tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-46375041183256070072024-02-26T02:13:34.885-05:00Ohio Poetry Association BlogOfficial blog site of the Ohio Poetry Association. Learn more at ohiopoetryassn.org.Ohio Poetry Associationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08220696485691944928noreply@blogger.comBlogger150125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4637504118325607007.post-48754206265555437782024-02-15T19:19:00.004-05:002024-02-15T19:19:54.130-05:00Ohio Underground Railroad Whistle-Stop Poetry Tour Kicks Off in Portsmouth<p>The Ohio Poetry Association (OPA) in partnership with <a href="https://poetsagainstracism-usa.org/" target="_blank">Poets Against Racism & Hate USA</a> (PARH USA) will
conduct a whistle-stop poetry tour of historic Underground Railroad stations
throughout Ohio. The inaugural program takes place from <b>10 AM to 5:30 PM on
Saturday, February 24, at the <a href="https://somacc.com/" target="_blank">Southern Ohio Museum and Cultural Center</a>, 825
Gallia Street, Portsmouth.</b></p>
<p>With the help of the
organizations’ members and community partners, OPA and PARH USA will present a
series of poetry readings at historic sites throughout 2024. Each site will
feature poets and poems that honor Ohio’s legacy on the Underground Railroad
and that raise awareness of issues of social justice, hate, and prejudice. A
special capstone event will take place on December 7 at the Ohio History
Connection in Columbus.</p>
<p>The event
will include morning poetry workshops for adults and children, followed by
poetry readings and a presentation on the history of Portsmouth’s role in the
Underground Railroad. A walking tour of several historic sites is planned. All
the programs are free and open to the public.</p>
<h3 style="border: none; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt;">A</span></b><b>GENDA</b></span></h3>
<p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: inherit;">10 AM–12 PM: Poetry workshops—adult
workshop led by Brew Wilson-Battles, children’s workshop led by Rikki Santer
and Chuck Salmons</span></li><li><span style="font-family: inherit;">
12 PM–1:30 PM: Lunch break</span></li><li><span style="font-family: inherit;">
1:30 PM–3:30 PM: Poetry reading featuring local poets Chandler-Ryan Campbell, Maria
Payne, Chelsea Watkins, and Portia Williams</span></li><li><span style="font-family: inherit;">
3:30 PM–5:30 PM: Local history presentation and walking tour (weather
permitting) led by Andrew Feight</span></li></ul></p>
<h3 style="border: none; text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">WORKSHOP REGISTRATION</span></b></h3>
<p>Registration for the adult and
children’s workshops via Eventbrite is required and space is limited.<br />
<a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ohio-underground-railroad-whistle-stop-poetry-tour-tickets-817571457237" target="_blank"><b>Click here to
register</b></a><b><o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p>Complete information,
including site locations and dates, is available on the OPA website at<a href="https://sites.google.com/a/ohiopoetryassn.com/the-ohio-poetry-association/ohio-poetry-associations-publications"><span style="color: #0070c0; font-size: 12pt;">ohiopoetryassn.org</span></a>. Donations to
support the project are gratefully accepted.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">POET BIOS</h3>
<p><b>Brew Wilson-Battles</b> is a creative writing, literature, and composition instructor at Shawnee State University where she also works as the director of the campus writing center. She holds a BA in English from Shawnee State University and an MFA from Kent State University.</p>
<p><b>Chandler-Ryan Campbell</b> is a Scioto County native who attends Shawnee State University in pursuit of a Bachelor’s in Communication. Yes, in this economy. Chandler-Ryan can be found amongst the arts scene in Portsmouth, often making appearances in local performances to play original music or read original poems that ring true to the queer Appalachian experience. Denizens of the theatre may have seen him in a myriad of SSU’s recent productions. And on occasion, he may be spotted in drag, a clown costume, or both. In addition to his love of the arts, Chandler-Ryan is an avid activist on campus and in the community for diversity, equity, & inclusion.</p>
<p><b>Maria Payne</b> is a graduate of Shawnee State University where she earned her Bachelor’s in Biology. Since then, she has returned to work at her alma mater as a natural science lab technician. She and her husband are parents to three cats and one dog, all of whom are loved to smithereens.</p>
<p><b>Chuck Salmons</b> is a poet and has served as part of the leadership for the Ohio Poetry Association for more than a decade. His poems have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including <i>Pudding Magazine, The Fib Review, Evening Street Review, The Ekphrastic Review, </i>and <i>Poets to Come: A Poetry Anthology in celebration of Walt Whitman’s Bicentennial</i>. He has published two chapbooks, <i>Stargazer Suite and Patch Job</i>. Chuck is recipient of a 2018 Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award for poetry, and he performs with the poetry trio Concrete Wink. <a href="http://chucksalmons.com">chucksalmons.com</a></p>
<p>Poet <b>Rikki Santer</b> has been described as “a rad and ready alchemist who is expert at excavating the universal and the personal in the popular and remixing it all into a glorious concoction that tingles the tongue as it reflects, refreshes and nourishes.” Her poetry has received many honors including Pushcart and Ohioana and Ohio Poet book award nominations as well as a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities. She is also a member of the teaching artist roster of the Ohio Arts Council, a vice president of the Ohio Poetry Association, and a member of the poetry troupe, Concrete Wink. Her book, <i>Resurrection Letter; Leonora, Her Tarot, and Me, </i>earned her the title of 2023 Ohio Poet of the Year by the Ohio Poetry Day Association. <a href="http://rikkisanter.com">rikkisanter.com</a>
</p><p>From Twentynine Palms, California, and Portsmouth, Ohio, respectively, <b>Chelsea Watkins</b> has embraced many diverse roles in life such as a filmmaker, poet, indie film actress, business owner, and lead singer of Mikey Mike and the Big Unit, a local blues band. She is a proud member of the Southern Ohio Filmmakers Association and is currently advocating for a film commission in Scioto County. Chelsea's dedication to storytelling and community development shines through in all her endeavors and She is honored to contribute to this event and help bring awareness for social justice causes.</p>
<p><b>Portia Williams</b> is the wife of 30 years to her beloved husband Mark Williams. They have three wonderful children, two daughters, Jori and Pajah, and a son, Micah. Portia possesses a bachelor degree in English from Shawnee University. She is an ordained minister, inspirational speaker, author, and poet. </p>
<p></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">Serving poets since 1929</div>Chuck Salmonshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11692631204163757459noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4637504118325607007.post-4890392150470017122023-12-29T13:24:00.000-05:002023-12-29T13:24:01.244-05:00Odes of October Contest 2023 Winners Announced<p style="text-align: left;">Ohio Poetry Association is pleased to announce the winners of this
year’s Odes of October contest, as judged by esteemed poet, Paula J.
Lambert.</p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: left;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: left;">First prize goes to Nancy McDermott of Chardon,
Ohio, for her poem “The Quilt Show.” First prize includes an award of $65 and
inclusion in the 2024<i> Common Threads,</i> as well being published below.</p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: left;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: left;">Second prize goes to Timothy J. Richards of
Olmstead Twp., Ohio, for his poem “Warlock’s Culinary Concoction.” This prize
includes an award of $25 and appears below.</p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: left;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: left;">Third prize goes to Daniel Moreschi of Neath, Vale
of Glamorgan, in the U.K. for his poem “A Fitful Veil.” This prize includes an
award of $10 and ppears below.</p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: left;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: left;">The judge also chose two Honorable Mentions:</p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: left;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: left;"></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>“Caulk,” by Anthony Wyatt, Dayton, Ohio</li><li>“October Friendship,” by David Lee Garrison, Dayton, Ohio</li></ul><p></p><o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: left;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: left;"><o:p> A total </o:p>54 poems were submitted for this contest. We are
deeply indebted to judge Paula J. Lambert, (<a href="https://paulajlambert.weebly.com/">paulajlambert.weebly.com</a>)
author of “The Ghost of Every Feathered Thing,” “How to See the World,” and
other books and chapbooks, for her diligence and care in selecting the winners.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><div style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: none; border-right: none; border-top: none; padding: 0in 0in 1pt;"><div><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">First Prize: Nancy McDermott</h3><h2><o:p></o:p></h2><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Quilt Show</span></h2><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Sweet
old-man smile<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">mellowed
away from macho,<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">the
kindest of pink in his cheeks.<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">No
one holds his hand.<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">He
circles the gallery.<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Shuffle,
pause, shuffle, pause.<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Never
one to care for quilts himself,<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">he
cared deeply for her caring.<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Now
he bends to sign the guest book,<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">slowly
writing his name. Only his.<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">A
small wound opens briefly.<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">He
closes it and steps away.</span></div><div style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;">
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpLast" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></p>
</div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Second Prize: Timothy J. Richards</h3><h2><o:p></o:p></h2><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Warlock’s Culinary
Concoction</span></h2><p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>—
an alliterated lunch</span></i></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Sybil
the witch said she seasoned the goo<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">with
a spicy, savory salt<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">but
when Walter the warlock sampled the stew<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">his
taste buds came under assault.<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">I
used my mother’s old recipe, she said.<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">I
added the mildewed muskrat meat<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">in
a rank-smelling rue of porcupine poop,<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">then
simmered it over a very low heat<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">together
with hay from a foul chicken coop.<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Then
I dumped in a dish of dreadful duck doo,<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">combined
with a cup of caraway seed,<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">mixed
in a mash of cayenne pepper,<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">and
blended it all with ditch witchweed.<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Don’t
worry, my weary old warlock, she said.<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">I’ll
switch the sauce to something less sweet,<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">something
similar to dead bird cake,<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">when
I stir in some aging rotten old leeks<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">and
add several strips of sliced-up snakes.<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Then
the culinary queen of the kitchen<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">constantly
cackled as she stirred the new brew<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">for
her wart-headed warlock who patiently waited<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">to
taste the concoction of Halloween stew.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></div><div style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;">
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;"><br /></p>
</div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Third Prize: Daniel Moreschi</h3><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A Fitful Veil</span></h2><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A wanton
wave of pallid hails descends<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">from ashen
skies. Its drifts are carried through<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">to countless
nooks and peaks by lofty breaths;<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">abundant,
bunched-up, powdered sheets imbue<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">terrains in
bright-white hues, while structured flakes<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">display
arrays of lustrous reveries.<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This frigid
reign persists; a frozen lake<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">reflects an
incandescent glare to tease<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">a place
where sheens and gleams can shine as one.<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But blankets
bearing flame-lit crystals spell<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">their end;
their flimsy layers come undone,<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">leaving
gloomy voids in place of swells.<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A realm left
bare, but rich in rays of gold,</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">is lesser
for the loss of winter’s hold.</span></div><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
</p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><o:p></o:p></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">Serving poets since 1929</div>Chuck Salmonshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11692631204163757459noreply@blogger.comOhio, USA40.4172871 -82.90712300000001312.107053263821157 -118.06337300000001 68.727520936178848 -47.750873000000013tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4637504118325607007.post-15101668302023970572023-10-01T19:23:00.002-04:002023-10-01T20:39:58.956-04:00Rikki Santer named 2023 Ohio Poet of the Year<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq7NdwSioQdLduGop_iaitgFue81EEUVr5AJa30WQwwED_SzskDrjELHe0HuTglSUjtGBdAnEhvv_cCAIs6JOv2HBZ7YHFxJphBp_qTNc5L8cpQwR-5BJ5A4mI0gjRQ96hVxNs67jadzV0RRXX8FZm7MStuOGQ9BzPFWBrB-xYayCKONz-z_Qba3bK7hBk/s1008/Santer_Leonora_thumbnail_cover-jpg-706x1024.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Image of cover of Resurrection Letter: Leonora, Her Tarot, and Me" border="0" data-original-height="1008" data-original-width="695" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq7NdwSioQdLduGop_iaitgFue81EEUVr5AJa30WQwwED_SzskDrjELHe0HuTglSUjtGBdAnEhvv_cCAIs6JOv2HBZ7YHFxJphBp_qTNc5L8cpQwR-5BJ5A4mI0gjRQ96hVxNs67jadzV0RRXX8FZm7MStuOGQ9BzPFWBrB-xYayCKONz-z_Qba3bK7hBk/w221-h320/Santer_Leonora_thumbnail_cover-jpg-706x1024.jpg" width="221" /></a>The Ohio Poetry Day Association (OPDA) has selected Rikki Santer as its Ohio Poet of the Year for 2023. Santer was selected for her book of poems, <i>Resurrection Letter: Leonora, Her Tarot, and Me</i> (Materialist Press/Cereal Box Studio, 2023), a book-length sequence in tribute to the surrealist artist Leonora Carrington.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span face=""Arial",sans-serif">A resident of Columbus, Ohio, Santer has had published five full-length poetry collections and six chapbook sequences exploring such topics as the Hopewell earthworks of Newark, Ohio; the late Kahiki Supper Club of Columbus, Ohio; the world of ventriloquism, the art of fashion, and the classic television series <i>Twilight Zone</i>. She is a member of the teaching artist roster of the Ohio Arts Council, a vice president of the Ohio Poetry Association, and a member of the poetry troupe, Concrete Wink. Her poetry has been widely published and has received many honors including several Pushcart and Ohioana book award nominations as well as a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Learn more at <a href="http://rikkisanter.com" target="_blank">rikkisanter.com</a>.</span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYsTXHbqL0OjaWXVi6O2WsUWADxugmDMf5iagYJkNzuon6VYl2okqs1tLyL-0bXTDXUNNfKHJpCZcReY4sAABejU8pSoCoQNqc8MMrGsy9tCWJ0p7dNaUK73mckcqTX9PqjApnuptzw4HIUeg4j1K_goq491o2P9543R0wgKATttDJih2zaxL-BhB6txtd/s1080/Rikki%20Santer%20photo%20new.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1080" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYsTXHbqL0OjaWXVi6O2WsUWADxugmDMf5iagYJkNzuon6VYl2okqs1tLyL-0bXTDXUNNfKHJpCZcReY4sAABejU8pSoCoQNqc8MMrGsy9tCWJ0p7dNaUK73mckcqTX9PqjApnuptzw4HIUeg4j1K_goq491o2P9543R0wgKATttDJih2zaxL-BhB6txtd/s320/Rikki%20Santer%20photo%20new.jpg" width="320" /></a></span>As an Ohio Poet of the Year, Santer joins the likes of Mary Oliver, David Baker, Kari Gunter-Seymour, and Maggie Smith. The complete list of previous Poet of the Year winners is below.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif">Santer will be featured at this year’s Ohio Poetry Day celebration, October 13–14. The event will feature a morning workshop, readings, and the keynote from Santer, who will read from her winning collection. See agenda details below.</span></p>
<h3 style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif">OHIO POETRY DAY AGENDA</span></b></h3>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 45pt; text-indent: -45pt;"><b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif">Friday, October 13, 7–9 PM:</span></b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif"> Meet and greet with Santer and previous Poets of the Year, overnight poetry contest prompt.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 45pt; text-indent: -45pt;"><b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif">Saturday, October 14, 10 AM–4 PM:</span></b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif"> Evan Lodge Workshop, reading by Rikki Santer, open mic featuring Ohio Poetry Day contest winners.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><b>Where:</b> <span> </span>Troy Hayner Cultural Center<br /><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>301 W. Main St., Troy, Ohio 45373<br /><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><a href="http://troyhayner.org">troyhayner.org</a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP7KMp5CdZu_T5MfvMmxDZjBapW5PT3RFT98hjW2o_QctzDw86TV-6iZaRrJJ-bdjsnbdZtudKI4vr0VQKQwYVTMuSO6Fo8CprD-SK5XOYbyumu8bZjEWKLWuyOmF14dcBQ6I_5dyuEL__GoL0RGP4nWrbsWp7RwNldxuKGW8D1V5qmGGqYCt1upiZWwsE/s3400/Ohio%20Poets%20of%20the%20Year_full%20list.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="List of Ohio Poets of the Year" border="0" data-original-height="3400" data-original-width="2550" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP7KMp5CdZu_T5MfvMmxDZjBapW5PT3RFT98hjW2o_QctzDw86TV-6iZaRrJJ-bdjsnbdZtudKI4vr0VQKQwYVTMuSO6Fo8CprD-SK5XOYbyumu8bZjEWKLWuyOmF14dcBQ6I_5dyuEL__GoL0RGP4nWrbsWp7RwNldxuKGW8D1V5qmGGqYCt1upiZWwsE/s16000/Ohio%20Poets%20of%20the%20Year_full%20list.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Serving poets since 1929</div>Chuck Salmonshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11692631204163757459noreply@blogger.comTroy, OH 45373, USA40.0394982 -84.203276699999989-7.42082267301943 -154.5157767 87.499819073019424 -13.890776699999989tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4637504118325607007.post-81149694537988555172023-05-30T11:15:00.000-04:002023-05-30T11:15:42.503-04:00OPA 2023 Student Contest Winners <div style="text-align: left;">The Ohio Poetry Association (OPA) is pleased to announce the winners and honorable mentions of the 2023 High School Poetry Contests. Eligible poems were sent to the National Federation of State Poetry Societies, Inc. Manningham Trust Student Poetry Contest. All winning poems receive monetary awards and publication in an OPA chapbook. The grand prize-winning poem will be published in the 2024 issue of <i><a href="https://www.ohiopoetryassn.org/product/common-threads/2" target="_blank">Common Threads</a>,</i> OPA's annual anthology.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />We sincerely thank each contest sponsor and judge and congratulate the teachers from each school with student winning poems and honorable mentions. Special thanks to contest coordinator Jessica Weyer-Bentley for all her hard work to coordinate this year’s contests.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>GRAND PRIZE WINNER</b></div><div style="text-align: left;">"Dementia" - Austin Blake, Buckeye Local H.S.</div><div style="text-align: left;">Teacher: Stephanie Crust</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Category 1. Ethos </b><br />Sponsor and Judge: Chuck Salmons <br />1st: "I Set Myself to Sound" - Diana Zhang (The Seven Hills School)<br />2nd: "Dora" - Anna Kunkel (The Seven Hills School)<br />3rd: "Doubling Up" - Ahalya Nambiar (The Seven Hills School)<br />HM: Alex McDiffin (Buckeye Local H.S.) and Clair Liu (The Seven Hills School)<br /><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Category 2. Free Verse<br /></b>Sponsor and Judge: Jessica Weyer Bentley<br />1st: "The King in Red" - Sebastian Owsley (Bath H.S.)<br />2nd: "P.S. She's the Stars" - Evy LaBare (The Seven Hills School)<br />3rd: "Golden Cliffs" - Lauren Vordem Esche (The Seven Hills School)</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Category 3. Humor</b><br />Sponsor and Judge: Pat Snyder Hurley<br />1st: " 'Almost' Snowy Day" - Chris Ebright (Buckeye Local H.S.)</div><div><br /></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Category 4. Metrical Measures<br /></b>Sponsor and Judge: Betsy Hughes<br />1st: "Dementia" - Austin Blake (Buckeye Local H.S.)<br />2nd: "Dear _________" - Emma Cales (Bath H.S.)<br />3rd: "Zoned Out" - Olivia Dorris (Sylvania Northview H.S.)<br />HM: Alec Finney (Buckeye Local H.S.), Anna Songer (Pleasant H.S.), and Allison Emfield (Buckeye Local H.S.)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><b>Category 5. Lyric Poem<br /></b>Sponsor and Judge: Simple Simon Press<br />1st: "The Arrival of Snow" - Rebeka Repp (Northview H.S.)<br />2nd: "Limerence" - Dougie Schecter (The Seven Hills School)<br />3rd: "Popular" - Sydney Snyder (Buckeye Local H.S.)<br />HM: Caiden Younger (Centennial H.S.), Maddix Richter (Buckeye Local H.S.), and Betty Bolock (Buckeye Local H.S.)</div><div><br /></div><b>Category 6. Nature Poem<br /></b>Sponsor and Judge: Kerry Trautman<br />1st: "Withering Flower" - Rahifa Maricar (Walnut Hills H.S.)<br />2nd: "Thunderstorm" - Shlok Mehta (The Seven Hills School)<br />HM: Arica Robertson (Struthers H.S.)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Category 7. Bill Molina: Celebration of Life’s Journey<br /></b>Sponsor: Kelly Sagert; Judge: Dianne Borsenik<br />1st: "9 hours until vacation" - Addy Bonomo (Buckeye Local H.S.)<br />2nd: "Living life like a tree" - Dakota Turner (Buckeye Local H.S.)<br />3rd: "To Be Remembered" - Charlotte Quick (Sylvania Northview H.S.)<br />HM: Aidin Hosenfeld (Buckeye Local H.S.)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><b>Category 8. Meter and Rhyme<br /></b>Sponsor and Judge: Mark F. Stone<br />1st: "Fortnite's Blessing" - Aidin Hosenfeld (Buckeye Local H.S.)<br />2nd: "I Do Not Hate You" - Anna Songer (Pleasant H.S.)<br />3rd: "I Wish I Could See You" - Alexis Burress (Buckeye Local H.S.)<br />HM: Adison Muldrew (Buckeye Local H.S.) and Alyssa Dailey (Buckeye Local H.S.)</div><p><br /></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">Serving poets since 1929</div>Chuck Salmonshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11692631204163757459noreply@blogger.com0Ohio, USA40.4172871 -82.90712300000001312.107053263821157 -118.06337300000001 68.727520936178848 -47.750873000000013tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4637504118325607007.post-17385843604012064022023-03-27T19:20:00.001-04:002023-03-27T19:28:14.550-04:002023 Ohio Poetry Day Contests Now Open<p>Our friends at the Ohio Poetry Day Association have announced their annual contests! <b>May 15, 2023, is the deadline (postmark) </b>for nearly two dozen contest categories. Categories include humor, formal poems, parody and more. As always, a “Welcome Aboard” category for first-time submitters and an art category to design the cover art for the 2023 <i>Best of Ohio Poetry Day</i> anthology are also open to submissions. </p><p>Below is a copy of the submission form, which provides full contest information. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">Ohio Poetry Day 2023 will take place in October. Stay up to date on OPD information, including the event date, location, and agenda, by getting your name and address on the OPD mailing list. To do so, contact:</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in;"><b>Amy Jo Zook</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in;"><b>3520 State Route 56</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in;"><b>Mechanicsburg, OH 43044</b><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in;"><b><br /></b></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><b>Checks for all contest fees and purchases should be made payable to: Ohio Poetry Day</b>. For questions, call (937) 834-2666.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><br /></p><h3 style="margin: 0in 0px; text-align: center;">Click and download the images below to view them at full size.</h3><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><br style="background-color: #ededed; color: #3d3d3d; font-family: "Open Sans"; font-size: 20px;" /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0TLfhO7HNfkGimSzmMuPeYBJbfUBRV5zoFJG-w1I716aXbhxFe_lohHOC2bhvRiAZ6TQZfT0s0WkmEviN-n7JVPwa7X1Z1g0PIb32Xht4yZyfgyCHikVpVlvZRApOuik-v3Jw95kdOnk35PjhekalErdaR5qUTF1KwacZ9_6loFmtP-3DFV615rs9xg/s2100/OPD%20Poetry%20Rules%202023_2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1275" data-original-width="2100" height="389" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0TLfhO7HNfkGimSzmMuPeYBJbfUBRV5zoFJG-w1I716aXbhxFe_lohHOC2bhvRiAZ6TQZfT0s0WkmEviN-n7JVPwa7X1Z1g0PIb32Xht4yZyfgyCHikVpVlvZRApOuik-v3Jw95kdOnk35PjhekalErdaR5qUTF1KwacZ9_6loFmtP-3DFV615rs9xg/w640-h389/OPD%20Poetry%20Rules%202023_2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1-oeMDpRz2TwSnJnrE4pTqAZRL2ymPUeHGltWD8Oq3J9WcXeaAPTg6pZgA4_b_Iy4m1TtKoleZSzKU47Hjfr7VFsUEBzkYPLDAM4FzkjA3E7kelkt2aOSY3NjVm7iMHKI24iYM22d16fZI_Gty-RobR_IPDjqJskJmNDkloMjMVxKJQ9xDvvUECRb3g/s2100/OPD%20Poetry%20Rules%202023_1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1275" data-original-width="2100" height="389" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1-oeMDpRz2TwSnJnrE4pTqAZRL2ymPUeHGltWD8Oq3J9WcXeaAPTg6pZgA4_b_Iy4m1TtKoleZSzKU47Hjfr7VFsUEBzkYPLDAM4FzkjA3E7kelkt2aOSY3NjVm7iMHKI24iYM22d16fZI_Gty-RobR_IPDjqJskJmNDkloMjMVxKJQ9xDvvUECRb3g/w640-h389/OPD%20Poetry%20Rules%202023_1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><br /></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">Serving poets since 1929</div>Chuck Salmonshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11692631204163757459noreply@blogger.com0Ohio, USA40.4172871 -82.907123000000013-10.516188417002077 -153.219623 90 -12.594623000000013tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4637504118325607007.post-8876625296983670722022-10-15T13:19:00.005-04:002022-10-15T13:28:17.682-04:00Poetry Spotlight: Hanif Abdurraqib - Poetry of Responsible Curation (podcast transcript S2, E20)<p><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Jeremy Jusek:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;">
Welcome to <i>Poetry
Spotlight</i> presented by the Ohio Poetry Association. I am your host
Jeremy Jusek. And with us today is Hanif Abdurraqib.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBd1vNEKQ6yE4zMmJ_CzkMn3Uptg60fqC9PyFLwuqVn9zpPIijDBkUezSC4AmvhBwACOLgUYd_3-nRjUDLMWJ4bX_wSHWr1aWHXF-iS61Feq_xM_0Y5ij919UXfVhaw1PkKtk3E41fvzQBLXLIMfGzj9p8AwakaU6lZAdYX4cYAP7HYH3LIx4XcwOKxw/s655/Hanif_Web-19_preview.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="655" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBd1vNEKQ6yE4zMmJ_CzkMn3Uptg60fqC9PyFLwuqVn9zpPIijDBkUezSC4AmvhBwACOLgUYd_3-nRjUDLMWJ4bX_wSHWr1aWHXF-iS61Feq_xM_0Y5ij919UXfVhaw1PkKtk3E41fvzQBLXLIMfGzj9p8AwakaU6lZAdYX4cYAP7HYH3LIx4XcwOKxw/w244-h320/Hanif_Web-19_preview.jpeg" title="Photo by Andrew Cenci" width="244" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo by Andrew Cenci</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Hanif Abdurraqib is a poet, essayist,
and cultural critic from Columbus, Ohio. His poetry has been published
in <em><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif;">Muzzle, Vinyl,
PEN American,</span></em> and various other journals. His essays and music
criticism have been published in <em><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif;">The
FADER, Pitchfork, The New Yorker</span></em>, and <em><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif;">The New York Times. </span></em>His
first full length poetry collection, </span><a href="https://buttonpoetry.com/product/the-crown-aint-worth-much/" target="_blank"><em><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif;">The
Crown Ain't Worth Much</span></em></a><em><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif;">, </span></em><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">was
named a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Book Prize, and was nominated for a
Hurston-Wright Legacy Award. His first collection of essays, </span><a href="https://twodollarradio.com/products/they-cant-kill-us"><em><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif;">T</span></em></a><a href="https://twodollarradio.com/products/they-cant-kill-us" target="_blank"><em><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif;">hey Can't Kill Us Until They Kill
Us</span></em></a><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">, was released in winter 2017 by Two
Dollar Radio and was named a book of the year by <em><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif;">Buzzfeed, Esquire, NPR, Oprah
Magazine, Paste, CBC, The Los Angeles Review, Pitchfork, </span></em>and <em><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif;">The Chicago Tribune</span></em>,
among others. He released</span><a href="https://utpress.utexas.edu/books/abdurraqib-go-ahead-in-the-rain" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <em><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif;">Go
Ahead In The Rain: Notes To A Tribe Called Quest </span></em></span></a><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">,
which became a New York Times Bestseller, was a finalist for the Kirkus Prize,
and was longlisted for the National Book Award. His second collection of poems, <em><u><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif;">A Fortune For Your
Disaster</span></u></em>, was released in 2019 by Tin House, and won the 2020
Lenore Marshall Prize. In 2021, he released the book <em><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif;">A Little Devil In America </span></em>with
Random House, which was a finalist for the National Book Award, the National
Book Critics Circle Award, and The PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art
of the Essay. The book won the 2022 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in
Nonfiction and the Gordon Burn Prize. <o:p></o:p></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Hanif, thank you so much for joining
us.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Hanif Abdurraqib:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
Yeah, thank you so much for having me Jeremy, it's really great to be here.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">JJ:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Would you
please start us off with the poem?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">HA:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Yeah i'll
read a short—I haven't been writing a lot of poems, but I've been working on
the new nonfiction book which has these interludes in it that feel like poems
that are kind of odes to Ohio aviators and whatever form that is so. I’ll read
this little thing about Lonnie Carmen who was pilot in Columbus, in the early
1900s.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">[Hanif Reads]<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>hundreds in the hood, called him the junk man.
