Frid used three of her poems in his one-man tour Genesis of Evil, Speak of the Devil (Lorain, Ohio) named a cocktail after her, and Lit Youngstown printed her poem “Disco” on their t-shirts, all of which makes her feel like a rock star. Borsenik lives in Elyria, Ohio. Find her on Facebook and at www.dianneborsenik.com.

Once when I was little and very frightened, I was handed a jar of honey and a spoon. I closed my eyes and tasted beams of sun. Dianne Borsenik’s Flight of Honey reveals the bitter sweetness we discover in dark moments and closes its eyes to taste the moments of love we return to comfort in. There’s a new discovery in each taste from this collection. From the stark “Up the Mountain” through the inquisitive romp of the title poem to the introspection of “Knotted Together,” Borsenik sets us on a beeline path through her gracious mind with all of the wry humor and thoughtfulness we expect from this poetic trailblazer. In life, “blood doesn’t always call to blood” but this collection, like honey, beads warm amber and asks you simply to slow and savor.
—Jonie McIntire, Lucas County Poet Laureate, author of Semidomesticated (Sheila-Na-Gig Editions, 2022), winner of Red Flag Poetry’s 2020 Chapbook Contest

 

Jeremy Jusek is the poet laureate of Parma, Ohio. He earned his MFA in Creative Writing from Arcadia University and chemistry/theatre degrees from Marietta College. He has authored more than a half-dozen plays and three poetry collections: We Grow Tomatoes in Tiny Towns, The Less-Traveled Street, and The Details Will Be Gone Soon. He hosts the Ohio Poetry Association's podcast Poetry Spotlight, runs the West Side Poetry Workshop, teaches through Literary Cleveland, and founded the Flamingo Writers’ Guild. To learn more, please visit www.jeremyjusek.com.

The Details Will Be Gone Soon is a close investigation of the primordial underpinnings behind Alzheimer’s disease and the emotional wreckage left in its wake. This poetry collection follows the speaker and his grandmother, Nana, and the various memories shared between the two. At times, the collection seeks to illustrate the loose word associations, frustrations, and existential cloud cover that darkens dementia’s horizons. Other poems steer toward youth and hope, extolling love, lessons learned, and shared experiences. This dichotomy allows the collection to successfully walk that critical line that families of Alzheimer’s patients often experience: one that straddles between the unfairly diminished, barely-present caricature versus the vibrant, vigor-filled past-selves that close friends and family spent a lifetime loving.

 

Alissa Sammarco uses cinematic imagery to freeze those moments in time and evoke the feeling of revisiting them.  She examines the common in life and relationships to find the extraordinary. Her work has appeared in Sheila-Na-Gig, Black Moon Magazine, Change Seven, Quiet Diamonds, The Main Street Rag, Stone Canoe, VIA: Voices in Italian Americana, Rat’s Ass Review, the 2021 and 2022 Lexington Poetry Month Anthologies, and elsewhere. She is the author of two chapbooks, Beyond the Dawn and I See Them Now.  Alissa lives and practices law in Cincinnati, Ohio. www.AlissaSammarco.com.

Moon Landing Day navigates the trajectories of relationships blasted off course by miscalculations, unmet expectations, abuse, and addiction.  In cinematic imagery, these poems reveal the difficult truths of a young woman, the harm that is passed from generation to generation, and the painful journey of acceptance to forgiveness.  From the total loss of control to the emergent spark of self-awareness, this young woman grapples to break the pattern.  She unravels her life and knits it back together in these poems.  They will hold you in their grip and bring you in for a safe landing.

July 18th: Open Air Poets in Cleveland Heights

From our friends at Mac's Backs and the Cleveland Heights-University Heights Public Library:

Join us in the PEACE Park as Coventry Branch and Mac’s Backs Bookstore present an outdoor summer poetry series. Thursday July 18th, 2024, at 7 p.m.

July's reading features poets: Miles Budimir, Steve Goldberg, Jason Harris and Kevin Latimer.

 

Coventry Village Library

1925 Coventry Road
Cleveland Heights, OH 44118