Ohio Poetry Day Association names 2021 Poet of the Year and Contest Winners

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, We Made It to School Alive (Twelve Arts Press, 2020).

Residing in Cleveland, Ohio, Harris is a second-grade teacher at Michael R. White Elementary School. We Made It to School Alive, 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.

Harris’ first book, Nothing, But Skin, 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 Plain Dealer, 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 quartezharris.com. To purchase a copy of We Made It to School Alive, visit twelve-arts-press.myshopify.com.

Quartez Harris

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 here.

Annual Contest Winners

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,  president(@ohiopoetryassn.org, by October 10, 2021.

Join the Celebration: Ohio Poetry Day 2021

Date: Saturday, October 16, 2021
Time: 1:30—4:30 PM
Registration: Event will take place on Zoom. Register via Eventbrite. 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: facebook.com/ohiopoetry.

About Ohio Poetry Day

The Ohio Poetry Day 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.

For more information about Ohio Poetry Day, visit ohiopoetryday.blogspot.com.

         

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Ohio Poetry Day Association accepting Poet of the Year 2021 Nominations

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.

Nomination guidelines:

• 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.
• 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.)
• The nominated book must be longer than a chapbook (i.e., more than 48 pages) and not a "collected" or "complete" works.
• 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.
• The nominated book may have received previous awards or honors.
• Poets who previously were nominated may be so again, for a different book; but no one will be chosen a second time as POY.
• Nominations must be submitted by May 1, 2021. Mail a single copy of the book to:

Amy Jo Zook

3520 State Route 56

Mechanicsburg, OH 43044

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

For more background and a look at the history of the award, see the OPA blog article here.

Previous Ohio Poets of the Year

1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994	Hallie Cramer Muriel de Chambrun Virginia Moran Evans Cecil Hale Hartzell Celia Dimmette Novella Humphrey Davis Daisy Lee Donaldson Mary Oliver James Magner, Jr. James C. Kilgore no award given Charlotte Mann Richard Hague Michael J. Rosen J. A. Totts Timothy Russell Amy Jo Schoonover Robert Wallace Bonnie Jacobson David Baker Debra Allbery Grace Butcher Frankie Paino David Citino Tom Andrews Michael J. Bugeja	A Sprig of Bittersweet Sudden Soring To Seek the Sun Song on the Anvil Ocean Carry Us Far There Was This Place Surface Fragments Twelve Moons Till No Light Leaps African Violet     --- Grape Pitcher Ripening A Drink at the Mirage Outside the Dream The Possibility of Turning to Salt New & Used Poems The Common Summer Stopping for Time Sweet Home, Saturday Night Walking Distance Child, House, World The Rapture of Matter The Discipline The Hemophiliac's Motorcycle After Oz
1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020	Alberta Turner Lou Suarez William Matthews James Cummins Susan Grimm Miriam Vermilya Myrna Stone Pauletta Hansel Deanna Packard Elton Glaser Cathryn Essinger Herbert W. Martin David Hassler Martha Collins William Heyen Stephen Haven Terry Hermsen Will Wells George Looney Linda Ann Schofield Lianne Spidel Dzvinia Orlowsky David Lee Garrison Jeff Gundy Maggie Smith Kathy Fagan Susan Glassmeyer Laura Grace Weldon Kari Gunter-Seymour	Beginning With And Losses of Moment Time & Money Portrait in a Spoon Almost Home Heartwood The Art of Loss Divining ln Dreams We Kiss Ourselves Goodbye Pelican Talks My Dog Does Not Read Plato Escape to the Promised Land Red Kimono, Yellow Barn Blue Front The Confessions of Doc Williams Dust and Bread The River's Daughter Unsettled Accounts Open Between Us Psalms of the Hood What to Tell Joseme Silvertone Playing Bach in the D.C. Metro Somewhere Near Defiance The Well Speaks of Its Own Poison Sycamore Invisible Fish Blackbird A Place So Deep Inside America It Can't Be Seen

Ohio Poetry Day 2021 Contests Now Open

The annual Ohio Poetry Day Association contests have been announced. May 15, 2021, is the deadline (postmark) 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. 

Ohio Poetry Day 2021 will take place October 15–16. 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:

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 the image to enlarge and download.

A Special Message from Ohio Poetry Day Association

by Amy Jo Zook

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.

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.

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.

As an experiment, we are producing a CD of Ohio Poet of the Year Kari Gunter-Seymour 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.

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 president@ohiopoetryassn.org.

Space is limited, so register early. Register via Eventbrite at

www.eventbrite.com/e/ohio-poetry-day-virtual-celebration-tickets-1 14368551416. 

To order Kari's book, A Place So Deep Inside America lt Can't Be Seen:

PayPal: www.paypal.me/KariGunterSeymour -
Click on “Add a note" to leave your Name and mailing address.

OR

Send a check with your Name and mailing address to Kari Gunter-Seymour, P.O. Box 351, Albany, OH 45710.

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.

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. All checks should be made payable to Ohio Poetry Day.