Throw him all sorts of their undesirables cartons and metals and cardboards
right here in Columbus, and wouldn't you know Lonnie built a plane out of what
his people didn't want in their homes and on their portraits, and they should
have never let him get his hands on that motorcycle engine, because that was
all he needed. And before you knew it, Moni was flying his plane over his hood
on weekends, the people on his block running outside and pointing at him in the
sky. They're old trash now, cradled by endless blue and moni had no training,
which is maybe by Port Columbus. authority. Never gave from a gig, even though
he tried and today not he got himself a monument in that same airport, and in
the photo he's wearing his helmet and his glasses. And he is next to the plane
he made from whatever the people he loved, showed up to his doorstep with. And
I tell my homies I am not superstitious. but here I am touching the photo of
Lonnie again while I walk to the security line before getting on a plane. Before
forcing myself to forget about the mechanics of flight and all the ways it
fail. And I think about Lonnie in the sky, kept safe by his people in the small
but useful things that outlasted their dreams.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">JJ:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Wow! Thank
you. You're from Columbus and you got your start here, and I was curious: How
has the city of Columbus changed—both the writing scene and the city since you
began writing?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">HA: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, I think I mean the writing scene has
become I think both more expansive, but also it's changed since the pandemic. Because
there was a point where when I was coming up, when I was out most frequently, you
could hit an open mic at almost any weeknight in the city and they were all
different.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">They were all unique open mics. They
were all catering to different things. You could hear different poem, and you
know, there was a poetry forum and there was Writer’s Block and Write and
Wrongs, and I ran a night. These kind of things. One big difference is that a
lot of those places have not returned, or you know have not returned to perhaps
the status that they were most commonly at. And so maybe there's a bit of an
absence in terms of physical places to hear poetry every night. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But I also think that the writing
community has become more expansive. There's young writers who are, you know,
really high school writers who are kind of making their own way, and folks who
are doing incredible bits of self-publishing and kind of getting their work on
the map in that way. And so you know there's a way that the ability to just
kind of show up somewhere and see a poem is a bit more limited than it was. But
there's also kind of an expansive nature, in how work is entering the world. And
so I appreciate that. And of course I mean the city—it feels often at the whims
of developers and the powerful and folks who are—I appreciate the artists and
the activists and community members who are trying to keep corners of the city
to their own, because left to its own devices I don't think the city would
allow those of us who have been here for a long time and have loved it to
maintain the things we love about it <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">That's
interesting—what are some of the struggles that you've seen in terms of trying
to hold onto that culture?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">HA: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Well, I mean,
I think part of it is because Columbus doesn't seem to know what kind of city
it wants to be. It seems to want to be multiple cities at once, and none of
those cities seem to reflect the actual people who have been here: who have
lived here, who have loved here, and who have created things here. And so
that's a struggle in and of itself is that I think the creative spirit of the
city is it odds with, or at least like brushes, aggressively up against, the
whims of the city itself, or what the city believes itself to be. Which it
seems to still be in the throes of figuring out at the expense of a lot of
folks.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">JJ:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Sure. And I
imagine these changes, both [with] Covid and developmentally, have affected the
beaten slam. The performance side of poetry more then, perhaps traditional
sharing.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">HA:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Yeah, yeah,
you know, there aren't a lot of slam venues anymore. But I think you know, even
before the pandemic like, Writer’s Block it kind of turned away from slam a
bit, and or at least had taken to slam in more creative ways, which I always
appreciated. But you know, I came up through slam. Slam was kind of the era—or
the medium that I operated in. So I owe a lot to slam and the slam community in
Columbus when it was at its height, you know? Or one of the types, it's had
many heights—but one of its heights was certainly when I was coming up, which
is you know early 2010s.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">JJ</span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">: Yeah. What do
you think the difference is between coming up in the poetry community through
slam versus more academic [routes]?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">HA:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> I don't know,
I mean I don't know if I could say. For me, the only reason I got into slam
initially was because I just needed something to motivate me to write—I needed a
self-imposed deadline in that Writer's Block, and at Writing Wrongs. If you
want to slam you have to bring a new poem, you know. And so I mostly just
needed something to get me to write a new poem. And what I found that I really
enjoyed in slam, was that there's a real time feedback that you get, and
there's a real time relationship being built with an audience.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And so, just because of the nature of
it, because of the nature of say like call-in response, that is almost I would
say required—it's not just something that is encouraged within slam, but it's
required and so when you're reading your poem, and you hear people react to it
a certain way, that's a form of like, say real-time editing. I always feel that
what I get most out of slam is an understanding of how to read my work out
loud. And how to edit in audible sense, and I really value that.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">JJ:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Oh, that's
cool. And your poetry has a real sort of free form. I mean it has less
punctuation, oftentimes you're not capitalizing things, and it flows. And do
you owe that to slam too, would you say? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">HA: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I think so, yeah.
I mean when I was first writing poems? I was writing them purely to be
performed. I wasn't writing them to be read on the page because I would
memorize everything, and so I was mostly writing just as a tool of getting the
language somewhere where I could memorize it? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And so there are early poems of mine,
where you know, people will see a video online and be like, “well, where's this
poem?” And I don't have it—I don't know where it is. And so you know, when I
did start sitting down and saying “Okay, I want to get my poems on the page in
a way that they can live, you know, somewhere beyond me and beyond the stage,” I
wanted to write poems as I was reading them, you know? I wanted the poems to
kind of reflect, to get as close to the nature of the performance of them as I
could. And that really allowed me some inventiveness with how with how I put my
work on the page. And I think I've made I've been lucky enough to be able to
maintain that.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Okay, Yeah.
And I think that comes across for sure. So, you just finished working on a book
project. It's nonfiction. So what is the project, and how did the writing
unfold?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">HA:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> The project’s
called <i>There's Always This Here</i>, and it's a book you know—I've been kind
of resisting the nature of, about saying “this is about that kind of thing.” It
does use basketball as a container, so basketball is the container for the
book. But the book is mostly about who gets to make it and who doesn't, and
what making it looks like once you live beyond a point where you believed
yourself capable of living. Wherein you’re maybe making it in a different way
every single day.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And I really loved, you know, was one
of those things where because basketball is the container, because I have never
written a book like this with this kind of container before. I really loved—you
know, much like <i>Little Devil in America</i> I had so much fun writing that
for the similar reason which is: I got to kind of dig in the archives of a past
life that, you know, for me I'm an athlete. I grew up playing basketball and
playing soccer. It was really wonderful to get to dwell in you know all of
these videos of basketball from an era that I grew up playing in, even though
much of that stuff didn't actually make it in physical book. It was just a real
delight to get to spend time in a past era that meant a lot to me.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Yeah. What
was one of the most surprising things you found while researching?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">HA:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> You know, I
think that because Lebron James is also a center point of the container, you
know, Lebron, and I are about the same age, we came up playing around the same
time, and being immersed in the world of basketball at the same time. It was
really refreshing and exciting for me to go back and remember that Lebron
James, as he became noted by his junior high school you know there were other
folks—because he kind of eclipsed the basketball landscape in Ohio by the time
he was a junior senior, and he was beginning to by the time he was a freshman/sophomore,
it was refreshing to go back and remember there was so many other folks, in my
neighborhood even, who were singular players operating at that time as well.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And you know, it was kind of good to
refurnish that particular corner of my memory palace with just guys I remember
playing with, or seeing, or you know, it was a good reminder that you know that
LeBron, is as great as he is, was not the only person operating in that moment.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sure. Now you
talk and write about sentimentality and moments in time—stuff like this where
it's both personal to you and historically relevant to the community. And you
mentioned in the keynote speech you gave the summer at the NFSPS conference
that you wanted to write about Columbus neighborhoods you knew before they
started becoming gentrified, and before people were getting displaced and the
neighborhoods were changing. And you wrote an essay about the Ohio State Fair
where there was that ride that killed that the kid and, it was awful God—But
you said that you weren't sure why people rode those state those the rides at
state fairs. But you thought it had something to do with childhood. And so what
do you think is humanity's obsession about the good old days? And what do you
think are some of the dangers about trying to recreate that past… or living in
it?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">HA: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Well, I mean,
I do think that nostalgia without a critical eye put on it is dangerous,
because it's riding a wave of uncritical affection about the past, and as we
know you know the past holds a lot of pleasures, but a lot of terrors depending
on who you are, how you experience the world, how you identify all these
things. And in the actual like physical sense, too, there are things that we
were drawn to in our past that are maybe untenable for the world. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Now, this isn't to say of course I
think there are elements of things like the fair—I didn't go this year. I kind
of wanted to go to the Ohio State Fair this year, but I was too in and out of
town—But you know I still like elements of the fair so like I’m not gonna get
on one of those rides, that’s just me personally, I’m not—but I still like
elevator of the fair, because it reminds me of a time when I was a kid. I had
like a little bit of money in my pocket and I could, you know, go in and have
some freedom like away from the place I lived, you know. But I also do think
that all nostalgia deserves perhaps a critical eye placed upon it. That's, the
most generous way that I think we can receive our past, even if we are excited
about the many ways our past represents itself. I think being critical and
putting a critical eye towards it is the best thing we can do for ourselves.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sure. And
when you're working on books like these where you're applying that critical eye,
what is—How do you know when you got the criticism when you're like “Yes, I
nailed it.”, you know what I mean like, how do you know? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">HA: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Yeah, well, I
think for me the question is always am I implicating something or someone, even
myself, beyond the initial pleasure of the nostalgia revelation, you know?
Beyond the initial exuberance of just “wasn't this thing that happened in the
time before this one really cool?” I think there's gotta be a way that I am
kind of thoughtfully indicting myself or the role that this nostalgia played
that wasn't always joyful for everyone. And I think I do that sometimes most
often by placing myself at the center of my work. Or at least maybe not the center,
but never too far from the center of my work, and that serves me a bit because
yeah, I feel like it is easiest then for me to say “you know I was this way,
and I have a different way now, and me being a different way now is for the
better but I'm also not ashamed of who I was.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I needed who I was to become, who I am.
That kind of thing. That kind of honesty, I think, is what gets the job done,
if that makes sense.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I mean there's
a pretty stark difference between somebody saying “this needs to change” versus
“this needs to change. I was a part of it. I feel bad—but I have this
perspective.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">HA: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Yeah and can’t,
you know, beat yourself up I was you know you. You have to—the hard part is not
beating oneself up right?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But it's significantly more beneficial,
I think, to say “Well, I was someone different than I am now. And that's just
the math. I mean that we all encounter that math in whatever we do. But it is. It
is the math nonetheless.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Pardon me for
a question that might be a little too philosophical and far gone. But is it
possible to be irredeemable <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">HA: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I don't know?
I mean, you know, I'm someone who believes in a world beyond the structures of
punishment that we currently have in place. That's one thing. And 2, I'm
someone who believes in a world where people individually don't inflict prolonged
punishment on each other. Now I don't believe that I personally need to redeem
everyone. So, are there people who might fall into the ends of irredeemable for
me? Absolutely sure. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But now do I believe that people by and
large should be, or could be, redeemable? I don't know if I believe that. I do
believe that, or at least my hope is that, there is an arc of redemption for
everyone. But I also very much realize that I don't necessarily need to do that
work. I don't need to be the one who redeems people.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I can say “Well, I hope this person
finds redemption somewhere,” but they don't need to find it through me.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sure. Okay,
that makes sense. So, you have this amazing ability to pull in pop culture and
history and the personal, which we've already talked about. And to prove a
wider point. And, for instance, in a little double America, it starts with the
nationwide dance craze, which, super interesting And it continues to show how
black involvement in creative communities was incredibly influential and
impactful on America. But it was also ignored by the rest of society.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And you have this anecdote when you're
talking about how the Hell's Angels murdered Meredith Hunter at a rolling
stones concert, and you wrote “His family could not afford a tombstone, so he
was buried in an unmarked grave in East Vallejo, California. He became a
footnote to the land, as he'd become a footnote to the Altamont, the victim of
that concert’s logical conclusion.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And, okay. So, these questions are kind
of tangentially related.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But, 1, how do you choose your stories
and see the wider implication they have for society, and 2, how do you think
Americans can be educated about these parts of history that they seem almost
determined to ignore?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">HA: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Well for me I
don't ever think about myself as someone who's interested in educating
Americans in part, because I think as Americans I think there's a desire to
forget the history that doesn't serve the greater goals of furthering empire,
or, you know, to become kind of forgetful. I mean every time there's a there's
a shooting, not only school shooting, a police shooting, and we have we have
these conversations about what violence is and what acceptable violence is, and
this “this is not who we are” kind of things.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">That for me signals this idea that
we've America really relies on a really rigid relationship with forgetting
things, and hoping that everyone else forgets things. And so I've perhaps given
up on if I was ever invested in it—which I don't think I ever was—but I’ve
really given up on the idea of educating folks because you know, <i>Little Devil
in America</i> was a book that I wrote out of a lot of exuberance and a lot of excitement
and uncovering those stories meant a lot to me, and it was really fun.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Now of course, if people find their way
to the book and learn something that's great! Like I'm you know I'm not
refusing that. I'm not saying like don't learn anything through this book,
certainly not refusing that. But I would not say that my intention was one of “I
hope to teach people something,” because yeah I don't know if that's where my
brain was at.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">JJ:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Sure. Well,
it's strange you say that because my book actually came with a copy of horse
binders. Do you think that shortsightedness is uniquely American? Or do you
think that's more of a human thing?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">HA:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> I would
imagine—I don't know you don't spend as much time in other places, so my
relationship with it is uniquely American. But part of me does—you know, the
impulse I have suggests, or at least I feel like it is an American, I mean a
human affliction. A global human affliction. And I feel myself personally
immerse myself in it in lower-stakes situations. Perhaps, you know. Like, I
also rely on situations that are of the lower stakes, sort of the of the lower-stakes
emotional sort, perhaps. And I don't you know it's one of those things where I’m
often like, “Well, I wish I were better at confronting—there are things that I
wish I was I were better at confronting.” But I don't think—I’m not there yet. And
that is, you know, that is an ever-evolving challenge.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sure. I think
that's natural, too, because you can only work on so many flaws at a time, you
know what I mean? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">HA: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Yes, yes,
yes, it's true. And you can't work on them all to the same with the same
ferocity or intensity. I mean this is one miracle of being fortunate enough to
age. I think, for me at least, is being intensely and acutely aware of that
reality—in embracing it in a way you know? And kind of being like “Well, yeah,
you're right, like I can't work on. I actually physically cannot work, on every
single thing at once. And if I am lucky, I will live long enough to be able to
work on any number of things. But they're gonna come slowly.” I think. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">That's a
healthy, generous way to look at it, I think. There are flaws that I think,
where, I’ve just shoved them. “I’ll deal with you later, I’ve got other, more
pressing things to do now.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">HA: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Yeah, I mean
you know I’m a deeply flawed person. I've lived a very flawed life. And I think
that my impulse particularly—I think my life changed a bit when I felt like I
took on a bit more responsibility for the ways that I was failing. Not just with
others with myself. And I wanted to change that. My impulse was like, “How do I
become, a quote unquote, a better person overnight?” You know, like, “How do I
become a better person like, today?”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But that's just not how any of this
works, and you know that's, again, I'm really thankful that I’ve had the
opportunity to age beyond the point where I thought I would age, because it has
afforded me a real ability to understand that these things kind of turn slowly
and to kind of take some heart in that. And understand that I don't have
forever. But I have a have perhaps some time to make the world, to make myself,
comfortable with how I am in the world. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Yeah, I feel
that. And those times where I told myself “Okay, tomorrow is gonna be
different. You know, I’m gonna wake up and have everything's gonna be perfect.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">HA: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Yeah.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">JJ:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Those were
the times where I was the least kind to myself, because you expect immediate
results, they don't happen, and then you fall back into those cycles again.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">HA: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Yeah, yeah. And
it puts, I mean, it puts all of us in a bad place. To put all of us in a pretty
unfair place of expectations. And I think we, broadly speaking, I think It's
possible that we deserve better. Not just for ourselves, but for the people who
love us and care about us. I think we deserve grace.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">One of my dear friends—Yesterday I was
talking to my friend, the poet Angel Nafis, was like “I'm at a point in my life
where I don't even know if I deserve grace, but I need it.” And of course, like
she deserves grace, of course! But the whole thing is like “I don't know if I
like—I don't wanna fight for this. I don't wanna like make a case for my
deserving of grace.” Like, I just need it to survive. And so, if I need it,
then we're gonna have to come to some kind of agreement on the, you know, it's
one of those things where it's like, “We gotta hit an agreement on what I'm
going to receive from the world.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Because it's hard, you know, like I
have been thinking so much about just the challenges of being, and it's tough.
I feel like I am most now most commonly in a place now where it's like, I hope
that I deserve grace. But even if I don't in the eyes of some, like a lot of us
needed to function so like that's where we're at. We gotta have it to function.
And there's no other questions. You know? No—no other questions at this time. That's
just what I need, you know.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Yeah, and you
know it's funny because you think, you know, if somebody has an episode. Like
they break down, and they just, that was it. That was the final last straw, and
camel's back’s broken, the you know, all of it. Usually those times—those are
the moments when people pull away from that person. You know what I mean? Like,
they wind up suffering more because they've now alienated themselves, and maybe
they did something where they don't deserve grace.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But perhaps grace in those moments
might be what's needed the most.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">HA: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Yeah, it's a
challenge though, you know—it's a challenge to extend grace to people who I
know this. I'm not even like—I know this as someone who has both felt that
challenge myself, and someone who's been challenged to offer that to people. It's
just not easy. And that is perhaps why you know my impulse is always how do I
become a slightly better person who can articulate not only my needs, but also
tap in with the needs of other people, you know? How do I? How do I best get to
the heart of what other people need and be a good steward of other people's
needs as well?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Yeah,
alright. So you're also a culture critic which I found fascinating. One of your
projects is a podcast called the <i>Object of Sound</i>, and in it you
mentioned that you want to find how musicians and artists use music to make
sense of the world around them. And so I wanted to ask, what did you learn
while working on this podcast? In it you called yourself, in one of the recent
episodes I was listening to, you called yourself a responsible curator, as
somebody who enjoys making playlists to tell a story.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And I remember burning CDs and like
giving them to friends and being like “This is like that time we all went
camping!” and they're like “I don't know what you're talking about, Jeremy.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">HA:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Right right,
right. I think one thing I’ve learned is there are so many musicians who kind
of just like want to talk about, who want to talk about their work in deep and
thoughtful ways, and who don't always get the opportunity to do so. And you
know, one great thing about <i>Object of Sound</i> is just simply like having
the opportunity. Have these conversations to say to someone like “I’ve done
really deep listening. You know, I'm coming to you as an admirer of something
you've created, you know?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I think a lot of musicians are used to
having these kind of sometimes like, with respect to other interviews, is dry
conversations. And for me? I, you know, I’m a real fan! I love music, and so I
don't wanna—if I have the opportunity to have someone's ear and they've created
something that I think is really special, I don't ever want to pass that up,
you know?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And so I’ve learned how to be an
attentive and eager fan, too. And it's not just like you know, one big thing during
the pandemic that I tried to avoid, I guess the ongoing pandemic, but you know
the questions that so many musicians got were like “So, you made a pandemic album,”
and that kind of thing. You know? And I get it, I get why, that's—<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But I my whole thing is like I wanna
get into the weeds of the writing, you know? I’m such a big exuberant fan of
writing, and so I wanna get to the core of how the writing happened on an album,
and what the writing tells me about the person who created it, and these kind
of things. I don't want to pass up these opportunities to have in-depth,
generous conversations with folks who are doing work I admire. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Yeah, yeah. And
what would you say is an element of success of that? Like, when you're sitting
down to talk to somebody and you know you've hit the pinata, so to speak. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">HA: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">You know for
me it's always telling when someone gets excited about what I like to call the “song
within the song” or the “creation within the creation,” because when I get
someone not just talking about an overarching process, and have them talking
about a line of a song or a sonic movement in a song, and they get to a point
where they're excited because they know that I want to hear about the actual
moving parts inside of the moving parts—then the conversation really flows, the
conversation becomes incredibly generous. And that's where I think I really
learn from folks.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And yeah, I don't know, I don't think
by nature I’m a great interviewer, but I am a very curious person, you know? I
mean you interview people so you know like, sometimes curiosity is just that's
it. That what turns the key to the door.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">That's true. A
lot of times a question will spiral into other things just because I wanna know
more. I love it: “That sounds really cool. I wanna know more about that. Tell
me about it.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">HA: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Yeah, yeah, I
always say like curiosity actually is what—that's what does it for me most of
the time, because I don't know if I'm a great asking of questions, but I think
that I’m a pretty good seeker of excitement, and yeah, I think that's it. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And I think—to
go back to <i>Little Devil</i>, I feel like I can feel that in the writing,
because your poetry collections are excellent. What I really appreciated about <i>Devil</i>
was that you had all these stories. And sometimes you would just tell an
anecdote, and you could tell it was there just because you found it
interesting, and I thought that was such a neat way to present the material and
like—so how much of this research did you do that didn't make it into the book?
