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Join the Ohio Poetry Association on November 15th from 10 to 4:30 at the Cuyahoga County Public Library's South Euclid-Lyndhurst branch for an absolutely free Ohio Poetry Publishing Conference. Registration and more details at https://attend.cuyahogalibrary.org/event/13881294.
Get Sharp! will include an Ohio small press book fair and fab workshop presentations by Dianne Borsenik, Geoff Anderson, Michael Salinger, and Susan Grimm.
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Friday 16 May 2025 at 4 p.m., poets from all over Ohio will gather for a dramatic reading on the theme of tributaries. There will be music, and an anthology of the poems performed will be available at the reading.
Kent State College of Architecture + Environmental Design
132 S. Lincoln Street
Kent, Ohio 44240
More info at https://www.facebook.com/events/1007338138041745.
Mark your calendars for October 23 at Speak of the Devil Cocktail Bar in Lorain, Ohio, to catch performances by poets Christine Howey, Marcel Fable Price, and Ray McNiece, hosted by Dianne Borsenik. Exponential fabulousness!
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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.
Saturday, June 29, 2024 from 5:00pm to 7:30pm at Mac's Backs Books on Coventry
Mac's will host a gathering of poets with readings by MJ Arcangelini and Joel Lesses on Saturday, June 29th at 5 p.m. The event is also a book release celebration for Journeys of Sacred Community: A Collection Anthology of Ground and Sky Poetry
MJ Arcangelini, born in Pennsylvania in 1952, has resided in northern California since 1979. He has published in many magazines, online journals & over a dozen anthologies. He is the author of six published collections, including Pawning My Sins publlished in 2022 by Luchador Press.
Ground and Sky Poetry is a reading series in Buffalo and Rochester, NY and was inspired by the late poet Maj Ragain from Kent.
Joel David Lesses is a counselor and the founder of Education Training Center in Buffalo, dedicated to reframing mental health distress as a potential spiritual marker and existential opportunity. He also does the Unraveling Religion podcast which focuses on spirituality, world religion, meditation and poetry.
Other poets scheduled to read include Dianne Borsenik, Chris Franke, Russ Vidrick, Steven Smith, Kathy “Lady” Smith, John Burroughs, Shelley Chernin, Ben Gulyas, Adam Brodsky, Steve Goldberg, Steve Thomas, Scott Silsbe and Chandra "Peggy Honeydew" Alderman.
Mac's Backs
1820 Coventry Rd.
Cleveland Heights, OH 44118
https://www.macsbacks.com
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| Dianne Borsenik's book of haiku and senryu Blue Graffiti from Crisis Chronicles Press |
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| "Birch Trees," David M. Landis, ca 1960 |
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| Ray McNiece rocks the house |
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| Dianne Borsenik reads photo by Tim Misny |
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| Ray McNiece opens the show, accompanied by Al Moses on guitar (photo by Geoffrey A. Landis) |
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| Dianne Borsenik blew away the judges, and the audience photo by Tim Misny |
