Ohio Poetry Association Blog

Congratulations to Chuck Salmons , who the Ohio Poetry Day Association has selected as 2026 Ohio Poet of the Year for his book Surviving the Eremocene   [2025, Sheila-Na-Gig Editions].  In his fourth poetry collection, award-winning poet Chuck Salmons explores and expands upon the meaning of Eremocene, or Age of Loneliness, a term popularized by biologist and naturalist E.O. Wilson. Through thought-provoking poems, Salmons looks at the term as it applies to environmental concerns and beyond—loneliness as a condition resulting from family history, sociopolitical differences, scientific advances, and cultural touchstones. Through narrative poems full of rich details, humor, and wisdom, Salmons examines his own Ohio upbringing and sense of place in the Midwest as an immediate descendant of Appalachians. He invites readers to join him in this endeavor and perhaps come to their own understanding about how to determine one’s place in a world simultaneously fraught with disappointm...