You had talked about the non-fiction piece—you've done all this research.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">HA: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Yeah, I think
for me, I'm a big researcher, right? Because what I’m actually doing when I’m
researching is trying to find these things of excitement where it's like “I
can't believe this, I can't believe I found this thing and I want to tell
people about it.” I want to shout from the mountaintops about this thing that I
heard, or this thing that I found, or you know—it allows me to transfer towards
somewhat evangelical notions which is to say, to find the good word of
something, and then deliver the good word to others. And that's kind of it you
know? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For example, in <i>Little Devil in
America</i>, for that opening essay I watched so much Soul Train. I watched
literal hundreds of hours of Soul Train. And I hit a point where I was like “I
think the essay has maybe already written itself through these videos.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And the best I can do is just tell
people what I’ve experienced, you know? And so that in part, the research
allows me to kind of build a baseline or a trampoline towards the evangelical
motion. I think that’s maybe why I’m at my best, I think.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Okay, yeah,
your details are really good. So going back to the dance crazes at the
beginning, which was a super interesting way to start the book, you had this
one line about how you're talking about once the dances became a nationwide
craze.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">You described white people dancing, and
they were going for endurance. They were trying to see who could dance for two
days straight, or weeks in a row, you know that sort of thing. And then you
talk about how black communities that were dancing. African Americans were
dancing for style. Like, they didn't have these rhythmic movements just to keep
them going past the point of physical physicalness.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And then you have this line where you
said “because they had already endured.” I thought it was such a poignant way
to take the elements of the stew and bring out the flavor. You know what I mean?
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">HA: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Yeah, I'm
always kind of interested in the point of this point of expansiveness that
pushes an idea to a breaking point. And how can I tie up a bunch of ideas at
once before that breaking point descends. Which is hard, and so that's you know
part of my writing process is just continually seeking seeking seeking until
the balloon is near bursting, and that is—it's a tight rope, you know? It's a
tight line to walk. I actually credit—people actually talk about poetry and writing
a across genre.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I don't actually ever think about in a
practical sense, because I’m not really beholding the genre, but if I’m being
honest I do think that there is an element of poetry that taught me about
walking this tight rope to, towards at least, what a breaking point could be,
and knowing how to navigate that breaking point. You know, saying a lot in a
small amount of space, for example.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Okay. Yeah,
it's funny you said that cause I was just about to ask you “Wouldn't that make
poetry more limiting to you?” because I was thinking, well, it's if it's hard
to do in a big expanse where you have hundreds of pages, do you find a poem
constricting for that very reason? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">HA: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">No, I feel
like it trains me, it trains me along the delivery of information, you know. Like
one of my—to pivot to music slightly one of my favorite musicians (I make no
secret of this) of all time, one of the musicians that means the most to me is
Bruce Springsteen. And I studied Bruce Springsteen as a writer, you know? And
he’s mastered this gift, this form of information delivery wherein he is
downloading a lot of information and putting a lot of information into a small
space. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">You look at a song like “Atlantic City,”
right? You know, where the first rest of “Atlantic City” is wild, because in that
verse alone, that verse is like forty seconds long, but there’s a novel in
there. We get the stakes of the situation. We get characters, we get
development of characters, we get sympathy built around characters. We get an
understanding of this place that is kind of coming apart at the seams. And that
rush of information built out in that way in that first verse allows for the
rest of the narrative to fall into place. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And for those people listening who not
have not heard it yet, I say “go listen to it, immediately!”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But you get a thing where you feel for
this guy. You feel for this guy wandering through this unstable city that is on
the verge of exploding. There are people coming in looking for a fight. Gambling
commission's falling apart. This guy's house got blown up. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And that’s the wild thing, right? The
first line is like “They blew up the chicken man of Philly last night. They blew
up his house, too.” And the impulse I think as a listener is to say, “Well, I
feel bad for that guy.” But then we get to the end of the verse, and it's like “No
no no I actually feel bad for <i>this</i> guy. Like I don't feel bad for the
guy who's house got blown up anymore. I feel bad for the guy who has to find a
way to make a life in the midst of this Hell right?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Because the bomb, and the blowing up of
the house, is just a byproduct of the ongoing Hell that this living person has
to maneuver. And so you know, I take queues from that. I learned so much from
Bruce Springstein about how to how to input and how to download a lot of
information in a tight space to say “Okay, now that you have all this information
at your disposal, we can tell a real story.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Yeah, that's really
cool. Who are some of your other favorite lyricists?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">HA: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Tracy Chapman
means a lot to me, you know. Tracy Chapman for me is the one of the great Ohio
writers, and I don't mean songwriters, I mean, like, I think Tracy Chapman is
in some ways a novelist. In some ways a poet herself, you know? I am always—I’m
so drawn to her work, and I’m so drawn that the way that she tells stories.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">That's a big one. I love Bryan Ferry
from Roxy Music. Roxy Music is a band that means a lot to me, and I love Bryan
Ferry. I love Meshell Ndegeocello. Who I just saw! I just saw her—you know
she's someone who I interviewed for <i>Object of Sound</i> but I’d never seen
her live before in my life, and I got to see her maybe 3 weeks ago she was in
Columbus? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And that was cool, you know there's not
many artists—There's not many artists who at this point in my life that I
haven't seen because I've seen—actually, so many shows, like I was gonna say a
million but I'm trying to work on not being hyperbolic. I've seen I would say
that in my life I have definitely seen, have to have by now seen 100,000 shows
like real talk. And so, there's like not many artists left on the list of
artists I love who I haven't seen. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And you know, getting to see Meshell
Ndegeocello was a dream for me because she was on that list, and so that was
cool.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">That's
fantastic. How—you seem to be really in tune with music. I'm surprised you're
not a musician.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">HA:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Well, I’m
not very talented! When it comes to that at least. I, you know, I play piano a
little bit, but not very well. Have a piano on the house I mess around on. I
was in a couple of short-lived bands. I’m just not very good at—I'm a better, I'm
good at hearing sound and talking about sound and translating what sound means
to me. And the impact it has on the body and the spirit, and all this… when it
comes to <i>making</i> sounds I, you know I think people would rather hear from
a great many other folks than me.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I think one great strength of mine is
that I know better than knowing what I’m good at, I know what I’m not good at. And
that is how I maintain.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">JJ:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Last
question, little on the generic side, but what do you want people to know about
your writing, or you as a person? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">HA: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Oh, gosh! I
think—that’s such a good question. I think, to take it to myself, I think one
thing I want people to know about me as a person is just that I am—in a way I
feel so much beyond the work I do. I love the work I do. I love writing, and I
love you know—and I think that folks who know me a little bit, even folks who
see me around the city, you know, when I'm out and about in Columbus. A lot of
people stop me and say, “hey,” and one thing I feel like I'm always more
interested in someone else than they could ever be in me, you know? Even if
we're just having a small interaction. If I’m like at a coffee shop, and
someone comes up and is like “Yo, what's up I love your book.” I'm always like “You
know that's cool, but what's up with you?” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">You know, because I live here. I'm a
person who lives here—and one reason I love living in Columbus, and I wanna be
here for a long time, is because I feel a part of this community. Which means
that if someone comes up to me and says “What’s up?”—we're in the same
community, so you know, we could chop it up for a bit. I sometimes feel bad
because I feel like sometimes people are legitimately just coming over to say
like “Hey, I read your book” or whatever and I end up holding them in a
conversation for like ten minutes more than they probably want—which I’m trying
to work on that, too—but I do have a real exuberance about—like I can't believe
that I live <i>,</i> in a place—<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I'll say this: When my first book a
nonfiction came out when <i>They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us</i> came out,
Two Dollar Radio here in Columbus put it out. My whole thing was like if 50 to
60 people in this city read and love this book, that's all I really want, you
know? That that would mean the world to me, because I came up here and I love
the people here. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And to now be at a point with our
people in the city that I love who are that appreciative of my work, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>you know, it's like a dream come true. But
it’s also a dream come true that, you know that I can build with folks here. That
I can build with folks here and talk to folks here. I have teachers sometimes come
up to me and are like “I read your work and like, come by my class.” And that's
how I meet some young writers that I mentored, you know? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And this kind of stuff we're building,
it's not just me. It's not just me moving through this city on high, as like
the writer, the capital “W” writer. I feel like we're really building a web of
community care through these interactions that I get to have with people that, sure,
maybe admittedly begin with like someone's relationship to my writing. But I'm
so quick to steer in a different direction, because people who know me even a
little bit here also know that I’m a million things beyond the writer and—not a
million, not a million. Again, working on hyperbole—but I'm several things from
a writer <i>before</i> I’m a writer.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In order to write well, I have to check
all these other boxes that make me a person, and I’m thankful to live in a
place that allows the fullness of me as a person to exist. Like, I wouldn't be the
writer that I am if I didn't live in a place like Columbus where I feel like I
am a full and whole person, and I'm treated that way. By the really grateful and
whole people who live here alongside me and with me and all that.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Yeah. You moved
to Connecticut and then came back home.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">HA: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Yeah, for
like two and a half years I was in Connecticut. My partner at the time had gotten
a job, and so I moved out there… and I did not love it. And you know, there was
a point where when that relationship fell apart. It was kind of like “Well, I
could live anywhere. I could go anywhere.” And I contemplated the many—You know
it was wild to have to have that level of freedom. At the time I was working
for a place where I could work remotely wherever I wanted, and I was like, “I
can live in any in any city I want.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And after awhile I thought “But why? I've
spent all this time missing home. And so, it makes sense for me to just return
home.” And every day I'm thankful for that decision.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Wonderful, alright.
Well, would you like to read a poem before we sign off?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">HA: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Yeah, I’m
gonna read another short ode to an Ohio aviator from the book.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">[Hanif reads.]<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Excellent. I'm
very excited to read this book. Alright! Thank you so much. This has been <i>Poetry Spotlight</i>,
a production of the Ohio Poetry Association. Please follow the OPA on Twitter
@OhioPoetry and on facebook at </span><a href="http://facebook.com/ohiopoetry" target="_blank">facebook.com/ohiopoetry</a>. A
transcript of this episode can be found on the OPA blog. Visit <a href="http://ohiopoetryassn.org/" target="_blank">ohiopoetryassn.org</a> for
more information.<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And
Hanif, <span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">thank you so very much for joining us.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">HA:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> No doubt,
Jeremy.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">--------------------------------------</span></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Learn more about the Poetry Spotlight podcast including how to listen at <a href="https://www.ohiopoetryassn.org/poetry-spotlight">ohiopoetryassn.org/poetry-spotlight</a>. </span></h3><div class="blogger-post-footer">Serving poets since 1929</div>Chuck Salmonshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11692631204163757459noreply@blogger.comOhio, USA40.4172871 -82.90712300000001312.107053263821157 -118.06337300000001 68.727520936178848 -47.750873000000013tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4637504118325607007.post-4884109578121602342022-10-02T16:28:00.002-04:002022-10-02T16:36:50.910-04:00OPA again hosting Ohio Poetry Day Celebration in 2022<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-family: inherit;">The Ohio Poetry Association (OPA) will again be hosting a virtual celebration of Ohio Poetry Day (OPD) this year, featuring the Ohio Poet of the Year and poetry contest winners. The event will be held on Zoom and broadcast live on the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ohiopoetry" target="_blank">OPA Facebook</a> page on Saturday, October 15 beginning at 12:30 PM. Full event details and registration info is available <a href="https://www.ohiopoetryassn.org/events" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNYsvl1MM9qHm8AU6tRyYwW-M_1s234URbbO8RNVpnxERbEtFv0xHxFVwOtj125gCkyHfA5CrQbOCvrADDxpN9G-wDESBvqxsz6kI1bWmRxZhc1XJya5yHeWmNtkCnUxFnU7J80wBRvutNPvMBRW0BIG7m-NMMuwuVEDC_XGQvwWzZLC5zVgfAa4S0mQ/s1000/PAULSON-ERICA-MANTO-WEB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNYsvl1MM9qHm8AU6tRyYwW-M_1s234URbbO8RNVpnxERbEtFv0xHxFVwOtj125gCkyHfA5CrQbOCvrADDxpN9G-wDESBvqxsz6kI1bWmRxZhc1XJya5yHeWmNtkCnUxFnU7J80wBRvutNPvMBRW0BIG7m-NMMuwuVEDC_XGQvwWzZLC5zVgfAa4S0mQ/s320/PAULSON-ERICA-MANTO-WEB.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-family: inherit;">The 2022 Ohio Poet of the year is Erica Manto-Paulson, chosen for her collection, <i><a href="https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/hunger-by-erica-manto-paulson/" target="_blank">Hunger</a> </i>(Finishing Line Press, 2021). Paulson’s poems have appeared in <i>Thimble Literary Magazine, Sheila Na Gig, the Northern Appalachia Review, Slippery Elm,</i> and elsewhere. She was a 2021 Pushcart Nominee, and her work has also been featured on NPR's "Conrad’s Corner" (WYSO). </span><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-family: inherit;">An Ohio native, Erica is a doula and childbirth educator, which drives her ongoing obsession with birth in its many forms. She finds inspiration for her poetry in the fertile fields of her home state, drawing on a deep connection to the surrounding world. She and her husband live in Washington Township with their blended family of nine. Together they own Nurture, a perinatal women’s studio, in Hyde Park, Cincinnati.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">During the celebration, Paulson will read a selection of poems and be interviewed by OPA's podcast (</span><a href="https://www.ohiopoetryassn.org/poetry-spotlight" style="font-family: inherit;" target="_blank">Poetry Spotlight</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">) host, Jeremy Jusek.</span></span></p>
<h2 style="text-align: left;">OPD Contest Winners</h2>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-family: inherit;">The OPD Association has announced the winners of its annual contests. The winners are listed in the images below. Congratulations to all the winning poets!</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span><span style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-family: inherit;">Any poet wanting to read their winning poem(s) during the OPD celebration should email the OPA at <b>team@ohiopoetryassn.org</b>.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #222222;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgnLQzFMckvAdwwEPGAmwmuBHgzt3H_4Pk2gE3XLeV_Fe_O5nO-ZAMutAeevJwLipPdsf7SlMGt_sCN-4_Tj3Ph2umxVGm1Rv7LpjQjjVRJfyN4c6qEymrAksInmGGy8rRdPtxcOqYqOyyx_wmyXUB4YlMYftVymYZdVcQPpFfsO6F3pgcvwm-SFmWVaA" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1650" data-original-width="1275" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgnLQzFMckvAdwwEPGAmwmuBHgzt3H_4Pk2gE3XLeV_Fe_O5nO-ZAMutAeevJwLipPdsf7SlMGt_sCN-4_Tj3Ph2umxVGm1Rv7LpjQjjVRJfyN4c6qEymrAksInmGGy8rRdPtxcOqYqOyyx_wmyXUB4YlMYftVymYZdVcQPpFfsO6F3pgcvwm-SFmWVaA=w493-h640" width="493" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEisXwabmun0wCqQ72pzMTLScpVWs_LqmYDa2M85sKYYYhmWdj5Z5HPwvzW8ysgZKSp0wfF_JRWM2T6Skci2FtQEyadQvXTpsrmUBcGb0g7wIojnEtUeFhkUlDKDWU_FiFEhWlE7bu_IMpOF8jtfWK2t7uXCJCdi6pnJQSOcT2C4-6__Nan8BJeLTiQwGg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1650" data-original-width="1275" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEisXwabmun0wCqQ72pzMTLScpVWs_LqmYDa2M85sKYYYhmWdj5Z5HPwvzW8ysgZKSp0wfF_JRWM2T6Skci2FtQEyadQvXTpsrmUBcGb0g7wIojnEtUeFhkUlDKDWU_FiFEhWlE7bu_IMpOF8jtfWK2t7uXCJCdi6pnJQSOcT2C4-6__Nan8BJeLTiQwGg=w493-h640" width="493" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEilpP36UPxhqAVDAWZKg_VRWXN4-1YSdD7BaP3zSpGsusEWaI9f2lHhdinZz8y_hNoh1IcoG7fPNmYjyaMOLoZWZn08T2_wwx30-oLmV5X_1fSb1zDyRZqY4ho7SLGbTU04X-Pd0BVYq3OcctNNY7J0sNTafYFjGOd8qKQ7eRIWRvnf5S5W4Ders-Ihbg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1650" data-original-width="1275" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEilpP36UPxhqAVDAWZKg_VRWXN4-1YSdD7BaP3zSpGsusEWaI9f2lHhdinZz8y_hNoh1IcoG7fPNmYjyaMOLoZWZn08T2_wwx30-oLmV5X_1fSb1zDyRZqY4ho7SLGbTU04X-Pd0BVYq3OcctNNY7J0sNTafYFjGOd8qKQ7eRIWRvnf5S5W4Ders-Ihbg=w493-h640" width="493" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjZtW975avOEdxg1TeY9MwYEB96IW3eSLttdZpyIw2-NY3ZyixLPTUWlTDfCGyhWyhK02aA0cbNI4o1Q2IBINROks4pKJd_joL3OjuL9BTKw20oePbzjCTd-rYEf6MM7hg4SaIt-JOlvCn4byaqJPyf7DHkRejVM2aMFU0LJ6WRLPOz31VZ4xI_MWl48w" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1650" data-original-width="1275" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjZtW975avOEdxg1TeY9MwYEB96IW3eSLttdZpyIw2-NY3ZyixLPTUWlTDfCGyhWyhK02aA0cbNI4o1Q2IBINROks4pKJd_joL3OjuL9BTKw20oePbzjCTd-rYEf6MM7hg4SaIt-JOlvCn4byaqJPyf7DHkRejVM2aMFU0LJ6WRLPOz31VZ4xI_MWl48w=w495-h640" width="495" /></a></span></div><p></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">Serving poets since 1929</div>Chuck Salmonshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11692631204163757459noreply@blogger.comOhio, USA40.4172871 -82.907123000000013-7.2178264867617514 -153.219623 88.052400686761757 -12.594623000000013tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4637504118325607007.post-16542014761359383952022-07-09T13:47:00.000-04:002022-07-09T13:47:12.291-04:00Columbus Foundation Continues Support of OPA for Eleventh Year<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Recently, OPA was awarded a grant from The Columbus Foundation for general operating support in the final year of a three-year funding cycle.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4DKYxVaCsDQ37KAtveEmP7_1arOwYpUbMUJdbR6yE-3Y-jt4wKAGUetLdUMzwTzixWOEYpkGTF0OIsyzDoluAFBJzo3kk_Lm92OeKTHZunx7XdPjogwWIDT3xITvtX1ZH_aRdgcZXFa1IF91G0WN_caBHyAWtk0gfkEsvDUSNhiHCBni7BDk5s26PAw/s900/tcf-media-rgb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: left;"><img border="0" data-original-height="485" data-original-width="900" height="172" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4DKYxVaCsDQ37KAtveEmP7_1arOwYpUbMUJdbR6yE-3Y-jt4wKAGUetLdUMzwTzixWOEYpkGTF0OIsyzDoluAFBJzo3kk_Lm92OeKTHZunx7XdPjogwWIDT3xITvtX1ZH_aRdgcZXFa1IF91G0WN_caBHyAWtk0gfkEsvDUSNhiHCBni7BDk5s26PAw/w320-h172/tcf-media-rgb.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;">A total of $3,033 is provided to OPA from the Virginia D. Granat Fund with the assistance of the Ingram-White Castle Foundation. This grant marks the eleventh consecutive year that OPA has garnered assistance from The Columbus Foundation.</span><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“We cannot thank enough The Columbus Foundation and its leadership for its continuing confidence in OPA,” said OPA President Chuck Salmons. “The Foundation’s support affords us the ability to thrive and provide the poetry community and its members with fantastic opportunities to learn and grow as artists.”</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">OPA has earned Foundation support annually since establishing a profile with the philanthropic organization in 2010 on The Columbus Foundation website and what is now called The Giving Store.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Billed as “Your one-stop shop for charitable giving,” The Giving Store offers an extensive directory of nonprofit organizations based and doing work in central Ohio. Potential donors can search these listings for charities and nonprofits that they want to support and then donate with the simple click of a button.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">To view the OPA profile or to donate, visit The Giving Store website at <a href="http://columbusfoundation.org/the-giving-store">columbusfoundation.org/the-giving-store</a> and search “Ohio Poetry Association.”</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Ohio Poetry Association gratefully acknowledges The Columbus Foundation for its continued support.</span><b><span style="color: #212120;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></span></b></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">Serving poets since 1929</div>Chuck Salmonshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11692631204163757459noreply@blogger.comColumbus, OH, USA39.9611755 -82.99879419999999211.650941663821158 -118.15504419999999 68.271409336178849 -47.842544199999992tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4637504118325607007.post-39858275873970102562022-05-12T10:44:00.002-04:002022-05-12T16:20:19.392-04:00OPA Student Contest Winners for 2022 Announced<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 9pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">The Ohio Poetry Association (OPA) is pleased to
announce the winners and honorable mentions of the 2022 High School Poetry
Contests. Eligible poems were sent to the National Federation of State Poetry
Societies, Inc. Manningham Trust Student Poetry Contest. All winning poems
receive monetary awards and publication in an OPA chapbook, which will be distributed to the participating schools.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 9pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">We sincerely thank each contest sponsor and judge
and congratulate the teachers from each school with student winning poems and
honorable mentions. Special thanks to contest coordinator Jessica Weyer-Bentley
for all her hard work to coordinate this year’s contests.</span></p></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">Voices from the Past<br /></span></b><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">Sponsor: Mark Hersman — Judge: Jessica Weyer
Bentley<br /></span><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">1<sup>st
</sup><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b>Brooke McCroskey (Jefferson
Area High School)<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <br /> </span></span><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">2<sup>nd
</sup><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Becky Smith (Buckeye High School)<br /></span><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">3<sup>rd<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></sup>Madison Palmer (Buckeye Local High
School)<br /></span><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> <br /></o:p></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">Ethos<br /></span></b><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">Sponsor
and Judge: Chuck Salmons<br /> </span><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">1<sup>st<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></sup>Annie Johnson (Dublin Coffman High
School)<br /> </span><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">2<sup>nd
</sup><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>James Zielinski (Brunswick High
School)<br /></span><span lang="NL" style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">3<sup>rd<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></sup>Larry Phelps (Jefferson Area High School)<br /> </span><span lang="NL" style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> <br /></o:p></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">Endings<br /></span></b><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">Sponsor
and Judges: Great Expectations Writers, Mary Beth Benecke<br /></span><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">1<sup>st<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></sup>Annie Johnson (Dublin Coffman High
School)<br /></span><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">2<sup>nd<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></sup>Alexandra Williams (Milford High
School)<br /></span><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">3<sup>rd<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></sup>Jordan Scheffler (Lake High School)<br /></span><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">HM:
Rebekah Repp (Northview High School), Wyatt Kalman (Buckeye Local High School),
Larry Phelps (Jefferson Area High School)<br /></span><b><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> <br /></o:p></span></b><b><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">Free
Verse<br /></span></b><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">Sponsor
and Judge: Jessica Weyer Bentley<br /></span><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">1<sup>st<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></sup>Bazil Frueh (Ottawa Hills
Junior/Senior High School)<br /></span><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">2<sup>nd<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></sup><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Logan Dentz (Buckeye Local High School)<br /></span><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">3<sup>rd<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></sup>James Zielinski (Brunswick High
School)<br /></span><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> <br /></o:p></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">Humor<br /></span></b><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">Sponsor
and Judge: Pat Snyder Hurley<br /></span><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">1<sup>st</sup><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jordan Scheffler (Lake High School)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> <br /> </span></span><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">2<sup>nd
</sup><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jacob Gonze (Buckeye Local High
School)<br /></span><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">3<sup>rd<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></sup>Annie Johnson (Dublin Coffman High
School)<br /></span><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">HM:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Zachary Snider (Brunswick High School)<br /></span><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> <br /></o:p></span><b><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">Metrical
Measures<br /></span></b><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">Sponsor
