Ohio Poetry Association Blog

by Mackenzie Boyer Dionne Custer Edwards, photo credit - Tim Johnson On Saturday, April 11, Dionne Custer Edwards will conduct a workshop on the Otterbein University campus in Westerville, Ohio, and hosted by Ohio Poetry Association (OPA). Here’s a description of the upcoming event from Dionne herself: "We will work with words on and off the page by working through the writing process with our five senses—focusing very much on sound as it pertains to writing, reading, or performing a poem. My hope is that we all leave with something we write, revise through workshop, and share using strategies and techniques that evoke the five senses on and off the page. We will engage with the entire writing process. The goal is to focus on how to get those words out of our journals, off our laptops, and out into the public space (if we want them there)." Continue reading to learn more about Dionne and her life as a writer and an educator. Then on Saturday, come to ...

by Grace Curtis   Terms like enchanting, engaging, and stimulating come to mind when thinking back on the final installment of the Ohio Poetry Association Ekphrastic 3-C poetry series that was held on Saturday, March 27 at the Pendleton Art Center  (PAC) in Cincinnati and led by Cincinnati poet, Bucky Ignatius. The other two events took place at Columbus Museum of Art , January 18, 2014, led by Terry Hermsen and at Cleveland Museum of Art , October 11, 2014, led by Clarissa Jakobsons.   Abandoned at Dungeness by Eileen McConkey   The event at the Pendleton was unique in that rather than being held in a museum, it took place amid the studios of over 100 visual artists from the Cincinnati area who work and display their art there. In fact, the building itself, an abandoned shoe factory, issued forth its own creative energy with its original pine flooring, exposed ductwork, and cage elevators. Bucky gave attendees a brief history of the structure and the...

    This year’s statewide Poetry Out Loud poetry recitation competition produced another memorable set of performances that reaffirmed the value of this annual program.     I was again fortunate to be asked to participate as one of five judges for this year’s competition. The day is a moving experience that offered the excitement of competition as well as a moving aesthetic experience.     The annual Poetry Out Loud program, sponsored nationally by The Poetry Foundation and in Ohio with additional support from the Ohio Arts Council, is a showcase of both talent and poetry’s ability to explore human experience.     Held in Columbus at the beautiful Lincoln Theater on March 7, the event brought together students and their high school coaches from throughout the state. Sarah Binau of Bexley High School edged out last year’s statewide winner, Lake Hilburn of Columbus Centennial, to take first place and advance to the nation...

ASHLAND, Ohio – Angie Estes , an Ashland University faculty member in the low residency Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program, has won the $100,000 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award for best book of poems published in the previous year. “That is fantastic news for Angie and Ashland University ,” said AU Interim Provost Dr. Douglas Fiore.  “This speaks not only to Angie Estes's work, but to the quality of our entire MFA program.” Dr. Stephen Haven, director of AU’s MFA program, agreed. “This is a huge achievement for Angie – it is the biggest cash prize in the U.S. for a book of poems -- and a reflection of the type of writers we have hired for the MFA faculty here at Ashland University,” Haven said. “Our faculty members in both poetry and nonfiction have won major national prizes, and we just hired equally talented and accomplished fiction writers for the faculty, one of whom – Celeste   Ng – just had her 2014 novel selected by Amazon editors as a ...

Ohio college/university students and poets have an excellent opportunity to get a chapbook published through the National Federation of State Poetry Societies (NFSPS). Each year, as part of its slate of contests in the run up to the annual convention, the NFSPS includes a chapbook competition open to college poets. Two manuscripts are chosen as winners and receive publication, a cash prize, copies of the published work, a chance to read at the annual convention, and a stipend to attend the convention. OPA encourages all Ohio poets who currently attend college as an undergraduate to submit their work. For more information and a bit of clarification, see the note from the NFSPS College/University Competition Chair, Shirley Blackwell, below. Or visit the competition web page at http://nfsps.com/college-university_competition.htm . Dear State Presidents, The 2015 annual NFSPS College/University Level Poetry Competition has a new twist, in that students will be able to submit their man...

Last Sunday evening, I attended the Peripatetic Poets 3rd Annual “Giving in Gratitude” All Open-Mic event in Columbus. What a terrific evening filled with music and poetry. Held at the Global Gallery Café in Clintonville, the house was packed and hosts Susan Hendrickson and Paula Lambert led the celebration. Music was performed by Paula’s family (husband Mike, son Christopher, and daughters Alexandra and Mikaela). Guests brought non-perishable food goods and personal hygiene items to be donated to the Mid-Ohio Food Bank. The energy was so positive. (And I have to note that Global Gallery’s mulled spice hot apple cider is fantastic!) Ultimately though, this evening was about giving—not just to the Mid-Ohio Food Bank, but to each other by sharing our poetry and music, our creativity, with one another. And in this season of giving, I think it’s most appropriate to begin by giving thanks. In that vein, I want offer my sincerest thanks to those who have made OPA what it is today—a vib...

"Whether we like it or not, we all come from someplace. And at some point in our lives, we have to make peace with that place." This quote from Jeffrey Stepakoff (from The Orchard ), one of several shared by workshop leader Diane Kendig last weekend, established the theme for the recent OPA Fall Writers Retreat at Malabar Farm. And this year's fall retreat reinforced for me why these events are my favorite that OPA sponsors. There are few places in Ohio that will move you--and give you room to move--to write. And how fitting Diane chose to lead workshops focused on poems of place, inspire also by her latest book, The Places We Find Ourselves . On day 1, the weekend challenged all in attendance to explore, through their poems, places they'd never written about--first by creating a list of those places and then approaching the poem with one of three focuses: Through meaningful description--making the place come alive. Exploring the significance of the place. Usi...