Ohio Poetry Association Blog

Once again in 2026, our friends at the Ohio Poetry Day Association are accepting nominations for the Ohio Poet of the Year. This is the 50th year of handing out the award, which is given for a single book of poetry published in the previous year. Past winners include Mary Oliver, Maggie Smith, David Baker, and Yalie Saweda Kamara. Guidelines are provided below.  Nomination Guidelines   The poet must be a native or a resident of Ohio or, if neither, must have previously lived in Ohio and established close ties to the state. There is no form to fill out, no fee, and no letter of recommendation is necessary. Books must be nominated by other people, such as a publisher, editor, poet colleague or poetry group. Book length: at least 48 pages of poetry.   The page count does not include: Title Pages, acknowledgments, illustrations, photographs, or end matter, such as notes. Nominated books may be from a commercial, university, small or hybrid press, or self-published, but vanit...

Our friends at the Ohio Poetry Day Association have announced their annual contests!  May 15, 2026, is the deadline (postmark)  for 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 2026  Best of Ohio Poetry Day  anthology are also open to submissions.  Below is a copy of the submission form, which provides full contest information.  Ohio Poetry Day 2026 will take place in October in Toledo, Ohio. Stay up to date on event information, including the event date, location, and agenda, by getting your name and address on the OPD mailing list. To do so, contact: Amy Jo Zook 3520 State Route 56 Mechanicsburg, OH 43044 Checks for all contest fees and purchases should be made payable to: Ohio Poetry Day . For questions, call (937) 834-2666. Click and download the image below to view it at full size.

The Ohio Poetry Association (OPA), in partnership with Miami Valley Astronomical Society, presents the fifth Sun & Moon Poetry Festival, May 15–17, 2026, in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Poets and poetry lovers are invited to explore the theme, “Navigate with Poetry,” during a weekend of writing workshops, readings, stargazing, and other activities that culminate in a celebration of poetry and the cosmos. Keynote guest Geoffrey Landis is a poet, science fiction writer, and scientist whose writing has appeared in more than twenty languages. “At Glen Helen, Poetry and Nature become one in the ravine, the open sky, and our words,” said Susann Moeller, OPA First Vice President and festival chairperson. Additional workshop leaders for the weekend are renowned poets Lauren Camp, Manuel Iris, Paula Lambert, and Dior J. Stephens. A special haiku hike led by Ray McNiece will offer visitors a chance to hear poems in the beautiful setting of Glen Helen Nature Preserve. The weekend also offers s...

OPA is pleased to announce the following winners in its 2025 Odes of October contest. First prize is awarded for "Lemons in the Seventeenth Century," by Marci Rich. First prize includes an award of $65 and inclusion in the 2026 issue of Common Threads, as well being published below. Second prize goes to John Hunt for his poem, "Only the Blues." This prize includes an award of $25, will be published in the 2026 issue of Common Threads, and appears below. Third prize goes to Jonathan Smith for "40 Leaves.". This prize includes an award of $10, will be published in the 2026 issue of Common Threads, and appears below. This year, the judge also chose four poems for Honorable Mention: Shirley Valencia's poem, "Oblivion" Rosalie Hendon's poem, "Penelope to Odysseus" Jo Anne Moser Gibbon's poem, "I Contain Multitudes" Jonathan Smith's poem, "Where Jane Goodall Stood" Sincerest than...

OPA is happy to share this blog post and its great news, originally written by Debbie Allen, Cofounder, Poets Against Racism & Hate USA and posted on the PARH USA blog In 2024, Poets Against Racism & Hate USA and the Ohio Poetry Association (OPA) presented the Ohio Underground Railroad Whistle-Stop Poetry Tour to raise awareness of issues of social injustice, hate, and prejudice past and present. Tour events took place at Underground Railroad sites around Ohio and included poetry readings and workshops, history talks, musical and interpretive performances, and other programming. Central to the tour was a traveling collaborative writing project. At each tour stop, attendees responded in writing to the question “What does freedom mean to you?” The poem “How We See Free” emerged from the more than 100 responses to this question and was published on PARH USA’s Featured Poem page. Now this project has received recognition through publication in  Community Literacy Journal  ...

The northwestern part of Ohio has been all the buzz of events and accolades all around. In the ars poetica sphere is a chyron, moving and peaking our listening ears. So, I will do my best to recap a listing of events over the past few months. In fact, the summer months have been such a blur of motion, it seems that every nook and cranny in NW Ohio, particularly Toledo, is releasing rich and powerful words into the atmosphere; inundated with mood, metaphor, meter, and meaning. So much so that my Poet Ambassador’s Corner newsletter has taken a pause to share  only  the happenings that have flooded my feed on Facebook. If any event or celebration has slipped through unseen, charge it to my head and not my heart. Viva la Poetry! It will never cease or become missing in action.  Here is a loose documentation of NW Ohio’s poetry scene: past, present and approaching. Please note ongoing events: WritersShop and Uncloistered events are graciously hosted by Lucas County Poet La...