and Judge: Betsy Hughes<br /></span><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">1<sup>st</sup><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Annie Johnson (Dublin Coffman High School)<br /></span><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">2<sup>nd
</sup><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Carson Wang (William Mason High
School)<br /></span><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">3<sup>rd
</sup><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nicholas Prince (Buckeye Local High
School)<br /></span><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> <br /></o:p></span><b><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">My
Future<br /></span></b><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">Sponsor
and Judge: The Pentapoets<br /></span><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">1<sup>st</sup><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Becky Smith (Buckeye High School)<br /></span><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">2<sup>nd<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></sup>Joshua Repp (Northview High School)<br /></span><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">3<sup>rd</sup>
Logan Carmalt (Buckeye Local High School)<br /> </span><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> <br /></o:p></span><b><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">Lyric
Poem<br /></span></b><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">Sponsor
and Judge: Simple Simon Press<br /></span><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">1<sup>st</sup>
Malaysia Clark (Clermont Northeastern High School)<br /></span><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">2<sup>nd</sup>
Mckenna Wilhelm (Buckeye Local High School)<br /></span><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">3<sup>rd</sup>
Rebekah Repp (Northview High School)<br /></span><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">HM:
Xzavior Yates (Jefferson Area High School)<br /></span><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> <br /></o:p></span><b><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">Nature
Poem<br /></span></b><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">Sponsor
and Judge: Kerry Trautman<br /></span><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">1<sup>st</sup>
Julia Agnew (Jefferson Area High School)<br /></span><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">2<sup>nd</sup>
Madison Palmer (Buckeye Local High School)<br /></span><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">3<sup>rd</sup>
Riley Franklin (Jefferson Area High School)<br /></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></b></span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">Serving poets since 1929</div>Chuck Salmonshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11692631204163757459noreply@blogger.com0Ohio, USA40.4172871 -82.90712300000001312.107053263821157 -118.06337300000001 68.727520936178848 -47.750873000000013tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4637504118325607007.post-83182301636989495952022-04-10T00:12:00.000-04:002022-04-10T00:12:04.362-04:00Lakefront Cleveland Poetry Festival, April 24-May 1<p><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2t1pF1_qFLJlf341YPcEhiquSkiDAI_OsfE66Y6TC37t0apSr6qMzYHdSdBkfKoL78g6KF9xcjQHkxt9udAaXsSsH_Ie9CMtI4LF-7KutWLIZarK_qwZGcJPbVHhrhF7I4A9UG2hSfC6raIhBTFgDdp_vS10_MYPTqobrPEDDxh3YgPv0LMhhOHUZNw/s2160/Lit-Cleve_Social%20Media%20Square_Static_White.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Lakefront Cleveland Poetry Festival promo image" border="0" data-original-height="2160" data-original-width="2160" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2t1pF1_qFLJlf341YPcEhiquSkiDAI_OsfE66Y6TC37t0apSr6qMzYHdSdBkfKoL78g6KF9xcjQHkxt9udAaXsSsH_Ie9CMtI4LF-7KutWLIZarK_qwZGcJPbVHhrhF7I4A9UG2hSfC6raIhBTFgDdp_vS10_MYPTqobrPEDDxh3YgPv0LMhhOHUZNw/w320-h320/Lit-Cleve_Social%20Media%20Square_Static_White.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #eeeeee;">Attention Ohio poets! Don't miss the virtual <b>Lakefront Cleveland Poetry Festival</b> April 24-May 1 with Literary Cleveland, CSU Poetry Center, and Grieveland. </span></span><p></p><div><span style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-family: inherit;">Over the course of one week, you will work with some of the best poets and editors in the country to draft new poems, share your work, and learn where and how to publish.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-family: inherit;">Presenters and instructors include Kaveh Akbar, Mary Biddinger, Ariana Brown, Hayan Charara, Stephanie Ginese, Quartez Harris, Kamden Hilliard, Valerie Hsiung, Brendan Joyce, Kevin Latimer, Ephraim Nehemiah, Eric Odum, Drew Pham, Hilary Plum, and Rachel Wiley.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-family: inherit;">You can register for individual events or sign up for the full festival and save. Get full details at:<br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://litcleveland.org/events-programs/lakefront-cleveland-poetry-festival" style="background-color: #eeeeee;" target="_blank">litcleveland.org/<wbr></wbr>events-programs/lakefront-<wbr></wbr>cleveland-poetry-festival</a></span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Serving poets since 1929</div>Chuck Salmonshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11692631204163757459noreply@blogger.com0Cleveland, OH, USA41.49932 -81.6943605-5.3788788956794988 -152.00686050000002 88.377518895679486 -11.381860500000002tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4637504118325607007.post-76351194314418023092022-03-08T17:27:00.002-05:002022-03-08T17:27:37.957-05:00Ohio Poetry Day 2022 Contests Now Open!<p>The annual Ohio Poetry Day Association contests have been announced. <b>May 15, 2022, is the deadline (postmark) </b>for
more than twenty contests, including a
“Welcome Aboard” category for first-time submitters and an art category
to design the cover art for the 2022 <i>Best of Ohio Poetry Day</i> anthology,
published later this year. Below is a copy of the submission form, which
provides full contest information. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 10.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;">Ohio
Poetry Day 2022 will take place in October. Stay up to date on OPD
information, including the event date, location, and agenda, by getting your name and address on the OPD mailing list. To do so, contact:</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto;"><b>Amy
Jo Zook</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto;"><b>3520
State Route 56</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto;"><b>Mechanicsburg,
OH 43044</b><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto;"><b><br /></b></p><p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 10.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><b>Checks for all contest fees and purchases should be made payable to: Ohio Poetry Day</b>. For questions, call (937) 834-2666.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 10.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><br /></p><h3 style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: center;">Click and download the images below to view them at full size.</h3><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 10.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj30TpszXRXi6sfMuyhSqmOGRhOeEWnXY87NuW4o4br4czJRyH7mUbe6TiRsXPO14F3lG5RZ6u1dRGiR6KDv7uZDANPGkQutosfFhP1dmECeZeC6ptkJbh2hcIeh5n3mfgyk5BUeKTJhrjuG5p6QZU-mqQy-8wCTZcR9gbTItiwl_GD7iYdyH5A8FoReQ=s2100" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1275" data-original-width="2100" height="389" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj30TpszXRXi6sfMuyhSqmOGRhOeEWnXY87NuW4o4br4czJRyH7mUbe6TiRsXPO14F3lG5RZ6u1dRGiR6KDv7uZDANPGkQutosfFhP1dmECeZeC6ptkJbh2hcIeh5n3mfgyk5BUeKTJhrjuG5p6QZU-mqQy-8wCTZcR9gbTItiwl_GD7iYdyH5A8FoReQ=w640-h389" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEihSqNqm_m2luHND4y2Yrn2_rru27SI8WOEGk-rU7Q9nbFwlfznZfbCrv-OwHwJF8a3uh_DYOYUyn-C7SYXrpUqJO8KFSs4isP7lqLbPo8QJQJiEbsw42r0yZ-LQy3n0LTDM65xbNowWynqMqoDh6e-AP5IWePfcX9BEHE7rSSyY4liBEr-HcXAOtNOCw=s2100" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1275" data-original-width="2100" height="389" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEihSqNqm_m2luHND4y2Yrn2_rru27SI8WOEGk-rU7Q9nbFwlfznZfbCrv-OwHwJF8a3uh_DYOYUyn-C7SYXrpUqJO8KFSs4isP7lqLbPo8QJQJiEbsw42r0yZ-LQy3n0LTDM65xbNowWynqMqoDh6e-AP5IWePfcX9BEHE7rSSyY4liBEr-HcXAOtNOCw=w640-h389" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 10.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><br /></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">Serving poets since 1929</div>Chuck Salmonshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11692631204163757459noreply@blogger.comOhio, USA40.4172871 -82.90712300000001312.107053263821157 -118.06337300000001 68.727520936178848 -47.750873000000013tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4637504118325607007.post-67969111785271397062022-02-22T11:00:00.008-05:002022-02-22T11:00:00.158-05:00I Thought I Heard A Cardinal Sing: Ohio’s Appalachian Voices—a reading & book launch to be hosted by the Ohio Poetry Association<p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span color="windowtext" style="font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">February 22, 202</span><span color="windowtext" style="font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Minion Pro";">2</span><span color="windowtext" style="font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><b>–</b> </span><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">The Ohio Poetry
Association </span><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">is pleased to announce it will host </span><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">a
reading featuring the anthology <i>I Thought I Heard A Cardinal Sing: Ohio’s
Appalachian Voices,</i> a one-of-a-kind collection of poetry focused
specifically on the unique cultural experiences of Appalachian poets located in
or connected to Ohio (Central) Appalachia. </span><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">The event
will be held Saturday, March 26, 2022, at 2:00 PM on the campus of Otterbein College, Towers
Hall Room 112, 1 S. Grove Street,</span><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Westerville, OH 43081.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiKfZcS878NIxJ-MQM1ip5RGyqCgljqMaWo35BKi8KJin7I_R-5VEJgLfDa2TNTWfNyQME_uWAgh3TBmbiVDrmc-4il5ye9JYjHL23H6-NwSjI4ur3S_dZhquJ5KztL0wO9sNZDxJtOQEctlp7A9BnxbfQ4GpeMgaNe3ruWhsrwttIq1Z7OHcjo7pgGFA=s2100" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2100" data-original-width="1500" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiKfZcS878NIxJ-MQM1ip5RGyqCgljqMaWo35BKi8KJin7I_R-5VEJgLfDa2TNTWfNyQME_uWAgh3TBmbiVDrmc-4il5ye9JYjHL23H6-NwSjI4ur3S_dZhquJ5KztL0wO9sNZDxJtOQEctlp7A9BnxbfQ4GpeMgaNe3ruWhsrwttIq1Z7OHcjo7pgGFA=w286-h400" width="286" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit;">The anthology was produced by Ohio Poet
Laureate Kari Gunter-Seymour, who obtained a fellowship grant from the Academy
of American Poets with funds from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Gunter-Seymour
designed and edited the collection—a lavish mix of voices: Affrilachian,
Indigenous non-binary and LGBTQ; from teens to those creatively aging; poets in
recovery, some with disabilities or developmental differences; emerging and
well established; some living in the state, others from assorted locations
throughout the country—all with a deep connection to Ohio Appalachia.</span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“People often forget, and many do not
even know that nearly 1/4 of the state of Ohio rests inside Appalachia proper,”
says Gunter-Seymour, “and pockets of Appalachian families who out-migrated
generations ago prominently exist throughout the state, still firmly attached
to their Appalachian roots. This collection is an intimate look at landscape
and family from within Central Appalachia, delving far deeper than mainstream
journalism.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“OPA has supported Kari’s vision for
this project from the very beginning,” says OPA president Chuck Salmons, “and
we’re excited to continue that support by sponsoring this reading. <i>I Thought
I Heard A Cardinal Sing</i> is sure to be an important book in the canon of Ohio
poetry.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Mark Halliday Director of Creative
Writing, Ohio University writes: “This abundant anthology encompasses many
styles and vantage points and backgrounds, creating a richly detailed tapestry
of human experience in Appalachian Ohio. There is a pervasive sense of stoical
courage in dealing with the rough edges of life; and many poems recognize and
honor that struggle in the lives of past generations. The cumulative evocation
of imaginative persistence in wooded valleys and on winding hilly roads and in
hundreds of towns is seriously moving.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A copy of the anthology will be sent to
all public libraries throughout Ohio and to all Ohio Appalachian middle and
high schools, with the support and assistance of the Foundation for Appalachian
Ohio (FAO) and Sheila-Na-Gig Editions. Copies of the anthology will be on sale
from the publisher during the event and online at <a href="https://sheilanagigblog.com/sheila-na-gig-editions-quick-shopping/cardinal-sing/">sheilanagigblog.com/cardinal-sing</a>.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Cara Dingus Brook, President and CEO of
the Foundation for Appalachian Ohio adds: “We are thrilled to have Kari Gunter-Seymour
serving as a Fellow of our Arts & Culture Pillar of Prosperity and to
support this wonderful anthology highlighting what it means to be a Child of
Appalachia. We believe the unique collection will encourage our region’s
students and educators to tell their own rich stories.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Donna
Holt Collins, Executive Director, Ohio Arts Council writes, “Ohio’s Poet
Laureate, Kari Gunter-Seymour, brings to life Ohio’s Appalachian voices through
her anthology. She has captured the beauty, joy, heartache, and love of those
who know life in Appalachia. Kari’s willingness to bring a wealth of voices
from the region to her own work demonstrates her passion for people and place.
We congratulate Kari for this important literary work, that is indeed a gift to
us all.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The event is free</span><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">.</span><span style="font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">All guests must wear a mask and provide proof of full
vaccination against COVID-19 or a negative COVID-19 diagnostic test within
72-hours prior to this event.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 10.5pt;">For questions or more info:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="apple-style-span"><b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Contact</span></b></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">:</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Chuck Salmons<span class="apple-style-span"><b><br />Email</b>: </span>president@ohiopoetryassn.org <br /><span class="apple-style-span"><b>Contact</b>:</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> Kari Gunter-Seymour</span><span class="apple-style-span"><br /><b>Email</b>: </span></span><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">ohiopoetlaureate3@gmail.com</span></span></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">Serving poets since 1929</div>Chuck Salmonshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11692631204163757459noreply@blogger.comWesterville, OH, USA40.1266689 -82.931880711.816435063821153 -118.0881307 68.436902736178837 -47.775630699999994tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4637504118325607007.post-55253304016008111982022-02-03T18:27:00.003-05:002022-02-03T18:27:41.851-05:00Poetry Spotlight: Karen Schubert - Poetry of Hybridity (podcast transcript S2, E4)<p><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Jeremy Jusek: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Welcome
to Poetry Spotlight presented by the Ohio Poetry Association. I am your host,
Jeremy Jusek. And with us today is Karen Schubert.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiY9KuPQ1xqjpIEqXMaDv0MxQOV0zaFkTblDTc46Xs3qXikxdhthJBvegBi2brlEqu-ghXz7sZPNl0RB1kX61BG-SbbLj-eVeqnfjdw4eS9yKZ_vJaBrejMqzJmLvmXRxp7Nz1yF0CG5aPjBnzcCoNB7AeQJYoHGg8THfxhi2Wtj6GpDHOs6t4L9kgmuQ=s1000" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Kare Schubert photo" border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="668" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiY9KuPQ1xqjpIEqXMaDv0MxQOV0zaFkTblDTc46Xs3qXikxdhthJBvegBi2brlEqu-ghXz7sZPNl0RB1kX61BG-SbbLj-eVeqnfjdw4eS9yKZ_vJaBrejMqzJmLvmXRxp7Nz1yF0CG5aPjBnzcCoNB7AeQJYoHGg8THfxhi2Wtj6GpDHOs6t4L9kgmuQ=w134-h200" width="134" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;"><i>Karen Schubert</i></span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Karen is an author, co-founding director of Literary
Youngstown, and multi-genre talented writer who has published poetry, fiction,
creative nonfiction, essays, reviews, interviews, and any other views you might
consider. She's published six books, and her prose poem collection </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">I Left My
Winds on a Chair</i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> was the Wick Poetry Center poetry winner. Her awards
include the William Dickey Memorial Broadside Award, an Ohio Arts Council
Individual Excellence Award in Poetry, and has held residencies at the Headlands
Center for the Arts and the Vermont Studio Center. To learn more about Karen,
please visit </span></span><a href="http://karenschubertpoetry.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">karenschubertpoetry.com</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Karen, thank you so much for joining us.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Karen Schubert: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Oh
this is such a kick, thanks so much for bringing me on. I’m honored and
chuffed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Thank you! The
pleasure’s all mine. Do you want to start with a poem?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">KS:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> Sure, I’d love to. I’m
going to read a poem from my collection <i>The Compost Reader</i>. This
collection sprang from something that happened while I was in residence at the
Vermont Studio Center.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">[Karen reads.]<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Thank you, that’s
wonderful. So let’s start your work as a teacher and community advocate. You’ve
built a skillset that’s highly effective at empowering others and promoting new
writers. Could you please talk about your efforts a little, and what drives
you?<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">KS: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Thank you for
that, for the generosity embedded in that question. And I really appreciate it.
I feel like I want to tell you a little bit about my story. I washed up on the
shores of Youngstown State as a nontraditional student to finish a degree that
I had started in my youth, and then life intervened. Like in Virginia Woolf’s
novel <i>Time </i>Passes. And, I was so lucky that I ended up in Will
Greenway’s literature survey class and he's a poet so I asked him: “is there a
literary journal on campus.” And he said, “Yeah, why are you writing?” and I
had this little fistful of poems and I showed them to him, and he had some
ideas for me and encouraged me to keep writing. And the poems were very
amateurish, but I'm so grateful that he just encouraged me to continue exploring.
<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So, I finished my degree in three years and stayed in
for a master’s for another two and then I did the NEOMFA. In those eight years
I took creative writing classes all the way through. And you know I edited the
literary journals at Youngstown State in Cleveland State, and that gave me a
seat at the table for some of the visiting writers that were coming in. I got
to meet some incredible writers who gave me phenomenal advice, and I've been to
their readings and workshops and just had so many experiences and I had people
along the way who answered questions about publication, and conferences, and
all of those things.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And so those were so valuable to me that I wanted to
create—to make those experiences available to those who are seeking them, right?
I mean a community-based literary center is a little different from academia,
because people come in with different motivations and some are writing for us,
for themselves, someone to tell right their family's story—and some are really
interested in honing their craft and publishing.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And I love to make a space for people to make their
own goals, but I really love being able to offer those kinds of experiences
that were so valuable to me to others it's just, it's just so fun! And of
course by doing that I'm also making them available to me again right we've
been able to bring in all these really cool writers and do lots of fun stuff
so. So that's what I'm up to.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">That's nice. And
you had more of that space when—because you were in two different residences.
So what are those residences’ details and what did you work on while you were
there?<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">KS: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Oh my gosh
residency is, well, I used to joke that there's so much I could get done
without it, adult responsibilities. What it is, right? It's such a generous
space I mean the idea that you can just go there and create art all day and
then show up for these meals that have been deliciously prepared for you and be
completely surrounded by writers and visual artists and you're having the
conversation of a lifetime every day. I mean, it's so, so wonderful. <b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And I've been wildly lucky; my first residency was at Headland
Center for the Arts which is funded by the Ohio Arts Council. It was really a
life changing experience for me. Because it was a whole summer I was able to
work on so many projects, too. I did some interviews and writing all kinds of
different things and I was editing and submitting for publication. And then in
the afternoon, walking these paths along the shore and San Francisco and, oh my
gosh, it was pretty amazing and I made some lifelong friends.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And same with Vermont Studio Center, although I was
there in January so it was a little bit different but—that was a month, so I
had a project that I wanted to start and I just came with tons of notes so that
I would be able to find my way in, but in the morning I would get up and read a
whole book of poems, and then write, go to lunch, write, walk, and then have
dinner. Sometimes they had programs in the evening. You just essentially stay
in that writings zone, the whole time. It's pretty amazing and whenever I start
thinking “oh, I'm so busy I'll never wrote another poem again!”, you know I
just try to remember that I'm just busy, you know as soon as I make a space for
that, you know and be able to do those things again. Yeah.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Is that zone hard
to obtain? You know, is it easy to get into? I know I need to have some
stability. You know, mentally—I just, I have to be in a good space. <b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">KS: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Yeah, I hear you I
mean, yeah, I, when I was a student, I would be writing and in my mind, in all
of those empty spaces, you know, driving class or whatever. But that space is
full now. It is really tricky. It's been concerning me that I'm not writing as
much as I want to. I did set some goals for myself and it helps to—usually I
have some kind of idea in mind before I sit down and so I'm facing the blank
page, in my mind, out in the world, before I sit down and face the blank page.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">For example, we are leading some monthly workshops that
we're calling poetry and tenses. They meet once a month, and in the afternoon
we're having a different workshop leader come in and give a mini craft talk.
And then we look at everyone's poems through the lens of that element. Okay. So
Mary Biddinger will be coming in next and she'll be talking about the
strangeness of imagery and language and poetry. And so we'll be looking at all
the poems to see where the strangeness is or could be. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I was thinking about that and the other day I was
thinking to myself like “I hate the way Facebook tracks us.” And I have Firefox
and I have this little Firefox tracker so that whenever Facebook is trying to
follow me around, I get this little icon—so that I know when to be annoyed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It was amusing me though too because I was thinking I
bet Facebook doesn't even know what to advertise to me because my searches are
so odd right because I'm reading stuff and I'm like… the other day I was
reading the short wonderful short story by John Edgar Wideman. And there were
all these references to Freddie Jackson the singer, and I'm like “oh, Freddie
Jackson who is that?” so I'm looking at them, reading that and then, then I did
a search on bursitis because my shoulder is bothering me a little bit, and I'm
like “I wonder if that's bursitis!”, you know, or “why is my cat shivering?” When
I watch these movies, and then I was wondering if they'd won any awards. So, I
thought “oh that'd be kind of a funny poem like the, the ads that are showing
up on my Facebook wall.” So, that's kind of one way to do it—is just to have
some ideas in mind so that by the time I sit down I've got some jumping off
place.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But if I really, if I'm really stymied a sure way in
is reading. I read at least a book of poetry every month, and right now I'm
working on Hanif Abdurraqib because my book queue is sort of like my Netflix
queue, like everything goes in the back and I pull from the front so it's never
new, right? But this is Hanif Abdurraqib’s very first book, <i>The Crown Ain't Worth
Much</i>. Oh my God, what a wonderful, exquisite, amazing book, and every poem
of his is so vivid and reminds me of so many things. So, I feel like that's
always a great mini prompt is just to sit down with somebody else's wonderful
poems and write your way out of that space.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Yeah. Do you get
inspired [after] reading? When I read poetry, I want to write as soon as I'm
done reading it, you know?<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">KS: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Yeah, I feel that.
Yeah, exactly.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Cool.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So how did you get involved with prose poetry? You
have a full collection. And I'm wondering what advantages and disadvantages did
you notice while working on that project for an extended period of time.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">KS: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Um, I'm a big fan
of prose poetry. I think I first learned about it in a class I took on writing
and form, but maybe was just sort of osmosis because it's kind of out there,
you know? I mean, don't you love writing now where form is just one of the
things that are going on that are shaping a poem, and you know, it's not like
we have to like pretzel up our syntax to make ‘moon’ and ‘June’ be in the right
places, right? I really love that. And I have some favorite prose poets—I mean
Lynn Andrews, a dear friend and I've read everything. Kathy McGookey—I was in
an online workshop with the two of them for a while, and they're just masterful
in the use of the prose poem. And I love how hope talky it can be, how
narrative. I love being able to mess around with tone and persona.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But I don't actually start out writing a prose poem. I
always start out with line breaks. And at some point I think to myself, “there's
something about this phone that isn't working” And maybe I'll try some
different forms. Like maybe there's a not enough white space, maybe it needs
long lines. Short lines. And then sometimes I'll put it in the postponed format
and as I'm going back and forth, you know… it's such a great way of editing. You
find the spongy spots. You find the leaps of logic that aren't just playful but
they're illogical. They’re leaps of logic, you know, and then sometimes it just
lands in a prose poetry form. And then I realize it has this voice, and it just—it
wants to be a little story. I love how prose poetry doesn't have like the
demands of fiction, like I don't have to explain what's going on. It's a poem,
right? It just jumps in and then it jumps out, and, and I think that's really
fun too.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Cool, cool, cool.
So, I want to talk about critiquing because you're an ardent reviewer, and I've
read some of your interviews—they're great. I mean, the critique work is admirable
I mean your essays in interviews, your languages is real specific, you're aware
of where the heart of the poem is. And I want to know how did you get so good
at this? I know it's a skill you can practice, but how do you practice
something like that, besides just doing it?<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">KS: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Thank you so much.
I think it was at the end of grad school, and the first few years after grad
school, including my residency had headlines when I was interviewing poets I
really admired that, whom I had met and heard read and love their work so much—and
I love doing it—but it was terrifying—they're brilliant you know it's, there's
a real responsibility to it. You can't pitch a dumb question, you know, I mean
we set it up so that we could do some post-mortem editing if we needed to make
it worthwhile. You want to give them a platform for expressing their elegant beliefs.
