The Buck Stops Here - and reads with Bilgere, Borsenik, Leatherman, Hemery and Mad Anthony

Poet Chansonette Buck is coming all the way from Berkeley, California, this week to read at two big events on the western fringe of Greater Cleveland: Wednesday June 15th during the final (for now) Lix and Kix Poetry Extravaganza at Bela Dubby (13321 Madison Ave.) in Lakewood and Thursday June 16th during PoetryElyria at Scott M Duncan Photography (120 Middle Ave.) in downtown Elyria. She'll share a completely different set of her work at each venue.

Our other featured poet during June's Lix and Kix will be the renowned George Bilgere, author of The White Museum, winner of a 2010 Lantern Award for best poetry collection from The Lit: Cleveland's Literary Center. The evening will include an open mic emceed by Borsenik and Burroughs, as well as a wall-shaking performance by Cincinnati rock band Mad Anthony.

Joining Dr. Buck during June's PoetryElyria will be three more featured authors: Stacie Leatherman, Mike Hemery and Dianne Borsenik, all of whom have exciting new books out. This event will include an open mic emceed by John Burroughs and (while supplies last) free wine.

To read more about our fine featured authors and these exciting happenings, please visit our Facebook event pages:

Lix and Kix featuring George Bilgere, Chansonette Buck & Mad Anthony
PoetryElyria featuring Buck, Borsenik, Hemery and Leatherman

Lantern Award Winners

Last night at the Palace Theater, The Lit hosted their first-ever biennial Lantern Awards ceremony. Since Billy Crystal wasn't available, Cleveland's own Michael Heaton [left] emceed.

My favorite underappreciated cartoonist, Derf, proved appreciated after all, receiving a lifetime achievement award. Thankfully, he's not yet ready to retire.

The far-too-soon retired Harvey Pekar and Sheila Schwartz also received well deserved lifetime achievement awards.

As for the fab northeast Ohio writers who competed for the rest of the awards, there was no way every deserving candidate was going to win a uniquely sculpted Mark Yasenchack lantern. If that had happened, I imagine the artist might not have had time to create anything else this year. But ten writers both got lucky and very much earned their awards in ten highly competitive genres. Here they are:

Poetry Collection: George Bilgere of Cleveland Heights, for The White Museum.

Single Poem: Eric Anderson of Elyria, for "A Couple of Scars on My Back."

Fiction/Novel: Dan Chaon of Cleveland Heights, for Await Your Reply.

Short Fiction: Tricia Springstubb of Cleveland Heights, for "In the Dark."

Memoir - Book Length: Thrity Umrigar of Cleveland Heights, for First Darling of the Morning.

Non-Fiction - Book Length: Michael Rulman of Cleveland Heights, for The Elements of Cooking.

Non-Fiction - Essay: Kristin Ohlson of Cleveland Heights, for Watching TV in Kabul.

Journalism: Joanna Connors of Shaker Heights, for "Beyond Rape."

Performance: Michael Oatman of Shaker Heights, for Eclipse.

Blog: Erin O'Brien of Broadview Heights, for The Erin O'Brien Owner's Manual for Human Beings.

And appearances to the contrary, I assure you there has been no vast eastside conspiracy.

Thanks to The Lit's director Judith Mansour for spearheading this memorable event, and to everyone else who had a hand in making it happen. Hearty congratulations to the Lantern Award winners! For more about each of them, I encourage you to check out this morning's Plain Dealer article or click on their names above.

P.S. I videoed the awards ceremony and took some photos at the after party. So stay tuned for a sequel to this blog entry when I have more time.

Congrats to Erin!

Clevelandpoetics was one of the three nominees for best blog at the Cleveland Literary Center's "All Lit Up" ceremony for the biennial "Lantern" literary awards. The awards ceremony just finished, with John Burroughs and me there to accept the award for Clevelandpoetics if we won....

Well, I regret to say that when the envelope was opened, Clevelandpoetics didn't win best blog... but I am thrilled to say that we lost to Rainy Day woman Erin O'Brien's blog, "The Erin O'Brien Owners Manual for Human Beings." If we have to lose, I think we can say that we lost to the very best. Erin's blog is funny, and insightful, and all in all a great read. I'm sure you all already read it, but if not, you should go there right now and add it to your bookmarks.

Congrats, Erin! Well deserved!

(Stay tuned for a post on the rest of the winners... )