Ohio Poetry Association Blog

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...

Exciting news from Carolyn Kesterman — her debut poetry collection , In the Space Between Songs , is coming out November 12, 2025 ! The paperback includes 54 poems , eight of which have already appeared in literary journals. Carolyn’s work explores the spaces between voice and silence, and this first book promises to be a beautiful addition to anyone’s poetry shelf. You can learn more about her and her work at carolynkesterman.com . Cathryn Essinger has had a wonderful year! Her poem “The Map Turtle” was included in the anthology The Nature of Our Times from Paloma Press , a project sponsored by the Wick Poetry Center . Even more exciting—the poem will be displayed on a standing poster at the Cleveland Public Library through April 2026 . Alissa Sammarco will be a featured poet at the Poet & Song Series on November 3, 2025 , at the Falcon Theatre (Monmouth St., Newport, KY) from 7–9 p.m. Later that month, on November 15 , she’ll take part in Books by the Banks...

Congratulations to Yalie Saweda Kamara , Ph.D., who the Ohio Poetry Day Association has selected as 2025 Ohio Poet of the Year for her book Besaydoo [2024, Milkweed Editions].  Selected by Amaud Jamaul Johnson for the 2023 Jake Adam York Prize, Besaydoo is an elegantly wrought love song to home — as place, as people, as body, and as language. A griot is a historian, a living repository of communal legacies with "a story pulsing in every blood cell." In  Besaydoo , Kamara serves as griot for the Freeborn in Oakland, the Sierra Leonean in California, the girl straddling womanhood, the woman re-discovering herself. "I am made from the obsession of detail," she writes, setting scenes from her own multifaceted legacy in sharp relief: the memory of her mother's singing, savory stacks of lumpia, a church where "everyone is broken, but trying." A multitudinous witness. Kamara psalms from the nexus of many languages — Krio, English, French, poetry's many ...

Adapted from a workshop delivered for the AOCI W.R.I.T.E.R.S. Group by Chris Minton What is a chapbook? Chapbooks were originally known as "street literature" because they were primarily sold on the streets by traveling salesmen known as chapmen. These small, inexpensive booklets contained a variety of content like ballads, folk tales, and religious tracts, and were a popular form of reading material for the common people, particularly those with limited access to more expensive books (for example, in rural areas). Today, chapbooks are normally used by poets to accomplish a specific objective, which may include: To create a sample of their work for publishers or other parties To target a specific, interested audience To get their work into circulation quickly To make it more affordable (for both the author and reader) To create enough work over time to warrant a full-length collection To demonstrate their commitment to the craft To give as gifts to family and friends Features of...

Columbus,OH – The Kelton House Museum & Garden will host a special Juneteenth Event focusing on drumming and poetry to lift the spirit and soul. The celebration will feature the drumming of Akwaaba , led by founder BabaaRitah Clark who is also a dancer at Djun'kendafala Dance Company. Ohio Poetry Association (OPA) and Poets Against Racism & Hate ( PARH)   USA will feature the following four award-winning and renowned poets: Susann Moeller,  a bi-lingual eco- and social justice poet, serves as Vice President of the Ohio  Poetry Association (OPA) and Chancellor of the National Federation of State Poetry Societies  (NFSPS). Chiquita Mullens Lee, acclaimed playwright and poet, serves as Arts Learning coordinator at  the Ohio Arts Council, performs with Columbus-based Wild Women Writing and leads Word  Warriors creative writing ministry. Karen Scott , published in anthologies, reviews, and zines, keeps her fingers on the pulse of all- things...