It’s just so much fun. <b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So that’s way I would do it: I would read all of the
books they had read, and just make lots of notes, and always asked if this poem
is making me feel something? And how does it work? How did the poem do that? And
then try and bring the poem into that space, you know? Show me like—sometimes
there's a lot of tension in a narrative because the poem ends at a moment and
hints at what happens next, but the tension is still there. I remember asking
James Harms, you know, when to hand it off to the reader. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I think part of it too is I spent some time studying
journalism. And it helped me understand that language that narrative has a
structure. Right, so both at home and a news article are delivering
information. And the way it delivers information is just as critical as what
that information is, and it just made me aware of that, I think, that there's
this beautiful economy of language to it. And I really love that I'm going in
and taking out every word that isn't carrying its own weight and seeing how
other people are doing it. And I took a little bit of linguistics just a bit,
but maybe that's part of it too. Poetry is so much about language, right?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Yeah, that's its
core. Yeah. So how would you recommend that other people talk about poetry,
whether it's in a newspaper, review or, you know, you're just giving a workshop
and you're talking to people who are interested in the craft but don't know
much about it. What's the best way to approach it, do you think?<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">KS: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">That's a great
question. I hope someday… I would really love to someday have a column, a
newspaper column. Sort of in the flavor of Ted Kooser’s American Life in Poetry.
I would like to feature Ohio poets.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">That would be
awesome. <b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">KS: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Just tell a little
bit about them and two sentences of lead into this poem. Lik,e this is a poem
about this or look how this is working, I think. I mean, there's this sense—you
hear people say, “no one reads poetry”, but then as soon as you get into the
poetry world you realize everyone's in here. Right? So, that isn't really true.
It's just that before you're all the way in, maybe sometimes there's a feeling
that poetry is trying to pull a fast one or something, you know, and maybe
that's because we read poetry in high school that was really iconic and pushing
the movement forward in a really important way, but it doesn't necessarily
represent contemporary work.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I've long thought
that the poetry education needs updated.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">KS: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I mean, yes,
bringing people to the present, but also there's a more accessible past as
well. For example, here in Youngstown there was an Irish immigrant in the late
1800s named Michael McGovern—he worked in the Ironworks. He was a poet they
call them the puddler poet, because that was his job was, was a puddler and
Iron Works, and he was a labor poet, and he had a national following. So, I
think that there has have been a lot of times in our history when people just
carried poems around, you know, that's where The Broadside came from. It was
small enough to just stick in your pocket.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Okay. That's
really interesting. <b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">All right, let's turn to your work because there's a
there's a lot to unpack there. I think the two biggest things that struck me
while reading your work is one humor, and two empathy, you really use those. I
consider those like crafting techniques for you, you employ them very
deliberately and very effectively. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So let's start with humor. Where do you come up with
your witticisms and how does that play creatively? Are you just a really funny
person—which I imagine you are—but I guess what I'm really asking is how much
of that just comes out in editing, and how much just flows onto the page when
you start?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">KS: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I don't think I
started out with humor in mind, I just start writing this story maybe but then
the humor becomes apparent because it's absurd. You know, I think part of it is
being self-conscious. I'm always listening to the things I'm saying and
thinking, “oh that doesn't make sense” or things out in the world that are
contradictory, or ironic. The way we use language and culture—you know, if we
took it apart and really looked at it right the things that we say every day
are odd. <b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And so I'm interested in that stuff. I think about and
play with language and rage humor. Just the contradictory weird stuff in life,
but I would say if I sat down to write a funny poem it probably wouldn't work.
Sometimes I want to write about something as if it were true, but obviously the
reader sees that it's absurd. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Yeah. Yeah. And
that's, I think that's a thing that a lot of people voice when they tried to
write humor, it comes across like you're trying too hard. It's easier to let it
be what it wants to be, I guess.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">KS: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Yeah.<b> </b>It's
like a little stone for the reader to turn over.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Yeah. An
additional clue you can find if you're looking hard enough. <b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">KS: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Yeah, exactly.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">When I said “empathy”
what I meant by that is, the poems—not only are they deeply empathetic from the
speaker’s point of view or the subjects in the poem, but you also cover a huge
range of social issues. I mean, you've covered everything from racial
segregation to poverty and families and community development. So where does
empathy fit in for you, and how does advocacy work for your writing? Is that a
deliberate thing?<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I'm assuming, you know, more deliberate then perhaps
writing jokes.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">KS: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Yeah, right. Right!
Yeah, it really is, and you know that can be really hard because a heavy-handed
poem just doesn't work at all. <b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I'm reading the next book in our book discussion is <i>Begin
Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own</i> by Eddie
Glaude. And I was reading this part where James Baldwin was so affected by this
iconic photograph of Dorothy Counts, who was attempting to desegregate her high
school in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1957. And she was walking pretty much unguarded
by herself, and the people around her these white people are just out of their
minds with rage. They were spitting on her, there were blobs of spit hanging
off of her new dress. And when James Baldwin saw this photo, the way he
remembers it is that he was in France and he thought to himself, “I can't stay
here in this beautiful world, I have to go back. We can’t let this happen—that
a 15 year-old-girl is carrying this burden by herself.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And so I was talking to my mom about it and she's
like, “My God, I know people are like this today, too, but how can anyone be
like that?”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So I think that, you know I had a tough, my childhood
was tough. Hers was as well, and my own kids’ was tough. So, I think that we
all came through trying to see for ourselves how, you know, how experiences are.
How they could be better.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I think it was one reason why I was a Christian, too.
I was a very passionate Christian in high school, and I think I was drawn in by
that message of caring and kindness. I think all religions have that at their
core, right? Just like “Hey, hey, if we treated each other better this place
could be great!”, right? That's sort of the core of religion. And so, I think I
do try to write about that, but sometimes I just need to write it down and get
it out of my system, because that poem just isn’t going anywhere. I can't write
a poem like that and have it be a successful poem.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But if I can leave a little bit of that in, or maybe
it can be a collection about Youngstown where there are some things maybe give
me an editorial framework to talk about some things. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Does having that
conflict to make it easier to compose the writing?<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">KS: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I mean, no. It's
hard, I'm always trying to just trying to step back from all the moralizing. Like,
just tell this in images. Image, Image, Image. Then that's another stone for
the reader to pick up how to feel about it. And if I can paint the picture
maybe that, you know... <b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Yeah, it sounds
like that journalist side coming out where you're like, “I'm giving you the
facts and you make up your own mind.”<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">KS: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Yeah, I think a
good poem does that, it doesn’t tell you what to think. That It’s there for you
to discover. I just think that's a lesser pleasure and I don't really like
reading poems that are aggressively moralistic like that, for myself. It's not
art, even if it's important. Then it should be an essay.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Sure, sure. <b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">KS: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">They're right ways
to do it. It should be a film, but not a poem.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Yeah.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Building off that last question—because your styles
feel… you merge things when you're writing. But you yourself are a hybrid
person. I mean, you take this introspective craft like poetry and you open it
up for other people and you make it public. And you have every bit as much,
like you're an academic but you're also an educator. I ask because people are often
either <i>really</i> good at teaching or really good at studying, but you have
both of those things and I'm wondering where that hybridity comes from.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">KS: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Thank you so much.
I'm just I'm just all over the place. I mean, the women in my family, they are
finishers, they are list-makers and they get things done and that gene skipped
me so hard. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I am just, I'm just a starter. I don't even, I'm not even
simultaneous right? I've just got all these things open, 20 tabs open, and I'm
reading five books at the same time. And even when I’m working on Lit
Youngstown, I'm working on 17 different things in a day. Going from thing to
thing, that's just you know, I pick out the books in our book series and they
are about, oh, different styles and, everything! I'm curious.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I think maybe I got some curiosity from my dad’s side
of the family. I'm told my dad was very curious. But that's just kind of me,
and I thrive in an environment where there's like a lot to think about, a lot
of problems to solve… it's different every day. There are a lot of people other
than me, there are interesting challenges—it's wide open, it can go so many
places and you never reach the pinnacle, right? Not to say that everything
works, but there's so many different things to try so um.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So my challenge really is to just to make sure that
I'm upping my follow through game, and just making sure that all of those
details are cared for and that all the people are cared for. There's a lot of
responsibility in at least in at least organization. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But for writing I love trying all kinds of things. I
mean I've got a novel—who doesn't—but I've got a novel writing fantasy like
everybody, right? You go in the room and you come out, there's all these
Chinese carry out boxes all around and you're all haggard. And then you've got
the thing, the finished product. I want to try more creative nonfiction. Some essays
and it's just, it's so fun. It's all so fun.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">How do you stay
focused on a project? Do you write and then you look at your stuff and say, “Oh,
you know I'm three quarters of the way to the finish line. Let's follow it across
the finish line,” or is it—because you're pulled in so many directions. I mean,
it's got to be tough knowing which objective to pick out.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">KS: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I'm working on my
first poetry project. I mean before that I just collected poems that existed
and seemed to go together. But this is a project of prose poems that are
centering around my childhood experiences in the late 60s, early 70s in transient
suburbia. I remember debates of James Baldwin on TV I remember sitting by
myself on the floor. Watching on a black and white TV, James Baldwin having
these really spirited discussions. I was probably 10 or something. And I really
made a lot of progress at Vermont Studio Center, and I've sort of limped along
a little bit. <b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But this summer, I set up a little mini residency with
a few friends. My goal is to see if I can complete that project. I feel like
it's really close, I just need a few connectors. I think maybe what takes me
across the finish line is that I do have wishes to publish. I mean, when my
first full length book came out, it made me so, so happy. And so I do want to
have those kinds of experiences and participate in those conversations. So, I
think probably that's a big motivator.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Nice. Where did
the residency project come out of?<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">KS: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Um, you know, I
think because my family was so much in transition, and so was the country. I
mean, everything was going on, then. I mean, there were riots in the cities. The
women's movement. Civil rights. And I remember those years, three or four years,
more vividly than any other time in my life, and even high school, and so it's
sort of been in the back of my mind. And I wanted to write about it, and I
didn't really know how. I think I started an essay and I've written, and I've
woven some of that stuff into a few poems, but it just seemed like so much
material was there that I just wanted to give it a try.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And how's the
residency going to work when you guys get together? Is it a residency for other
people are you guys doing like an incubator?<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">KS:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There's like five of us in this, some may call
it a cabin, it's like a palace in the woods and the Mohican State Park! It
looks gorgeous, I'm so excited. For about five days we'll take turns cooking,
you know. Of course, I didn't make up this concept and I've been so jealous to
see my friends posting their DIY residencies, and I'm like all right this year
we're going to make this happen. Plus it seems safer right, just a few people.
I don’t know yet. We haven't gotten that far because it's upcoming up in the
summer. But I think we'll probably share work with each other. I have a
manuscript to share, I bet some of them will as well. Most of this group are
retired and that's like a permanent residency, right? That’s <i>really</i> fun!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">For the second
time in five minutes, I'm envious.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">KS: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I know, right??<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Do you consider
yourself a poet first or an educator?<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">KS: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I think right now
I have to see myself as an administrator, because that's really taking up most
of my time. And that can accommodate that. Um, so just between you and me I
will tell you a secret.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">That no one else
will hear.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">KS: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Exactly. Whenever
I feel like I'm not doing something as much as I want to be doing, I start
program and that makes me do it. So, I felt like I wasn't making enough time
for reading, for example, because I was just working so much, so we started a
book discussion. And so, the poetry intensive didn't come from me. We did a
community survey, and some of our writers were saying, “hey, you're doing great
with a lot of stuff that skips along the surface. There's a workshop here and
workshop there, you've got this great festival.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But there's nothing that really ties it together.
There's no depth and continuity. And so I thought, well, well, let's try this
all-day workshop. We'll do it for nine months. And then also PS Karen you can
pony up a little time to write a poem.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So I can get that stuff in there. Occasionally I can
teach as well, like I'll be—I'm so excited about this. We have a wonderful museum.
An art museum that is part of the Youngstown State, and they brought in an
incredible photography show by the Cleveland photographer Don Black. Donald
Black Jr, pretty sure that's the right name. And so I'll be leading an
ekphrastic workshop for kids.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Oh, cool. <b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">KS: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Yeah, students in 5-8
on these photographs. And the photographs are absolutely exquisite I mean, just,
the photographs are what a good piece of writing should be. They are so
specific and so elegant and perfectly described, and so unique, you know, just,
there's all this tension and movement and emotion. I'm really excited about
talking to the kids about that. <b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So, my role as an administrator can accommodate those
other things as well.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">How has Lit
Youngstown been? Because you've been with it for, since the beginning?<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">KS: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Yes, yeah I
started it, it was my idea. We started in 2015.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Nice. And how has
that gone since then? What do you guys, I mean, you guys are getting big and
it's awesome. I want to get to a couple of your events this year.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">KS: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Oh good, I'm so
glad! Well, so we are putting together the fall Literary Festival Planning
Committee, they're going to be meeting soon, and we will pick a theme for the
festival, and then we'll put out our call for submissions so I hope you
consider submitting. I could see a talk on creating a podcast or you could read
your poems. Talk about starting a literary arts nonprofit, I mean so many
things. That's been a real high spot for me. These conferences are just so much
fun.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I mean, last year we had been solidly east of the Mississippi
River in the last year. We had people fly in from California, writers I admire,
I mean just such a thrill.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Oh, that's
fantastic! So if I'm looking to go to the festival this year, what can I expect?<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">KS: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So we have an
evening. This is how it has been: we have an evening gathering in, which is
just a meeting with tacos and an open mic. And then two days of five concurrent
sessions, all day both days, and then an evening reading evening readings on
Friday and Saturday. This year, it'll be a little bit different because we're
bringing in the filmmaker, Carla Murphy, created a film on Youngstown.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I think the heart of the film is when a place,
suffering so much, what makes young professionals stay? The title of is <i>The Place
That Makes Us</i>. And so, because of the pandemic there hasn't been a
community-wide screening of the film. So we're going to do that as part of the
festival so we'll show that film at night and then we’ll talk to Carla and
bring some people from the community into talk about the story. The story of
Youngstown, the story of filmmaking. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Joy Priest is a poet from Houston, she's coming in,
and she's from Louisville getting a PhD in Houston. Kelly Fordon from Detroit
is coming in as a fiction writer, and also screenwriter and film scholar Laura Beadling
of Youngstown State.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Okay, cool. That's
October 20<sup>th</sup> through the 22<sup>nd</sup>? <b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">KS: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Yes. <b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Okay. All right!
Well would you like to read a second poem before we wrap up?<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">KS: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Yes, please. I'm
going to read the title poem from the combo straighter. And I do kind of
remember the day I was like I'm a very enthusiastic compost composter. And I
remember the day when I was looking at my compost thinking, what could someone
know about me from looking at this compost or what if there was like a
professional compost reader that you could bring in to tell you about yourself
like you know like upon read or write.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">[Karen reads.]<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Love the imagery!<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">KS:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> Thank you.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> All right, well, this
has been Poetry Spotlight, a production of the Ohio Poetry Association. Please
follow the OPA on Twitter @OhioPoetry and on Facebook at </span><a href="file:///C:/Users/Chuck%20Salmons/Downloads/facebook.com/ohiopoetry"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">facebook.com/ohiopoetry</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">.
A transcript of this episode can be found on the OPA blog. Visit </span><a href="file:///C:/Users/Chuck%20Salmons/Downloads/ohiopoetryassn.org"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">ohiopoetryassn.org</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">
for more information.</span></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">Serving poets since 1929</div>Chuck Salmonshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11692631204163757459noreply@blogger.com0Ohio, USA40.4172871 -82.90712300000001312.107053263821157 -118.06337300000001 68.727520936178848 -47.750873000000013tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4637504118325607007.post-2030446994380479372022-02-03T18:09:00.000-05:002022-02-03T18:09:14.241-05:00Poetry Spotlight: Pauletta Hansel - Poetry of Letters (Podcast Transcript S2, E3)<p><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Jeremy Jusek: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Welcome
to Poetry Spotlight presented by the Ohio Poetry Association. I am your host, Jeremy
Jusek. And with us today is Pauletta Hansel.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://paulettahansel.files.wordpress.com/2020/10/18.jpg?w=840" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Pauletta Hansel photo" border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="532" height="200" src="https://paulettahansel.files.wordpress.com/2020/10/18.jpg?w=840" width="133" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;"><i>Pauletta Hansel. Image: Kentucky Rose Photography</i></span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Pauletta Hansel’s nine poetry collections include </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Heartbreak
Tree</i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">, a poetic exploration of the intersection of gender and place in
Appalachia, out in March 2022 from Madville Publishing, and </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Friend</i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">, </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Coal
Town Photograph</i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> and </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Palindrome</i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">, winner of the 2017 Weatherford Award
for best Appalachian poetry, all from Dos Madres Press. She is 2022
Writer-in-Residence for The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County
(<a href="https://cincinnatilibrary.org/writer-in-residence/">cincinnatilibrary.org/writer-in-residence</a>). Her writing has been
featured in <i>Oxford American, Rattle, Appalachian Journal, The Anthology of
Appalachian Writers, American Life in Poetry, Verse Daily</i> and <i>Poetry Daily,</i>
among others. Pauletta was Cincinnati’s first Poet Laureate (2016-2018) and
past managing editor of <i>Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel</i>. For more, visit her
website at </span><a href="https://paulettahansel.wordpress.com/" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">paulettahansel.wordpress.com.</a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Pauletta, thank you so much for joining us.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Pauletta Hansel: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Oh
thank you, Jeremy, I’m delighted to be here.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">All right. You
want to start us off with a poem? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">PH: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Sure, I will read
a poem from my upcoming collection called </span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>Home Is the Place Where, When You
Have to Go There, You Only Think About How to Get Out</b></span></p></blockquote>
<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">Busted-up doll heads where the canned goods used to be.<br /> Sunsteeped, hillbuckled sidewalks, and everybody<br /> just looks tired. Nobody cares<br /> this is where your mother used to buy her meat.<br /> The houses you lived in plowed under,<br /> moles scuttle through plumbing cracked with black dirt and roots.<br /> Nobody cares about your old woman body<br /> grown on the bones of the girl who walked these streets.<br /> Everybody has their own worn bones.<br /> Everybody remembers you, sort of.<br /> The newspaperman calls you by your mother’s name.<br /> You can’t remember the name<br /> of who you sat next to in math class or whose backseat<br /> you crawled out of nights, the river fog<br /> so dense you came home hair and misplaced clothes<br /> all damp and smelling like mountain. Nobody cares<br /> you know this town by what is gone, the stench<br /> of grease spilled from the closed pool hall, the mailbox on the corner<br /> where the boys sprawled, pelvises jutted out to block your path.<br /> You pull up your car too close to the high curb<br /> somebody told you was made for hitching horses.<br /> Nobody had any horses.</blockquote><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Amazing. That
imagery is evocative! Do you see it while you're writing?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">PH: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Actually I do.
With that particular poem, too because, it was written from a day that I went
back to my hometown of Jackson Kentucky. And so, even as I'm reading it, I'm
seeing that day and feeling that heat and having having those memories. As I
was writing I was trying to be as specific and concrete about what I had
experienced as I could be.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">That shows. Do you
often turn to place as an inspiration?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">PH: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I think I do, and
more and more as I get older, I suppose. Uh, writing about the places from
which I've come. And I think, you know maybe it's something about memory or age
but there's a way in which those those places are so real and specific to me
even more than perhaps when I was there that there was sort of this this
background camera, you know, sort of taking the taking the picture and saving
it into memory, whereas, I'm not really sure I paid that much attention to
place. You know, to the world that was the physical world that I was living in
when I was a girl.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Okay. Where did
you find poetry? Did you find it in that world or did you find it later?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">PH: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">No, I started
writing as a very young girl. Actually, my first real memory of writing was as
a junior high student, and my earliest influences really were not so much
poetry as it was the singer songwriters of the day. But poetry is how it came
out in me. I write other and other genres, I mean primarily memoir, and essay,
a little bit of nonfiction, flash fiction—but really poetry is where I started
and poetry is what I always come back to. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Why poetry?<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">PH: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I think that it’s
just who I am as a writer. It’s how I process. And it’s how I processed from a
very young age. I read constantly as a child as soon as I could hold of book
and read it myself, and I tended to read more fiction and biography, but poetry
is how is how I expressed myself. And it really may have something to do with
having grown up in the seventies, and the singer songwriter being so much of
what I was listening to. And not being a musician poetry is what I did with
that inspiration.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I'm amazed by
songwriters because I feel like I wouldn't know when to repeat stuff, you know
what I mean. Know when a chorus go somewhere and sounds good. <b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">PH: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Yeah, but as a
poet you do, right?<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Right. Yeah. I
feel totally comfortable but once you add the element of music, and, you know,
the idea that people are listening and absorbing the music and not necessarily
scrutinizing your word placement. It's an intimidating thing.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">PH: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Yeah, yeah. But I
think about it I guess in some ways as a <i>music</i> of the poem, you know? The
music of the words, the repetition, then becoming a part of that. That music.
Maybe it's easier without having to have a melody with it as well. Just letting
the words be that melody.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Yeah, I mean I'd
be okay with singing a song if somebody else composed the music for me and
applied it to my words like “here, this would sound good.”<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">PH: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">That would be fun,
wouldn't it?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It would be! Have
you ever read your poems to music before?<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">PH: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Um, not really. I
was just trying to think as we were talking about that and whether or not
anyone has ever made a song from one of my poems and I don't think they have.
And I have not used musical backgrounds for my writing when I’m doing readings.
And I think it probably does have to do with just the sense that you know that
the words themselves are the music. And so, to have a melody to be part of that
in the background, I think would feel distracting to me as a reader. Although,
you know, hey any musicians out there who want to use any of my poems as a
basis for a song of course that would be lovely.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But I would also recognize that they would need to
recreate them. You know, that the music or the poem would be the raw material
that they would be working with because of how a song has its own rules just as
a poem creates its own rules.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Sure. Now you've,
you've taught poetry for a long time. I mean your teacher through and through.
You done workshops and classrooms and all sorts of stuff in different settings
and venues and what have you. And you also worked with Wordplay which is a
literary and literacy an organization for young writers. So, I want to ask you what
inspires you to teach, and what are some effective methods for teaching poetry
specifically?<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">PH: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Well, I started my
professional career as a Montessori teacher. My first teaching was actually
preschool. And before that my mom had a had a daycare center in Jackson
Kentucky where I'm from, and so I helped take care of the children there. But then
once I went away to college, my first work study job was in a Montessori School
and eventually I chose that as an initial career path.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So I think, you know, the idea of teaching, the idea
of guiding, facilitating people's education, whether it's as young people or
peers or people, you know, older or more advanced in their writing even than I
am is, that has been an impulse for, you know, for much of my life.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But I think with poetry and with teaching creative
writing, I teach to learn as much as anything. My first real teaching of poetry,
I mean I'd lead creative writing workshops before and facilitated classes, but
really my first experience of trying to kind of break apart the learning in
order to be able to put it back together and offer it back was while I was in
school, in a low-res MFA program. And so teaching poetry wasn't part of that
low-res MFA program, but it was something that I did in order to go deeper into
my own learning and to reinforce what I was learning in that MFA program. And I
told students you know “you're getting the MFA along with me here, but I’m the
only one who’s going to get the degree because I'm charging you a heck of a lot
less than what I’m doing.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“I’m going to ask
you guys a lot of questions!”<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">PH: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But it was. It was
making sure that I really understood it that I was able to communicate it, not
just through my poetry, but also through a sort of organized method of
education and in a workshop setting. And it still ends up being true for me, especially
with my adult classes which tend to draw a lot of the same poets over and over
again so I'm always having to, you know, kind of come up with new ideas and new
approaches while at the same time bringing newer students along to the rest of
the classes. I go with what excites me, you know, things that I'm interested in
in learning and exploring is what I bring into my teaching, and it goes hand in
hand. For me that teaching and writing is kind of dual parts of my poetry.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Yeah, I found that…
because I've only taught. I've taught technical writing but I've never taught
poetry in an academic setting. And when I deal with classes, it's usually
people that are newer to the craft and I find that one of the things that they
struggle with often is the lack of narrative. That there's no conclusion to
what they're writing, that they're just capturing a feeling or an essence or an
image or whatever. Have you found that to be true? Having been on both sides of
the fence, you've taught and you've learned at the MFA level. What obstacles
are in teaching poetry?<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">PH: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Well, I'm a
narrative poet!<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But still, obviously it's a different kind of
narrative. There may be a beginning and middle and end to the story but it's
not it's not the same sort of wrapped-up conclusion that you would get in a good
mystery novel or fairy tale.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I think it, it has—these are certainly things that I
stroke have struggled with or have struggled with in my own writing. What is
the relationship between good prose and good poetry? What you do what you need
to do in prose in order to, you know, set the scene, making transitions. In
poetry you need to learn to trust the reader, and to trust your words—bring the
reader along to make those leaps with you, which is often done in image as opposed
to and an explanation. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But when you get right down to it that's true in—I
mean, it's probably not true technical writing! Or maybe it is, I don't know! But
it can be true in fiction and creative nonfiction as well: overexplaining is
one of the one of the critiques that I will often offer to people who've asked
me to read their prose as well.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Sure. It's
difficult because sometimes, poetry—perhaps less than other forms, although I
can't, I haven't studied other forms as extensively as I've studied poetry—poetry
seems like a form where it’s more difficult to apply universal rules of any
kind, because sometimes excess symmetry really works and sometimes it doesn't.
And I've run into times with people in my workshop where they'll say “well, you
said this last month” I was like “I did, but this is a different set of
circumstances now, you know what I mean? <b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">PH: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Yeah, that's
definitely true. You know, one of the things that you asked about was sort of
ways of working with younger people or really with people in general around0
writing and writing poetry and one of the things that I find especially with
children, you know, children and teens. It's important to be a really good
listener in order to figure out how they're figuring it out for themselves. And
then to reinforce that so the first time you know with a group of young writers.
<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">For example, the first time I hear a metaphor. You
know, it's like I'll just jump up and down with excitement and say, “Look, look
what you did! You know, you made this by yourself, this is one of the building
blocks of poetry and you found it in your own writing because you had something
to say and that metaphor was the way you wanted to say it!” Because I think all
have those tools within us, of image-making, of meaning-making through image
of, you know, of making music through our words without necessarily calling it
poetry. And so one of the things that a teacher can do is just to point out
that that's what we're doing. And take away a little bit of the fear around
getting it wrong by pointing out all the ways that new writers are getting it
right. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Yeah, that's 100%
true. I mean, you can, you know, not to be too crass but you can describe a
booger to anyone with enough description that they'll say please stop like,
that may not be a poem, but that is an image. <b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">PH: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It is it is an
image! And now what do you want to do with it?<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Where do you go
with this booger? You've picked it out of the lineup, now what are you going to
do?<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So you were also named the 2022 Writer in Residence
for the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library. So, tell us about that
role. What does that mean and what are you going to do with it?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">PH: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Well, it's. I am, I'm
really honored by having been selected and I just think it's so cool that our
library, that the Cincinnati Public Library has a Writer in Residence because
it's not really all that common, you know, throughout the country. I mean there
are definitely some municipalities and counties that do, but you know, as
uncommon as a city Poet Laureate is, a Writer in Residence is even less common.
And so to be able to help to promote this program within the Cincinnati public
libraries is just really cool. Libraries are and have been a big part of who I
have been, as a reader especially, and you can't be a writer without also being
a reader.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I'm thinking, I shouldn't try to say I'm not the first.
Let me just say that there are many wonderful writers who have come before me
as Writer in Residence and so the library has has got really a pretty good
system down for what they would like for their writers to do. And it includes
things like a number of workshops, office hours, where people can come either
now online but hopefully soon in-person with a little bit of their work or with
some questions about writing. Also have some conversation around that with the writer
and residents and whoever also happens to show up with questions.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I will be doing some podcasts, not nearly as well as
you but I'll try. I've been picking Jeremy's brain on how to do it. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I don't know about
that I'm setting the low baseline.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">PH: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And then also
blogging about my experience. I think a couple of things that I really want to
be able to do is to connect more of Cincinnati's writers with the Writer in Residence
program, and with the library, and just to make sure that more that people know
that this cool program is out there. And then it will serve as a resource for
writers even after I'm no longer in the position, and so making that connection
between Cincinnati's really lively literary scene and the library's lively
programs is one thing. And then the other is working with library patrons to be
a real-life writer. To show the kind of person behind the books that they're
reading.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Yeah. In my
workshops to the library, I meet so many people that are just interested in
writing. And there's a lot of people out there, they’re good writers, and they
just have this mentality like “well I'm not a writer. Because, you know, I
don't have a bunch of books out”, but then there are some studs out there. They're
just waiting to be discovered and connected, I think.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">PH: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Absolutely, absolutely.
And so, you know, part of that too is letting those library patrons who may not
be aware of what a supportive community there is, even outside the library,
through the various poetry and other groups in Cincinnati is something else
that I think I'll be able to do. And really it's one of the things that the
library staff has told me is that my passion for community building around
writing is a big part of why I'm a Writer in Residence, so I want to use that
passion for good purpose. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Absolutely, and
that recognition is so important because it empowers you going into the
position. What have you learned you think, from being Poet Laureate that you
can apply to this position? Because some of the duties are fundamentally the
same, even if you have, you know, different means of achieving it. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">PH: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Yeah, I mean, I
think within a city poet laureate position, you know, the audience is much
broader, in a sense. And so, there's various possibilities. Whereas with the
library, one of the things that I'm really happy about is that the programs are
all within the 5152 libraries within the library system and so there's kind of
a ready-made audience. A group of people who are already connected to the
library, or who could be.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But you know I think in terms of the similarities, it
has to do with the passion for the work for the community building, for being
able to offer programs that will appeal to a wide cross-section of people. So
with the library for example, I'm doing a memoir class that will be coming up
at the end of January. I'll do a poetry workshop in April. And then I'll also
do a flash fiction workshop with teens because I've found in my work with teens
that world-building through stories is something that you know that teens,
often teen writers, often like to do. And then I'll end up with an
intergenerational writing workshop where I'll be bringing adults and children
together to all write and to learn from each other. And so I’m just kind of
looking at ways to do programs that meet people where they are, and to serve
specific needs of specific audiences.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Okay, that's
really cool. And you had mentioned doing some of the intergenerational—because
you're really good at meeting audiences where they are, like, not just in terms
of your ability to build a community but in your writing, too. And the example
I want to use is the collection <i>Friend</i> because you wrote—it was written
as an epistolary, or you know, a series of letters about Covid. And one of the
things I found so fascinating about this collection is, it's almost like a Centos
exercise where you have these things that other people wrote to each other. And
they were shared not intending it to be viewed as a literary work, but you
commandeered it and displayed it as a literary work anyway. And one of the
things that's so cool about this collection, is you took snapshots of people’s
lives during Covid. So, how did that collection turn into a collection? How did
you decide that that is where you wanted to meet people, and why?<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">PH: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Well, the book <i>Friend</i>
came about in a really very specific way, and it has to do with the
conversation we've been having about teaching. I was teaching one of my regular
classes From Draft to Craft as part of my community class for Thomas Moore University,
and we had our first class on—I’m making up the dates here but they're pretty
close—you know, March 2nd, 2020. And we had our second class on March 9th 2020.
And then, you know what happened: we were shut down. <b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But you know, some wisdom far greater than mine led me
to have made the decision already before I went into the class that what we
would be doing in the classes to write epistolary poetry. We would look at some
examples of letter poems, particularly the example of the series that was published
in <i>The</i> <i>New Yorker</i>, a series of letters between eight of Ada Limon
and Natalie Diaz, and that we would partner up and spend you know the semester
writing letters, poem letters, back and forth to each other. We looked at the
intersection of what was a poem and what's a letter. You know, where do they
intersect, where do they come apart. How did the rules of one affect the rules
of the other.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So, when we had to shut down, and this was not before Zoom.
Obviously zoom was out there but it was before I knew anything about Zoom and had
any thought of doing a class on Zoom. These letter poems were how we wrote to
each other. So, most of these poems with friends were written as an exchange
with three different poets who were in in my class.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I was being a little bit of an overachiever maybe
because I was so freaked out, and had so much I wanted to be able to say about
the experience of lockdown. And so what you're seeing is my part of the
exchange, but I think you get a sense of who that other person was. You know
the real-life person that I was exchanging with. You know I'm aware of when I
read those points back to myself, I still feel it as a conversation, you know,
I still feel it as this awareness, of this intimate other whom you know I could
not see that I could share these this experience with from afar.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I didn't think about it as a collection until I was
working during that time with a wonderful poet and mentor, Rebecca Gayle Howell
who lives in Lexington and was sharing my poems also with her. And she said, “Yeah,
put this together, send it out as a chapbook.” So, she believed in the work as
a body of work, as a part as a book of poems, before I saw that message. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Oh, that's really
cool. I want to touch on something you had said about the audience. Because
you're saying, you know, the letters have an audience: it's the person that
they were being sent to. When you're writing a poem you also have an audience.
How do those two disciplines overlap when you’re trying to edit these letters,
which were meant for a specific person, into an experience for everybody? <b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">PH: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Well, part of it
certainly was based on the idea that these were epistolary poems, and so we
thought about these as poems when we set out to write them. I really thought of
them as poems, as well as intimate correspondence. So, they were always both.
You know, I think what I learned through writing these letter poems was that
there is something about knowing that someone specific is going to read them
that creates an urgency and an intimacy that then I am trying to bring into the
rest of my poetry.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">You know, so I think I learned—you know I grew. as we
always do, when we write one poem we learn how to write the next poem, right? That
what writing teaches us, is how to them to keep moving into the deeper parts of
our body, of work, and for me, with the epistolary poetry. It was the intimacy
and the urgency that I take with me into the rest of my poetry. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And then you also realize that when other readers
outside of the person that they were written to responded to them in a way that
they spoke to you know a broader audience than just an audience of one, I think
is a reminder that that’s part of what poetry does I mean that poetry is in a
way, it encourages our eavesdropping. That there's a way that we feel like we
are looking inside to someone's life. And, of course, that's what literature
does that it gives us that view into each other's lives and so it didn't
necessarily matter that you, you know that the <i>specific</i> you, was not the
original intended reader. The reader still got invited in, and hopefully felt
the joy of just being able to have that intimate relationship through poetry.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Sure, that's an
important one to have. Let's talk about your newest book <i>Heartbreak Tree.</i>
So that's coming out in March, that will be out in two months from the airing
of this episode.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">PH: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Yeah, actually,
two months from today almost. I think the March 18 is supposed to be its
release date. And we're talking on the 17th so yeah, it's almost here, which is
exciting because I've been waiting for it feels like I've been waiting for this
for so long. It was accepted about 18 months ago, I think, so it's been a while
waiting for it to come out. <b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Sure. So how has
that gone? What inspired the collection and what came out of it?<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">PH: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So, um, <i>Heartbreak
Tree</i> is a full-length collection, unlike <i>Friend</i>, which is more of a
chapbook. And it begins with looking back into my girlhood and adolescence in
Eastern Kentucky and Appalachia, and then it moves on from there. I mean it
really sort of covers the span of my life, and is as much about being a mother,
being there being a daughter, being a stepmother, being mothered, sort of all
the interrelationships between, between women and between generations. It
covers in sort of a widespread way. <b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But I had just finished when I started working on the
poems that became <i>Heartbreak Tree</i>, I had had just finished my book of
poems called <i>Coal Town Photograph</i> which covered some similar kinds of
material, in the sense of what it was looking back into, into growing up in
Appalachia. But there was much more of a sense of, not nostalgia exactly, but
of longing, my mother had just died. You know there was this sort of sense of,
of loss of place, as well as loss of my place, within the generation and
family.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And so with <i>Heartbreak Tree</i>, I decided that I
wanted to write here—or with the poems that became <i>Heartbreak Tree</i>,
because I wasn't really thinking of it as a book at the time—I decided that I
wanted to write as starkly and as non-nostalgically as possible about
adolescence, about Eastern Kentucky, about Appalachia. And so, those poems have
a little harder edge. Maybe.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Then some of my other poems of place... I was also
working with Rebecca Gayle Howell, the mentor and friend and wonderful poet
that I mentioned earlier, and all-around friend, and she just encouraged me to
keep going deeper and deeper into the story. And so I did.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I was also playing with as, as you know with epistolary
poetry with <i>Friend</i>, and it also includes epistolary poetry to some
degree, but the letters are to my 15-year-old self. So, there's a conversation
there between the adult woman that I am and the girl that I was.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Cool. That’s
interesting because I struggled with this when I was writing about my hometown,
because my experiences were, what they were… but my appreciation for the place
that I grew up in was a very different thing. And when I went to write about it,
I had a difficult time reconciling the two. So, my question to you is, how did
you decide that you're going to be frank about it? And, what did that mean in
terms of honoring the place. Like was that a conscious effort in your mind?<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">PH: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Well, I think I've
written enough about Appalachian Eastern Kentucky that anyone who knows my body
of work knows that there is honoring, there is respect, there is reflection,
there is, you know, all of those things and so—one poem is only one poem, you
know, even a book of poems is only one book of poems. And just as a place has
many, many different aspects to it, then it seems to me that we have
permission, as those who are writing about those places to explore the many
aspects as long as when we do it we do it honestly. And, you know, hopefully
not self-servingly. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The other thing that happened during this time was
that I was invited to go back and do a series of writing workshops in the
county that I grew up in. And so, I had the opportunity to write with young
people who were still going to the high school that I went to. People who were
still living in the places that I lived in. And to do some writing for that
project, which was a very different sort of writing, which was much, much more
about creating some blog posts and some newspaper articles about the strengths
of the place. And so I had an outlet, as well for that kind of writing.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">You know, I think I would as a young writer in my 20s,
I stopped writing in part because I was afraid of telling the truth. And when I
began to write again in my 30s, I decided that if I was going to write, and I
was going to write, then I had to be willing to speak truth no matter how
difficult it was. You know I could make choices about whether or not that truth
ever saw the light of day in terms of other people's eyes.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But I knew that the only way that I could write was to
be brave and courageous and so I just leaned into that.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">What does being
courageous mean for you? Like, when you sit down to write and you think “wow, I
really did it this time.” What would you be describing?<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">PH: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Um, certainly it
depends on the poem or depends on the circumstance, but it is going down
beneath the surface to a place where I may not have realized that this is what
I'd seen, or this is what had happened, or this is what I'd felt, unless I'd
put the pen to the paper long enough to bring that forward.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Okay. And what
inspires you to write? What writers have inspired you and what keeps you going?<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">PH: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">There's so many
out there, you know, and I get little poetry crushes. I think that's what keeps
me going is my poetry girl crushes from one to the other. I do tend toward
poets who are generally speaking more narrative, more storytelling, who are coming
from the will of memory and place. I love Diane Seuss who does that about her
life in the Midwest and Michigan, and is just wild I think. Another wild and
courageous writer is Ada Limon, who is a longtime inspiration to me as another
writer who uses her own life, and her own experiences as a way to get to deeper,
and more universal, as well as more intimate and specific truths.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Just so many! More locally Maggie Smith, a writer out
of the Columbus area is a writer that I admire very much for much of the same
reasons. Rebecca Gayle Howell I mentioned before. I could go on and on but I've
also gotten more interested in doing writing that uses sources. Newspaper sources
or language that is not necessarily the language of poetry. And so writers like
Claudia Rankin for example, and Carolyn Wright and Natasha Trethewey who, you
know, sort of really delve into history and current culture and bring that
language into their poetry is also very inspiring to me right now.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Excellent. Okay,
well thank you very much for sharing. Would you like to read us a second poem
before we wrap up? <b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">PH: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I would! I would
indeed.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So, this poem is also in <i>Heartbreak Tree</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>So Maybe It’s True</b></span></p>poetry doesn’t make you a better person,<br /> and the news that can be found there<br /> is like some gone week’s Sunday Times<br /> tossed in its clear green wrapper<br /> beneath the neighbor’s car.<br /> The one who died<br /> and no one came to find him,<br /> and you didn’t knock on his door<br /> when his trashcan of carryout chicken and ribs<br /> sat spilling its own kind of news.<br /> Maybe.<br /> But, oh, to live awhile as marrow<br /> in someone else’s bones,<br /> to breathe her breath upon the mirror<br /> held up to your life,<br /> doesn’t it make you want<br /> to fling open whatever door you come to,<br /> doesn’t it make you want to try?</blockquote>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">JJ: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">I love that poem!
Alright, thank you so much for sharing!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">This has been
Poetry Spotlight, a production of the Ohio Poetry Association. Please follow
the OPA on Twitter @OhioPoetry and on Facebook at </span><a href="file:///C:/Users/Chuck%20Salmons/Downloads/facebook.com/ohiopoetry"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">facebook.com/ohiopoetry</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">. A transcript of
this episode can be found on the OPA blog. Visit </span><a href="file:///C:/Users/Chuck%20Salmons/Downloads/ohiopoetryassn.org"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">ohiopoetryassn.org</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> for more
information.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">And Pauletta,
thank you so very much for coming in.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">PH: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Thank you, Jeremy,
I really appreciated it!</span></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">Serving poets since 1929</div>Chuck Salmonshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11692631204163757459noreply@blogger.com0Ohio, USA40.4172871 -82.90712300000001312.107053263821157 -118.06337300000001 68.727520936178848 -47.750873000000013tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4637504118325607007.post-8945647764867125502021-08-25T19:18:00.030-04:002021-08-31T17:39:21.057-04:00Ohio Poetry Day Association names 2021 Poet of the Year and Contest Winners<p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;">The Ohio Poetry Day Association (OPDA) has
selected Quartez Harris as its Ohio Poet of the Year for 2021. Harris was
selected for his book of poems, </span><i style="font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;">We Made It to School Alive</i><span style="font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;"> (Twelve Arts Press, 2020).</span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; display: inline; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0413/7150/0700/files/WeMadeItToSchoolAlive_FINAL_1_540x.jpg?v=1592577004" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="699" data-original-width="540" height="200" src="https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0413/7150/0700/files/WeMadeItToSchoolAlive_FINAL_1_540x.jpg?v=1592577004" width="155" /></a></div><br />Residing in Cleveland, Ohio, Harris
is a second-grade teacher at Michael R. White Elementary School. </span><i style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">We Made It to School
Alive,</span></i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;">
his second collection of poetry, was inspired by his work as a teacher and
gives voice to the experiences of the children he works with every day who deal
with issues of gun violence, poverty, educational challenges, and more.</span></div><p class="Body" style="border: medium none; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; text-align: left;">Harris’ first book, <i>N</i></span><i style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">othing,
But Skin, </span></i><span style="font-size: 12pt; text-align: left;">was published in 2014 by Writing Knights Press. He is the first
recipient of the Barbara Smith Writer-In-Resident at Twelve Literary Arts and a
2020 Baldwin House Fellow. He has been featured in the <i>Plain Dealer,</i>
IdeaStream, and City Club of Cleveland, and recently signed on to be
represented by Mckinnon Literary Agency. His works in progress are a young-adult
novel and picture book biography. Learn more at </span><a href="http://quartezharris.com/" style="text-align: left;" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">quartezharris.com</span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt; text-align: left;">. </span></span>To purchase a copy of <i>We Made It to School Alive, </i>visit <a href="http://twelve-arts-press.myshopify.com/" target="_blank">twelve-arts-press.myshopify.com</a>.</p><p></p>
<p class="Body" style="border: medium none; margin-bottom: 12pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgalFsJsr2_WiZGtukR9io2bxRSyap9MrTMVrOV37gEVpXhoSFWBX7SR3UjiemYz8B-MCvENmdoLrgXFMz0uJpfBYXaTsV0DNTNb0on9NHPzYRlDKWBReO0mp6_Qa1LAZOU1PIs1pp0p8M/s2048/Quartez+Harris.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1365" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgalFsJsr2_WiZGtukR9io2bxRSyap9MrTMVrOV37gEVpXhoSFWBX7SR3UjiemYz8B-MCvENmdoLrgXFMz0uJpfBYXaTsV0DNTNb0on9NHPzYRlDKWBReO0mp6_Qa1LAZOU1PIs1pp0p8M/w133-h200/Quartez+Harris.jpg" width="133" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Quartez Harris</span></span></i><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Harris’ book was one of seven
books nominated this year. He joins the likes of Mary Oliver, David Baker, and
Maggie Smith as Poet of the Year. To see a list of previous Poet of the Year
winners, visit the OPA blog article </span><a href="https://ohiopoetryassn.blogspot.com/2021/04/ohio-poetry-day-association-accepting.html" style="font-size: 12pt;" target="_blank"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">here</span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt;">.
<o:p></o:p></span></span><p></p>
<h3 style="border: medium none; margin-bottom: 12pt; text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Annual Contest Winners</span></span></b></h3>
<p class="Body" style="border: medium none; margin-bottom: 12pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in; tab-stops: 387.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">OPDA also has released the winners
list for the 2021 OPD contests (see below). Winners and Honorable Mentions for
the 24 contests reside not only in Ohio but across the United States and even
overseas. Contest winners are invited to take part in the OPD event on October
16 by reading their winning poem(s). Winners should email OPA President Chuck
Salmons, <b>president(@ohiopoetryassn.org</b>, by October 10, 2021. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<h3 style="border: medium none; margin-bottom: 12pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Join the Celebration: Ohio Poetry Day 2021</span></b></span></h3><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Date:</b> Saturday, October 16, 2021<br /><b>Time: </b>1:30—4:30 PM<br /><b>Registration: </b>Event will take place on Zoom. Register via <a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ohio-poetry-day-virtual-celebration-tickets-151494284483" target="_blank">Eventbrite</a>. Registrants will receive an email with Zoom login information. Space is limited. The event also can be viewed without registration live on the OPA Facebook page: <a href="http://facebook.com/ohiopoetry" target="_blank">facebook.com/ohiopoetry</a>.</span><div><br /><div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">About Ohio Poetry Day</span></h3><p class="Body" style="border: medium none; margin-bottom: 12pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in; tab-stops: 387.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Ohio Poetry Da<span style="font-size: 12pt;">y Association was
founded in 1937 by authorization of the Ohio Legislature. Since 1976, it has selected
annually an Ohio Poet of the Year, basing its choice on a book published in the
previous one to two years. The award is based on the one book and not on an
aggregation of work published over time. Four judges are selected to review the
nominees, one of which is always a previous poet of the year winner.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="Body" style="border: medium none; margin-bottom: 12pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in; tab-stops: 387.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">For more information about Ohio
Poetry Day, visit </span><a href="http://ohiopoetryday.blogspot.com/"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">ohiopoetryday.blogspot.com</span></a></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">.</span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="Body" style="border: medium none; margin-bottom: 12pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in; tab-stops: 387.0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnDD-FfH6-ba6bL4rfj1fFcdTRE4v6Zcu0atVyJErCLa7cz91YmixUUVqOoizb93d_lgwBbgHh5UPY7l8TN3-6vPmK2B5I7r3RAYGNbKOHv4aYl-g5n8I0aPDuQ0bO2Naw2o7sP1H01iAp/s2048/OPD+Winners+2021_0001.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1582" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnDD-FfH6-ba6bL4rfj1fFcdTRE4v6Zcu0atVyJErCLa7cz91YmixUUVqOoizb93d_lgwBbgHh5UPY7l8TN3-6vPmK2B5I7r3RAYGNbKOHv4aYl-g5n8I0aPDuQ0bO2Naw2o7sP1H01iAp/w154-h200/OPD+Winners+2021_0001.jpg" width="154" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_qvGoew0qDb-5abq2gVoyxq0hGszU7X_x3PO5fhaqvzQoo0Un4r-D2aLDh3LZDuR2MtYjdl5251YUd9itoDCwmCspwo4Racdx-Txce-xAXGn4sXzvOFhSHsDnt8eDB2K-BqAIj4E-VeAL/s2048/OPD+Winners+2021_0002.jpg" style="clear: left; display: inline; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1582" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_qvGoew0qDb-5abq2gVoyxq0hGszU7X_x3PO5fhaqvzQoo0Un4r-D2aLDh3LZDuR2MtYjdl5251YUd9itoDCwmCspwo4Racdx-Txce-xAXGn4sXzvOFhSHsDnt8eDB2K-BqAIj4E-VeAL/w154-h200/OPD+Winners+2021_0002.jpg" width="154" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy9AAbnx_eiRQ-39VGjLhKuqQeVsMxMkg-KAkMFUKq5j-mKWap-L9Eue_-d_e_4irz3O9_JvuuqhrGigp6jra606NZKv0JMxohKC_U2xar_1qOlEW3KLaCkv0R4u34ml254_tAVFlThyphenhyphen_4/s2048/OPD+Winners+2021_0003.jpg" style="clear: left; display: inline; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1582" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy9AAbnx_eiRQ-39VGjLhKuqQeVsMxMkg-KAkMFUKq5j-mKWap-L9Eue_-d_e_4irz3O9_JvuuqhrGigp6jra606NZKv0JMxohKC_U2xar_1qOlEW3KLaCkv0R4u34ml254_tAVFlThyphenhyphen_4/w154-h200/OPD+Winners+2021_0003.jpg" width="154" /></a></div><p class="Body" style="border: medium none; margin-bottom: 12pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">###</span></p></div></div><br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">Serving poets since 1929</div>Chuck Salmonshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11692631204163757459noreply@blogger.com0Columbus, OH, USA39.9611755 -82.99879419999999211.650941663821158 -118.15504419999999 68.271409336178849 -47.842544199999992tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4637504118325607007.post-31753006310136605992021-04-20T12:05:00.000-04:002021-04-20T12:05:05.884-04:00Ohio Poetry Day Association accepting Poet of the Year 2021 Nominations<p><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">The Ohio Poetry Day Association (OPDA) is now accepting nominations for Ohio Poet of the Year. Handed out annually since 1976, the award is given for a single collection of poems. The award is based on the one book and not on an aggregation of work published over some time.</span></p><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-2361989799738852784" itemprop="description articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 578px;"><b>Nomination guidelines:</b><br /><ul style="line-height: 1.4; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding: 0px 2.5em;"><li style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;">Poets may not self-nominate. Books can be offered by others: a publisher or editor, a college faculty or member thereof, a writers' or poets' organization, any other person of poetic standing in the state, or from the lists of books newly published that are put out by the Ohioana Library several times a year.</li><li style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;">The poet must be a native or a resident of Ohio, or if neither, must have lived in Ohio long enough to have formed serious ties to the state. (The list of former winners of Poet of the Year is below.)</li><li style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;">The nominated book must be longer than a chapbook (i.e., more than 48 pages) and not a "collected" or "complete" works.</li><li style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;">The book may be from a commercial or university press or self-published, but it may not come from a vanity press. Books nominated will be screened for quality and to ensure that there are not too many of them for judges to consider.</li><li style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;">The nominated book may have received previous awards or honors.</li><li style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;">Poets who previously were nominated may be so again, for a different book; but no one will be chosen a second time as POY.</li><li style="border: none; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Nominations must be submitted by May 1, 2021. Mail a single copy of the book to:</span></li></ul><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>Amy Jo Zook</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>3520 State Route 56</b></span></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>Mechanicsburg, OH 43044</b></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div>The award consists of $200 and a commemorative plaque, with one poem from the chosen book also being published in the year's BEST OF collection. The POY winner will be notified in the late summer and invited to be the featured speaker at Ohio Poetry Day weekend. Again this year, OPA will host the event as a virtual program on October 16. Watch the OPA website and Facebook for more details</div><div><br />For more background and a look at the history of the award, <a href="https://ohiopoetryassn.blogspot.com/2016/02/a-brief-look-at-ohio-poet-of-year.html" style="color: #993366; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">see the OPA blog article here</a>.</div><div><br /><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b>Previous Ohio Poets of the Year</b><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-collapse: collapse; width: 571px;"><tbody><tr><td style="background: transparent; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 63.9pt;" valign="top" width="85"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">1976</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;"><br />1977</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">1978</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;"><br />1979</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">1980</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;"><br />1981</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">1982</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">1983</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">1984</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">1985</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;"><br />1986</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">1987</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">1988</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">1989</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">1990</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">1991</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">1992</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;"><br /><br />1993</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">1994</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td><td style="background: transparent; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="198"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">Hallie Cramer</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">Muriel de Chambrun</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">Virginia Moran Evans</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">Cecil Hale Hartzell</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">Celia Dimmette</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">Novella Humphrey Davis</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">Daisy Lee Donaldson</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">Mary Oliver</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">James Magner, Jr.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">James C. Kilgore</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span style="color: #333333;">no award given</span></b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">Charlotte Mann</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">Richard Hague</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">Michael J. Rosen</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">J. A. Totts</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">Timothy Russell</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">Amy Jo Schoonover</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">Robert Wallace</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">Bonnie Jacobson</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">David Baker</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">Debra Allbery</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">Grace Butcher</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">Frankie Paino</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">David Citino</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">Tom Andrews</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">Michael J. Bugeja</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td><td style="background: transparent; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 3in;" valign="top" width="288"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #333333;">A Sprig of Bittersweet</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #333333;">Sudden Soring</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #333333;">To Seek the Sun</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #333333;">Song on the Anvil</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #333333;">Ocean Carry Us Far</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #333333;">There Was This Place</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #333333;">Surface Fragments</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #333333;">Twelve Moons</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #333333;">Till No Light Leaps</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #333333;">African Violet</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #333333;"> ---</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #333333;">Grape Pitcher</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #333333;">Ripening</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #333333;">A Drink at the Mirage</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #333333;">Outside the Dream</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #333333;">The Possibility of Turning to Salt</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #333333;">New & Used Poems</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #333333;">The Common Summer</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #333333;">Stopping for Time</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #333333;">Sweet Home, Saturday Night</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #333333;">Walking Distance</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #333333;">Child, House, World</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #333333;">The Rapture of Matter</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #333333;">The Discipline</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #333333;">The Hemophiliac's Motorcycle</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #333333;">After Oz</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td></tr><tr><td style="background: transparent; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 63.9pt;" valign="top" width="85"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">1995</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">1996</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">1997</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">1998</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">1999</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">2000</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">2001</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">2002</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">2003</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">2004</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">2005</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;"><br />2006</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">2007</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">2008</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">2009</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;"><br />2010</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">2011</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">2012</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">2013</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">2014</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;"><br />2015</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: #333333;">2016</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: #333333;">2017</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: #333333;">2018<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">2019</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">2020</span></div></td><td style="background: transparent; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="198"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">Alberta Turner</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">Lou Suarez</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">William Matthews</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">James Cummins</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">Susan Grimm</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">Miriam Vermilya</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">Myrna Stone</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">Pauletta Hansel</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">Deanna Packard</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">Elton Glaser</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">Cathryn Essinger</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">Herbert W. Martin</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">David Hassler</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">Martha Collins</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">William Heyen</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">Stephen Haven</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">Terry Hermsen</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">Will Wells</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">George Looney</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">Linda Ann Schofield</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">Lianne Spidel</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">Dzvinia Orlowsky</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">David Lee Garrison</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">Jeff Gundy</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: #333333;">Maggie Smith</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: #333333;">Kathy Fagan</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: #333333;">Susan Glassmeyer<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">Laura Grace Weldon</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;">Kari Gunter-Seymour</span></div></td><td style="background: transparent; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 3in;" valign="top" width="288"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #333333;">Beginning With And</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #333333;">Losses of Moment</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #333333;">Time & Money</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #333333;">Portrait in a Spoon</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #333333;">Almost Home</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #333333;">Heartwood</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #333333;">The Art of Loss</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #333333;">Divining</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333;"><i>ln Dreams We Kiss Ourselves Goodbye</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #333333;">Pelican Talks</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #333333;">My Dog Does Not Read Plato</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #333333;">Escape to the Promised Land</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #333333;">Red Kimono, Yellow Barn</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #333333;">Blue Front</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #333333;">The Confessions of Doc Williams</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #333333;">Dust and Bread</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #333333;">The River's Daughter</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #333333;">Unsettled Accounts</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #333333;">Open Between Us</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #333333;">Psalms of the Hood</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #333333;">What to Tell Joseme</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #333333;">Silvertone</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #333333;">Playing Bach in the D.C. Metro</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #333333;">Somewhere Near Defiance</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span><i><span style="color: #333333;">The Well Speaks of Its Own Poison</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span><i><span style="color: #333333;">Sycamore</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span><i><span style="color: #333333;">Invisible Fish<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #333333;">Blackbird</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #333333;">A Place So Deep Inside America It Can't Be Seen</span></i></div></td></tr></tbody></table></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Serving poets since 1929</div>Chuck Salmonshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11692631204163757459noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4637504118325607007.post-81123238931261463782021-03-18T17:29:00.005-04:002021-03-18T17:31:02.556-04:00Ohio Poetry Day 2021 Contests Now Open<p>The annual Ohio Poetry Day Association contests have been announced. <b>May 15, 2021, is the deadline (postmark) </b>for more than twenty contests, including a
“Welcome Aboard” category for first-time submitters and an art category to design the cover art for the 2021 Best of Ohio Poetry Day anthology, published later this year. Below is a copy of the submission form, which provides full contest information. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 10.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;">Ohio
Poetry Day 2021 will take place October 15<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">–16</span>. Stay up to date on OPD
information, including meeting site and agend, by getting your name and address on the OPD mailing list. To do so, contact:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Amy
Jo Zook</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">3520
State Route 56</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Mechanicsburg,
OH 43044</b><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 10.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><b>Checks for all contest fees and purchases should be made payable to: Ohio Poetry Day</b>. For questions, call (937) 834-2666.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 10.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw4WRJ0dmmJT_v7eDynccSKa-M9ufY8PYZKWvspEcMFUVgny-_1xkTBhQzGxHmqZOkSrgFsP9WPvIUIeCMV1evIj1hVHubTf3QeFMe1YZWkR6-bIx1OVgBXjILOXAnscwKtKJChqf-WtTL/s2250/OPD+Poetry+Rules+2021.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1125" data-original-width="2250" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw4WRJ0dmmJT_v7eDynccSKa-M9ufY8PYZKWvspEcMFUVgny-_1xkTBhQzGxHmqZOkSrgFsP9WPvIUIeCMV1evIj1hVHubTf3QeFMe1YZWkR6-bIx1OVgBXjILOXAnscwKtKJChqf-WtTL/w400-h200/OPD+Poetry+Rules+2021.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">Click the image to enlarge and download.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 10.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 10.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><o:p></o:p></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">Serving poets since 1929</div>Chuck Salmonshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11692631204163757459noreply@blogger.com0Ohio, USA40.4172871 -82.90712300000001312.107053263821157 -118.06337300000001 68.727520936178848 -47.750873000000013tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4637504118325607007.post-90316295737986628362020-09-22T15:41:00.007-04:002020-09-22T15:43:39.961-04:00A Special Message from Ohio Poetry Day Association<p style="text-align: justify;"><i><b>by Amy Jo Zook</b></i><br /><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<![endif]--></p><p style="text-align: justify;">
</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">The 83rd celebration of Poetry Day
is October 3 and is like no other, because of the various strictures demanded
by the Coronavirus. Instead, we will do as many of our traditional things as
possible and make substitutions for the rest until we can resume our customary
ways.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">We are producing our usual book of
winning poems, BEST OF 2020, which will be available at and after Poetry Day,
and may possibly be ready a week or so before, so it can be ordered to have
in-hand by October 3. As always, order from Amy Jo Zook, the usual
cost-plus-mailing of $14.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">The booklet of Workshop poems, with
critique / comments attached, will be available also, for $2, no extra postage
if mailed with BEST OF, or $2.55 if mailed separately. Winners and those who
usually attend the workshop will want this.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">As an experiment, we are producing
a CD of Ohio Poet of the Year <a href="https://www.karigunterseymourpoet.com/">Kari Gunter-Seymour</a> reading from her book, that will be available for $5 postpaid
separate from the other items from Poetry Day, or it can be included in a book
mailing for $3.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">The Ohio Poetry Association is
hosting a ZOOM event on Poetry Day (October 3) , from 1:30 to 4 pm. you will
hear first Ohio Poet of the Year Kari Gunter-Seymour, and then as many of the
other winning poets as can get registered. Anyone who won an OPD 2020 contest
or received an honorable mention and would like to read during the open mic,
should also email Ohio Poetry Association president Chuck Salmons at <a href="mailto:president@ohiopoetryassn.org">president@ohiopoetryassn.org</a>. </p>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Closing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Message Header"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Salutation"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Date"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Block Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Hyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="FollowedHyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Document Map"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Plain Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="E-mail Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Top of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Bottom of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal (Web)"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Acronym"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Address"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Cite"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Code"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Definition"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Keyboard"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Preformatted"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Sample"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Typewriter"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Variable"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal Table"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="annotation subject"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="No List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Contemporary"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Elegant"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Professional"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Balloon Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Theme"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" QFormat="true"
Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="41" Name="Plain Table 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="42" Name="Plain Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="43" Name="Plain Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="44" Name="Plain Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="45" Name="Plain Table 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="40" Name="Grid Table Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="Grid Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="List Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="List Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="List Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 2"/>
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</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">Space is limited, so register
early. Register via Eventbrite at </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><b><a href="http://www.eventbrite.com/e/ohio-poetry-day-virtual-celebration-tickets-1%2014368551416">www.eventbrite.com/e/ohio-poetry-day-virtual-celebration-tickets-1
14368551416</a></b>. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIf5Illomqp1ABbLcai-oZ1NrTmDNidjCHKaFp8Yon4gWeVYAaGLQK9oNDpZAvKi5gVhjAgZU9ehbwiVYUxv3u8atgUeX8V8InJBK6UiPkUTtn4TLz5iIYtlWPQ7hANwlUPsrCgQFnjgA/s499/A+Place+So+Deep+Inside+America+It+Can%2527t+Be+Seen+Kari.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="333" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIf5Illomqp1ABbLcai-oZ1NrTmDNidjCHKaFp8Yon4gWeVYAaGLQK9oNDpZAvKi5gVhjAgZU9ehbwiVYUxv3u8atgUeX8V8InJBK6UiPkUTtn4TLz5iIYtlWPQ7hANwlUPsrCgQFnjgA/s320/A+Place+So+Deep+Inside+America+It+Can%2527t+Be+Seen+Kari.jpg" /></a></div>To order Kari's book, <i>A Place So
Deep Inside America lt Can't Be Seen</i>:<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 0.5in; text-align: justify;">PayPal: <a href="http://www.paypal.me/KariGunterSeymour"><b>www.paypal.me/KariGunterSeymour</b></a> -<br />Click on “Add a note" to leave your Name and mailing address.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 0.5in; text-align: justify;"><u>OR</u> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 0.5in; text-align: justify;">Send a check with
your Name and mailing address to Kari Gunter-Seymour, P.O. Box 351, Albany, OH
45710.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">All these items will be easier to
obtain if you order early. The 2020 books are trying print-on-demand rather
than ordering and stocking books that may not sell. But we hope we will
actually sell more of them when you can't attend the event.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">BEST OF 2O2O, the workshop book,
and the CD will be mailed with all the year's prizes and certificates, from Amy
Jo Zook, 3520 State Route 56, Mechanicsburg, OH 43044. <b>All checks should be made
payable to Ohio Poetry Day.</b></p>
<p></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">Serving poets since 1929</div>John B. Burroughshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11497208622485346132noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4637504118325607007.post-90380353109092171462020-06-24T15:59:00.001-04:002020-06-24T15:59:55.616-04:00Ohio Poetry Association 2020 Student Contest Winners <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt;"><font face="inherit">The Ohio Poetry Association (OPA) is
pleased to announce the winners and honorable mentions of the 2020 High School
Poetry Contest. Eligible poems were sent to the National Federation of State Poetry Societies Manningham
Trust Student Poetry Contest. All winning poems receive monetary awards and
publication in an OPA chapbook. Congratulations to all the winners!</font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt;"><b><font face="inherit">Acknowledgements</font></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt;"><font face="inherit">We want to thank each contest sponsor and judges for their support and time. The contests would not exist without all of them.</font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt;"><font face="inherit">We congratulate the teachers from each school with student winning poems and
honorable mentions: Bexley High School, Rikki Santer and Julie Horger; Boardman High School, Randy
Nord; Bowling Green High School, Sarah Caserta;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Buckeye Local High School, Stephanie Crust; Dublin Coffman High School,
Tyler Gantz; Dublin Jerome High School, Samantha Razem; Hudson High School,
Gina M. VonVille; Lake High School, Chris Wise; Minster High School, Jessie
Magoto; Pandora-Gilboa High School, Sarah Schroeder; Sidney High School, Amy
Gleason; Theodore Roosevelt High School, Pamela Harr; Toledo School for<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the Arts, Justin Longacre; Waynedale High
School, Kevin Stacy; West Geauga High School, Christopher Connell; Western
Reserve Academy, Todd Gilbert; Whitmer High School, Cynthia Lambrecht<b>.</b></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt;"><font face="inherit">Special thanks go to Sharon Fish Mooney, the student contest coordinator. Sharon devotes many hours of her time to make these contests special and to solicit as many entries from Ohio's high school students as possible. In recent years, we've seen the contests grow in the number of entries and in variety of voices. Thanks you, Sharon!</font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt;"><b><font face="inherit">Sponsorship</font></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt;"><font face="inherit">Anyone interested in sponsoring the student contests can contact Sharon Mooney via email at <b>studentcontest@ohiopoetryassn.org </b>for more information<b>.</b></font><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt;"><b><br /></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; mso-outline-level: 1;"><font face="inherit" size="5"><b>Contest</b><b>s and Winners<o:p></o:p></b></font></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: 1; margin-left: 0in;"><font face="inherit" style="line-height: 1;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;"><i style="line-height: 1;">Common Threads</i> J</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;">ournal Winners (Grand Prize)<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><blockquote style="border: none; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: 1; margin-left: 0in;"><font face="inherit" style="line-height: 1;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;">1<sup style="line-height: 1;">st</sup> place: </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;">Thomas Long – <st1:placename style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on"><st1:place style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">Bowling Green</st1:place> <st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">High School</st1:placetype></st1:placename> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: 1; margin-left: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;"><font face="inherit" style="line-height: 1;">Honorable Mention:
Gwendolyn Pyle – <st1:place style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on"><st1:placename style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">Toledo</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">School</st1:placetype></st1:place> for the Arts</font></span></p></blockquote><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: 1; margin-left: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: 1; margin-left: 0in;"><font face="inherit" style="line-height: 1;"><b style="line-height: 1;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;">Voices
from the Past - </span></b></font><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;">Sponsor:
Mark Hersman — Judge: Scott Craig Mooney</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 1;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;"><font face="inherit" style="line-height: 1;"> 1<sup style="line-height: 1;">st </sup> <b style="line-height: 1;"> </b>Alyssa Lingenfelter (<st1:place style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on"><st1:placename style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">Buckeye</st1:placename> <st1:placename style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">Local</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">High School</st1:placetype></st1:place>)<b style="line-height: 1;"> </b> <o:p></o:p></font></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: 1; margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 9.35pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;"><font face="inherit" style="line-height: 1;">2<sup style="line-height: 1;">nd
</sup> Steve Bezak (<st1:placename style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on"><st1:place style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">Buckeye</st1:place> <st1:placename style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">Local</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">High School</st1:placetype></st1:placename>) <o:p></o:p></font></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: 1; margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 9.35pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;"><font face="inherit" style="line-height: 1;">3<sup style="line-height: 1;">rd </sup>Austin Felice (<st1:place style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on"><st1:placename style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">Minster</st1:placename> <st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">High School</st1:placetype></st1:place>)
<o:p></o:p></font></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: 1; margin-left: 0in;"><font face="inherit" style="line-height: 1;"><b style="line-height: 1;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;">David Francis Smith Award - </span></b></font><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;">Sponsor:
Teresa Santmyer — Judge: Chuck Salmons</span></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: 1; margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 9.35pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;"><font face="inherit" style="line-height: 1;">1<sup style="line-height: 1;">st </sup>Austin Felice (<st1:placename style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on"><st1:place style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">Minster</st1:place>
<st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">High School</st1:placetype></st1:placename>) <o:p></o:p></font></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: 1; margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 9.35pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;"><font face="inherit" style="line-height: 1;">2<sup style="line-height: 1;">nd
</sup> Julian Lawson (<st1:placename style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on"><st1:place style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">Sidney</st1:place> <st1:placename style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">High
School</st1:placename></st1:placename>) <o:p></o:p></font></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: 1; margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 9.35pt;"><span lang="NL" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;"><font face="inherit" style="line-height: 1;">3<sup style="line-height: 1;">rd </sup>Kaden Knake (West Geauga High School) <o:p></o:p></font></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: 1; margin-left: 27pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;"><font face="inherit" style="line-height: 1;">HM: Thomas Long (<st1:placename style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">Bowling
Green</st1:placename> <st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">High School</st1:placetype>);
Ryan Gibson (<st1:placename style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on"><st1:place style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">Sidney</st1:place> <st1:placename style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">High School</st1:placename></st1:placename>); </font></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1; text-indent: -0.25in;">Ryan Strunk (</span><st1:place style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1; text-indent: -0.25in;" w:st="on"><st1:placename style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">Sidney</st1:placename> <st1:placename style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">High School</st1:placename></st1:place><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1; text-indent: -0.25in;">)</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><b style="line-height: 1;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;"><font face="inherit" style="line-height: 1;"> New
Beginnings - </font></span></b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;">Sponsor
and judges: Great Expectations Writers (Betsy Kennedy and Mary Beth Benicke)</span></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: 1; margin-left: 0in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;"><font face="inherit" style="line-height: 1;"> 1<sup style="line-height: 1;">st </sup>Kaden Knake (<st1:placename style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on"><st1:place style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">West</st1:place> <st1:placename style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">Geauga</st1:placename> <st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">High School</st1:placetype></st1:placename>)<o:p></o:p></font></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: 1; margin-left: 0in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;"><font face="inherit" style="line-height: 1;"> 2<sup style="line-height: 1;">nd </sup>Yeji Kim (<st1:placename style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on"><st1:place style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">Hudson</st1:place> <st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">High School</st1:placetype></st1:placename>)<o:p></o:p></font></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: 1; margin-left: 0in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;"><font face="inherit" style="line-height: 1;"> 3<sup style="line-height: 1;">rd </sup>Yoselin Whited (<st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on"><st1:place style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">Lake</st1:place> <st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">High School</st1:placetype></st1:placetype>)
<o:p></o:p></font></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: 1; margin-left: 0.25in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;"><font face="inherit" style="line-height: 1;"> HM: Claire
Laux (<st1:placename style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">Theodore</st1:placename> <st1:placename style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">Roosevelt</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">High School</st1:placetype>; Austin Felice (<st1:placename style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on"><st1:place style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">Minster</st1:place> <st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">High School</st1:placetype></st1:placename>); </font></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1; text-indent: -0.25in;">Olivia Mosca
(</span><st1:place style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1; text-indent: -0.25in;" w:st="on"><st1:placename style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">Theodore</st1:placename> <st1:placename style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">Roosevelt</st1:placename> <st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">High School</st1:placetype></st1:place><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 1;"><font face="inherit" style="line-height: 1;"><b style="line-height: 1;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;">Humor - </span></b></font><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;">Sponsor
and judge: Pat Snyder Hurley</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;"><font face="inherit" style="line-height: 1;">
1<sup style="line-height: 1;">st </sup> Gwendolyn Pyle (<st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on"><st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">Toledo</st1:placetype> <st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">School</st1:placetype></st1:placetype>
for the Arts) <o:p></o:p></font></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;"><font face="inherit" style="line-height: 1;"> 2<sup style="line-height: 1;">nd </sup> Bea Bolongaita (<st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on"><st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">Dublin</st1:placetype> <st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">Jerome</st1:placetype>
<st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">High School</st1:placetype></st1:placetype>)<o:p></o:p></font></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;"><font face="inherit" style="line-height: 1;"> 3<sup style="line-height: 1;">rd </sup>Steve Bezak (<st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on"><st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">Buckeye</st1:placetype> <st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">Local</st1:placetype>
<st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">High School</st1:placetype></st1:placetype>)<o:p></o:p></font></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 1; margin-left: 27.35pt; text-indent: -27.35pt;"><b style="line-height: 1;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;"><font face="inherit" style="line-height: 1;">Sonnet - </font></span></b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;">Sponsor
and judge: Betsy Hughes</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 1; margin-left: 27.35pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;"><font face="inherit" style="line-height: 1;">1<sup style="line-height: 1;">st
</sup> Thomas Long (<st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on"><st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">Bowling Green</st1:placetype> <st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">High School</st1:placetype></st1:placetype>) <o:p></o:p></font></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 1;"><b style="line-height: 1;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;"><font face="inherit" style="line-height: 1;">Ekphrastic - </font></span></b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;">Sponsors
and judges: Jane K</span><st1:placetype style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;" w:st="on">ret</st1:placetype><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;">schmann and
Deborah Strozier</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 1; margin-left: 27.35pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;"><font face="inherit" style="line-height: 1;">1<sup style="line-height: 1;">st </sup> Esther Gingerich (<st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on"><st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">Waynedale</st1:placetype> <st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">High School</st1:placetype></st1:placetype>)<o:p></o:p></font></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 1; margin-left: 27.35pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"><font face="inherit" style="line-height: 1;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;">2<sup style="line-height: 1;">nd </sup></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;">Abigail Elizondo
(<st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on"><st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">Bexley</st1:placetype> <st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">High School</st1:placetype></st1:placetype>) <o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 1; margin-left: 27.35pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;"><font face="inherit" style="line-height: 1;">3<sup style="line-height: 1;">rd </sup>Yeji
Kim (<st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on"><st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">Hudson</st1:placetype> <st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">High School</st1:placetype></st1:placetype>) <o:p></o:p></font></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: 1; margin-left: 0in;"><font face="inherit" style="line-height: 1;"><b style="line-height: 1;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;">A Sense of Place - </span></b></font><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;">Sponsor and judge: William R. Reyer</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 1; margin-left: 27.35pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;"><font face="inherit" style="line-height: 1;">1<sup style="line-height: 1;">st
</sup> Thomas Long (<st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on"><st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">Bowling Green</st1:placetype> <st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">High School</st1:placetype></st1:placetype>) <o:p></o:p></font></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 1; margin-left: 27.35pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;"><font face="inherit" style="line-height: 1;">2<sup style="line-height: 1;">nd </sup>Ava Reischuck (<st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on"><st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">Theodore</st1:placetype> <st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">Roosevelt</st1:placetype>
<st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">High School</st1:placetype></st1:placetype>)<o:p></o:p></font></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 1; margin-left: 27.35pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;"><font face="inherit" style="line-height: 1;">3<sup style="line-height: 1;">rd </sup>Zhiyi Wu (<st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on"><st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">Western Reserve</st1:placetype> <st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">Academy</st1:placetype></st1:placetype>)
<o:p></o:p></font></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 1; margin-left: 27.35pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;"><font face="inherit" style="line-height: 1;">HM:
Avery Frazier Thompson (<st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">Toledo</st1:placetype> <st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">School</st1:placetype> for the Arts); Annie Lee Johnson (<st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">Dublin </st1:placetype></font></span><st1:placetype style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1; text-indent: -0.25in;" w:st="on"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;">Coffman</span></st1:placetype><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1; text-indent: -0.25in;"> <st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">High School</st1:placetype>); Grace Wieser (<st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on"><st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">Boardman</st1:placetype> <st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">High School</st1:placetype></st1:placetype>)</span></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: 1; margin-left: 0in; text-indent: -27.35pt;"><b style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1; text-indent: -27.35pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;"> Short and to the Point - </span></b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1; text-indent: -27.35pt;">Sponsor and
judges: The Springfield Writers (Amy Jo Zook and Betsy Richards)</span></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: 1; margin-left: 27.35pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;"><font face="inherit" style="line-height: 1;">1<sup style="line-height: 1;">st </sup> Jaina DeMeter (<st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on"><st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">Buckeye</st1:placetype> <st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">Local</st1:placetype>
<st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">High School</st1:placetype></st1:placetype>)<o:p></o:p></font></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: 1; margin-left: 27.35pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;"><font face="inherit" style="line-height: 1;">2<sup style="line-height: 1;">nd </sup> Evelyn Russell (<st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on"><st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">Pandora-Gilboa</st1:placetype> <st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">High School</st1:placetype></st1:placetype>)<o:p></o:p></font></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: 1; margin-left: 27.35pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;"><font face="inherit" style="line-height: 1;">3<sup style="line-height: 1;">rd </sup> Aaron Smith (<st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on"><st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">Lake</st1:placetype> <st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">High School</st1:placetype></st1:placetype>)
<o:p></o:p></font></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: 1; margin-left: 27.35pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;"><font face="inherit" style="line-height: 1;">HM: Keenan Johnson (<st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">Sidney</st1:placetype>
<st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">High School</st1:placetype>); Claire Laux (<st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on"><st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">Theodore</st1:placetype> <st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">Roosevelt</st1:placetype> <st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">High School</st1:placetype></st1:placetype>); </font></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1; text-indent: -0.25in;">Annie Lee Johnson (</span><st1:placetype style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1; text-indent: -0.25in;" w:st="on"><st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">Dublin</st1:placetype> <st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">Coffman</st1:placetype>
<st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">High School</st1:placetype></st1:placetype><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1; text-indent: -0.25in;">)</span></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: 1; margin-left: 9pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"><b style="line-height: 1;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;"><font face="inherit" style="line-height: 1;"> Cinquain - </font></span></b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;">Sponsor and judges: PentaPoets (Patricia
Black, Janet Ladrach, Sharon Fish Mooney, Robin Mullet, Rinda Sansom)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 1; margin-left: 27.35pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;"><font face="inherit" style="line-height: 1;">1<sup style="line-height: 1;">st </sup> Claire Laux (<st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on"><st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">Theodore</st1:placetype> <st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">Roosevelt</st1:placetype>
<st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">High School</st1:placetype></st1:placetype>)<o:p></o:p></font></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 1; margin-left: 27.35pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"><font face="inherit" style="line-height: 1;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;">2<sup style="line-height: 1;">nd </sup></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;">Austin Felice (<st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on"><st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">Minster</st1:placetype> <st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">High School</st1:placetype></st1:placetype>) <o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 1; margin-left: 27.35pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;"><font face="inherit" style="line-height: 1;">3<sup style="line-height: 1;">rd </sup>Ava
Reischuck (<st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on"><st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">Theodore</st1:placetype>
<st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">Roosevelt</st1:placetype> <st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">High
School</st1:placetype></st1:placetype>) <o:p></o:p></font></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 1; margin-left: 27.35pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;"><font face="inherit" style="line-height: 1;">HM:
Lexie Neuenschwander (<st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on"><st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">Pandora-Gilboa</st1:placetype>
<st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">High School</st1:placetype></st1:placetype>); Quinton
Peters (Whitmer High </font></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1; text-indent: -0.25in;">School);
James White (</span><st1:placetype style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1; text-indent: -0.25in;" w:st="on"><st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">Buckeye</st1:placetype>
<st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">Local</st1:placetype> <st1:placetype style="line-height: 1;" w:st="on">High
School</st1:placetype></st1:placetype><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1; text-indent: -0.25in;">)</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 10pt;">
</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 1; margin-left: 27.35pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1;"><font face="inherit" style="line-height: 1;"> </font></span></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">Serving poets since 1929</div>Chuck Salmonshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11692631204163757459noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4637504118325607007.post-30793361794411591892020-04-14T17:32:00.000-04:002020-04-14T17:32:27.945-04:00BlackBerryPeach 2020 Contest Winners Announced<i>Poet Gary Ketchum selected first place winner of the 2020 prize; OPA's Susann Moeller earns Honorable Mention</i><br />
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The National Federation of State Poetry Societies (NFSPS) is pleased to announce the 1st place winner of the 2020 BlackBerryPeach Spoken and Heard competition, Gary Ketchum of New Port Richey, Florida. The BlackBerryPeach Contest is a major NFSPS competition that challenges poets to present their best original poetry in print and spoken word. <br />
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This year's judge, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer comments, "Poetry began, after all, as an oral and aural art and I love the way this contest harkins to those origins." A record number of entries this year is proof that interest in spoken word poetry continues to grow. Florida led the nation in number of entries, followed by Colorado and Ohio. <br />
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The second-place winner is Jessica Hassell of New Jersey, and third place goes to Amanda Bailey of Minnesota. The Honorable Mention Award winners are Josh Conklin of New Hampshire, Taelen Thomas of California, Dr. Susann Moeller of Ohio, and Melissa Huff of Illinois. <br />
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The National Federation of State Poetry Societies (<a href="http://www.nfsps.com/" target="_blank">nfsps.com</a>) is a non-profit organization, exclusively educational and literary. Its purpose is to recognize the importance of poetry with respect to national cultural heritage. It is dedicated solely to the furtherance of poetry on the national level and serves to unite poets in the bonds of fellowship and understanding. <br />
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A video of the performances by the winners will be posted on YouTube and in addition to the oral versions, NFSPS will publish the prizewinning entries in a chap book that will be for sale on Amazon.com.<br />
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For questions or more information, contact: Joseph Cavanaugh, jcavanaugh1@gmail.com<br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Serving poets since 1929</div>Chuck Salmonshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11692631204163757459noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4637504118325607007.post-23619897997388527842020-04-08T12:38:00.000-04:002020-04-08T12:38:11.369-04:00Ohio Poetry Day Association accepting Poet of the Year 2020 NominationsThe Ohio Poetry Day Association (OPDA) is now accepting nominations for Ohio Poet of the Year. Handed out annually since 1976, the award is given for a single collection of poems. The award is based on the one book and not on an aggregation of work published over some time.<br />
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<b>Nomination guidelines:</b><br />
<ul>
<li>Poets may not self-nominate. Books can be offered by others: a publisher or editor, a college faculty or member thereof, a writers' or poets' organization, any other person of poetic standing in the state, or from the lists of books newly published that are put out by the Ohioana Library several times a year. </li>
<li>The poet must be a native or a resident of Ohio, or if neither, must have lived in Ohio long enough to have formed serious ties to the state. (The list of former winners of Poet of the Year is below.)</li>
<li>The nominated book must be longer than a chapbook (i.e., more than 48 pages) and not a "collected" or "complete" works. </li>
<li>The book may be from a commercial or university press or self-published, but it may not come from a vanity press. Books nominated will be screened for quality and to ensure that there are not too many of them for judges to consider.</li>
<li>The nominated book may have received previous awards or honors. </li>
<li>Poets who previously were nominated may be so again, for a different book; but no one will be chosen a second time as POY.</li>
<li style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Nominations must be submitted by May 1, 2020. Mail a single copy of the book to:</span></li>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>Amy Jo Zook</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>3520 State Route 56</b></span></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>Mechanicsburg, OH 43044</b></span></div>
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The POY winner will be notified in the late summer and invited to be the luncheon speaker at Ohio Poetry Day weekend, October2–3. The award consists of $200 and a commemorative plaque, with one poem from the chosen book also being published in the year's BEST OF collection.<br />
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For more background and a look at the history of the award, <a href="https://ohiopoetryassn.blogspot.com/2016/02/a-brief-look-at-ohio-poet-of-year.html" target="_blank">see the OPA blog article here</a>.</div>
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<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Previous Ohio Poets of the Year</span></b><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="background: white; border-collapse: collapse; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184; width: 571px;">
<tbody>
<tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;">
<td style="background: transparent; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 63.9pt;" valign="top" width="85"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">1976</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><br />
1977</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">1978</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><br />
1979</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">1980</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><br />
1981</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">1982</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">1983</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">1984</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">1985</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><br />
1986</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">1987</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">1988</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">1989</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">1990</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">1991</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">1992</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><br />
<br />
1993</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">1994</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="background: transparent; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="198"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Hallie Cramer</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Muriel de Chambrun</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Virginia Moran Evans</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Cecil Hale Hartzell</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Celia Dimmette</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Novella Humphrey Davis</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Daisy Lee Donaldson</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Mary Oliver</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">James Magner, Jr.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">James C. Kilgore</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">no award given</span></b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Charlotte Mann</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Richard Hague</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Michael J. Rosen</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">J. A. Totts</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Timothy Russell</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Amy Jo Schoonover</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Robert Wallace</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Bonnie Jacobson</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">David Baker</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Debra Allbery</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Grace Butcher</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Frankie Paino</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">David Citino</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Tom Andrews</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Michael J. Bugeja</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="background: transparent; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 3.0in;" valign="top" width="288"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">A Sprig of Bittersweet</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Sudden Soring</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">To Seek the Sun</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Song on the Anvil</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Ocean Carry Us Far</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">There Was This Place</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Surface Fragments</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Twelve Moons</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Till No Light Leaps</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">African Violet</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> ---</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Grape Pitcher</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Ripening</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">A Drink at the Mirage</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Outside the Dream</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The Possibility of Turning to Salt</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">New & Used Poems</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The Common Summer</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Stopping for Time</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Sweet Home, Saturday Night</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Walking Distance</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Child, House, World</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The Rapture of Matter</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The Discipline</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The Hemophiliac's Motorcycle</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">After Oz</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 1; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;">
<td style="background: transparent; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 63.9pt;" valign="top" width="85"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">1995</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">1996</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">1997</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">1998</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">1999</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">2000</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">2001</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">2002</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">2003</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">2004</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">2005</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><br />
2006</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">2007</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">2008</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">2009</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><br />
2010</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">2011</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">2012</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">2013</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">2014</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><br />
2015</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
</span><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">2016</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
</span><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">2017</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
</span><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">2018<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">2019</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="background: transparent; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="198"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Alberta Turner</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Lou Suarez</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">William Matthews</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">James Cummins</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Susan Grimm</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Miriam Vermilya</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Myrna Stone</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Pauletta Hansel</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Deanna Packard</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Elton Glaser</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Cathryn Essinger</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Herbert W. Martin</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">David Hassler</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Martha Collins</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">William Heyen</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Stephen Haven</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Terry Hermsen</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Will Wells</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">George Looney</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Linda Ann Schofield</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Lianne Spidel</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Dzvinia Orlowsky</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">David Lee Garrison</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Jeff Gundy</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
</span><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Maggie Smith</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
</span><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Kathy Fagan</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
</span><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Susan Glassmeyer<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Laura Grace Weldon</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="background: transparent; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 3.0in;" valign="top" width="288"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Beginning With And</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Losses of Moment</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Time & Money</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Portrait in a Spoon</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Almost Home</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Heartwood</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The Art of Loss</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Divining</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">ln Dreams We Kiss Ourselves Goodbye</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Pelican Talks</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">My Dog Does Not Read Plato</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Escape to the Promised Land</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Red Kimono, Yellow Barn</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Blue Front</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The Confessions of Doc Williams</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Dust and Bread</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The River's Daughter</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Unsettled Accounts</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Open Between Us</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Psalms of the Hood</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">What to Tell Joseme</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Silvertone</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Playing Bach in the D.C. Metro</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Somewhere Near Defiance</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
</span><i><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The Well Speaks of Its Own Poison</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
</span><i><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Sycamore</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
</span><i><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Invisible Fish<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Blackbird<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Serving poets since 1929</div>Chuck Salmonshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11692631204163757459noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4637504118325607007.post-81542856846691680032020-03-25T14:35:00.000-04:002020-03-25T14:35:26.837-04:00Ohio Poetry Day Contest Updates: 2020 Contests Flyer, 2019 Winners List<br />
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<u>OPD 2020 Contests Information<o:p></o:p></u></div>
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The 2020 Ohio Poetry Day Association annual
contests have been announced. <b>May 15 is the deadline (postmark) </b><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">for more than two dozen contests, including a
“Welcome Aboard” category for first-time submitters</span>. Below is a copy of
the submission form, which provides full contest information. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Ohio Poetry Day 2020 will take place October 2<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">–</span>3
at the University of Mt. Union in Alliance, Ohio. To get on the OPD mailing
list, contact:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Amy Jo Zook<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">3520 State Route 56<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Mechanicsburg, OH 43044 <o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Checks made
payable to: Ohio Poetry Day</b>. For questions, call (937) 834-2666.<o:p></o:p><br />
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<u>OPD 2019 Contest Winners<o:p></o:p></u></div>
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The list of winners of the OPD 2019 poetry
contests has been released. We're excited to see so many OPA members among the
winners and honorable mentions. Congratulations to all!<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">Serving poets since 1929</div>Chuck Salmonshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11692631204163757459noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4637504118325607007.post-47380964081750163582019-12-19T21:20:00.001-05:002019-12-19T21:30:31.893-05:00OPA Awarded a Greater Columbus Arts Council BOOST Grant<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Funding
will provide new audio/visual equipment<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The Ohio Poetry Association (OPA) is
pleased to announce it has been awarded a BOOST grant from the Greater Columbus
Arts Council. The BOOST program is designed to help arts and cultural
organizations with capacity building. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">A total of $2,992 will be provided to
OPA for the purchase of audio/visual equipment. The organization, its poets, and
audiences will have the means to streamline poetry recording processes, improve
the audience experience through better sound and image, and present poetry at
both indoor and outdoor public venues, such as auditoriums, farmer’s markets,
and festivals, especially where this equipment is not readily available.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“The support of the Greater Columbus Arts
Council will afford OPA the means to expand its reach in the virtual community
and provide our members the resources to hone their craft and ability to
perform for an audience,” said OPA President Chuck Salmons. “This technology
will help OPA build capacity for years to come.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">OPA will also be able to make audio
recordings of its members and other guest poets for submission to contests and
prospective venues. Basic video recordings of OPA’s public performances and
workshops can be used for archival, demo, and marketing purposes. And attendees can take part
in an educational workshop series (<a href="https://sites.google.com/a/ohiopoetryassn.com/the-ohio-poetry-association/upcoming-seminars#quarterly" target="_blank">The Bootleg MFA</a>), which equips poets with
the tools and knowledge to maneuver the ever-growing technological aspects of
poetic artistry.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">This is the second grant awarded to OPA
by the Greater Columbus Arts Council in 2019. Earlier this year, OPA received
funding for its weekend-long National Poetry Month celebration featuring Angie
Estes and Mark Irwin. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.gcac.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/gcac_dbl_stacked_72dpi.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="245" data-original-width="395" height="123" src="https://www.gcac.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/gcac_dbl_stacked_72dpi.png" width="200" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">The Ohio Poetry Association is extremely
grateful to the Greater Columbus Arts Council, the City </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">of Columbus, and Franklin County for its
generous support. For more information about the Greater Columbus Arts Council,
visit its website at </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://www.gcac.org/"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">www.gcac.org</span></a></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">. </span></span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">Serving poets since 1929</div>Chuck Salmonshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11692631204163757459noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4637504118325607007.post-88317344799556340372019-11-10T12:32:00.001-05:002019-11-10T12:32:46.708-05:00Student Poets Again Will Shine for Wellspring of Imagination <div>
In November, the Wellspring of Imagination program will welcome young poets from across the United States and overseas to gather in Lancaster, Ohio, for a week of reading, writing, and performing poetry. The event culminates in a reading where the students present the poems they’ve polished during the experience.<br />
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“In a time where creativity and respect for the imagination take a back seat to proficiency-test driven schools, Wellspring provides an opportunity for young artists to shine,” said Alan Cohen, the event’s organizer and a retired school teacher. Cohen is also the founder and organizer of the annual <a href="http://www.powerofpoetry.org/home.htm" target="_blank">Hocking Hills Festival of Poetry</a>.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiczPM601nbmPdVNBpZCL0qg3sNV_wOQULvxsBudICi7if68CYHTm9_DbXh6NJ8Ai-InT2nIkJfnrvzTauG3V-OPbVwXbusVt9BEZld7Ci6uPFtf1E0TsgANUfUFXHkmM-QOl6ZUxaTBCKq/s1600/raven+flyer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="622" data-original-width="481" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiczPM601nbmPdVNBpZCL0qg3sNV_wOQULvxsBudICi7if68CYHTm9_DbXh6NJ8Ai-InT2nIkJfnrvzTauG3V-OPbVwXbusVt9BEZld7Ci6uPFtf1E0TsgANUfUFXHkmM-QOl6ZUxaTBCKq/s320/raven+flyer.jpg" width="246" /></a></div>
This year marks the eighth consecutive year of this event, where young poets from six states and Norway will work intensively on their poetry for three days under the mentorships of established poet/educators. The student poets include two city youth poet laureates and one youth state poet laureate. This year’s teachers are Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer (Colorado), Jon Lee (Massachusetts) and Valencia Robin (Virginia). After working with the students, the teachers will mentor them during the next calendar year, one of the major strengths of Wellspring.<br />
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The final poetry performance is free and open to the public and will take place on <b>November 16, 2019, at 7 P.M.</b> at <b>Alley Park, <a href="https://goo.gl/maps/TeHWkziAW2bG4Fbu6" target="_blank">2805 Old Logan Rd SE, Lancaster, OH 43130</a></b>. The teachers will also share their work. Admission is free thanks to a grant from the Ohio Arts Council and generous donations from the poetry community.<br />
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More information is available at <a href="http://www.ravensunpoetry.com/" target="_blank">ravensunpoetry.com</a> and on Facebook at <a href="http://www.facebook.com/RavensunPoetryEvents" target="_blank">facebook.com/RavensunPoetryEvents</a>.</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">Serving poets since 1929</div>Chuck Salmonshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11692631204163757459noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4637504118325607007.post-17523205361526717822019-09-28T14:14:00.001-04:002019-09-28T14:16:06.819-04:00Ohio Poetry Day 2019 Celebration Returns to Troy, Ohio <div>
Now in its 82nd year, Ohio Poetry Day will take place on October 18–19 at the <a href="http://www.troyhayner.org/" target="_blank">Troy Hayner Cultural Center</a> in Troy, Ohio, for a weekend of workshop, readings, and fellowship. As always, attendees should bring notebooks and are invited to bring publications they would like to be sold in the book room for the weekend.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixLa3sykt5D-wd9WqmdgAwGUfCJH_AQ2bnXkOc4NAdaN_Nol8qzetPpko2i5My96Yhq5nvitZkd2S7MPVVkHse5pVFK4Bz1Fa5bzefUGkA1cohAwW00v7Di8KPC5LthHYQWlpQj1txmx_v/s1600/Blackbird_cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1360" data-original-width="907" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixLa3sykt5D-wd9WqmdgAwGUfCJH_AQ2bnXkOc4NAdaN_Nol8qzetPpko2i5My96Yhq5nvitZkd2S7MPVVkHse5pVFK4Bz1Fa5bzefUGkA1cohAwW00v7Di8KPC5LthHYQWlpQj1txmx_v/s200/Blackbird_cover.jpg" width="133" /></a></div>
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Saturday programs feature the workshop poems that won in the Evan Lodge contest with critic Nancy Breen. During this time, the book room will be open for display and sale of books, including the winning book by the <a href="https://lauragraceweldon.com/2019/09/22/ohio-poet-of-the-year-2019/" target="_blank">OPD Poet of the Year, Laura Grace Weldon</a>, who will read from <i><a href="https://amzn.to/2RXBIKS" target="_blank">Blackbird</a></i> (Grayson Books, 2019). <br />
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Available for purchase will be the <i>Best of 2019</i>, featuring all prize-winning poems from OPD, as well as all honorable mentions. Poets who won prizes at OPD or any recent state or national contest will read.<br />
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Box lunches provided by Bakehouse are available @ $11.50 ea. Options: Turkey & cheddar sandwich; roast beef sandwich; and a veggie wrap.<br />
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<b>AGENDA</b></h3>
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Friday, 10/18</h4>
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7 PM Refreshments & social time, overnight contests announced<br />
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Saturday, 10/19</h4>
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9–10 AM Registration & book room set up<br />
10 AM–Noon Evan Lodge Contest poetry workshop; $1.50/person fee (free to students)<br />
Noon–1 PM Lunch break</div>
1–2 PM Reading by OPD Poet of the Year, Laura Grace Weldon<br />
2–4 PM Open-mic reading by OPD and other prize winners<br />
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<b>REGISTRATION</b></h3>
To register for the workshop and/or reserve a lunch, download and mail in the completed form below <b>by October 12 </b>to:</div>
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<b>Amy Jo Zook<br />
3520 State Route 56<br />
Mechanicsburg, OH 43044</b></div>
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<b>Checks made payable to Ohio Poetry Day</b>. For questions, call (937) 834-2666.</div>
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Those who have not entered OPD contests in the last five years, or are not an active member of a group (such as Ohio Poetry Association) that submits yearly membership lists, should contact Amy Zook to stay or get on the mailing list before next spring's mailing date.</div>
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<b>DIRECTIONS & PARKING</b></h3>
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The Troy Hayner Cultural Center is located at 301 West Main Street, Troy, Ohio 45373. From Interstate 75, take Exit 74 (US Rte. 41/Main Street) and travel due east on Main Street. The Troy Hayner Center is approximately 1.5 miles on the north side of Main Street, between Short Street and Oxford Street.</div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="300" src="https://www.google.com/maps/embed?pb=!1m18!1m12!1m3!1d3054.526315118464!2d-84.20856538461545!3d40.041354079410524!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!3m3!1m2!1s0x883f77200689f4c7%3A0xc571db13285476fd!2s301%20W%20Main%20St%2C%20Troy%2C%20OH%2045373!5e0!3m2!1sen!2sus!4v1569694104875!5m2!1sen!2sus" style="border: 0;" width="400"></iframe>
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All parking is available outside the building, with lots behind the Center and across the street, as well as on the street. On Friday night only, parking is available in the public library lot across Oxford Street.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>OPD flyer page 1</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>OPD flyer page 2</i></td></tr>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Serving poets since 1929</div>Chuck Salmonshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11692631204163757459noreply@blogger.com0