UPCOMING READERS:
Dear friends, Poetry + is on hiatus until further notice. Thank you for so many wonderful memories!
Dear friends, Poetry + is on hiatus until further notice. Thank you for so many wonderful memories!
PAST FEATURES:
LEAP INTO RIMBAUD
Jessie Herzfeld artist talk with Rimbaud-themed open mic
BILL YARROW
Bill Yarrow of Chicago is the author of five full-length books of poetry and five poetry chapbooks. His poems have been published in Confrontation, Gargoyle, PANK, Contrary, Diagram, Thrush, RHINO, Chiron Review, and many other journals. His most recent book is ACCELERANT from Nixes Mate Books. billyarrow.wordpress.com
LAURA GRACE WELDON
Laura Grace Weldon has published two poetry collections, Blackbird (Grayson 2019) and Tending (Aldrich 2013). She was named Ohio Poet of the Year for 2019. She's written poems on the soles of children’s feet and painted poems on beehives but her work appears in more conventional places such as Verse Daily, One: Jacar Press, Neurology, J Journal, and Amsterdam Quarterly. Laura works as a book editor and teaches community-based writing workshops. lauragraceweldon.com
CHUCK SALMONS
Chuck Salmons is President of Ohio Poetry Association. His poems have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including Pudding Magazine, Evening Street Review, and Everything Stops and Listens. He has two chapbooks, Stargazer Suite [11th Hour Press] and Patch Job [NightBallet Press]. Chuck won the 2011 William Redding Memorial Poetry Contest, sponsored by The Poetry Forum of Columbus, and is recipient of a 2018 Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award for poetry. Find him at www.chucksalmons.com.
RENAY SANDERS
S. Renay Sanders learned to love the spoken word amidst a family of storytellers. She began secretly writing her own stories as poems. She came out of the poetry closet in 2010 with a poem in the Hessler Street Poetry Anthology. She subsequently had poems published in a variety of anthologies. Her most recent accomplishment is the publication of her first chapbook, Dancing in Place. Coming full circle, she has ventured into storytelling and will proudly perform her story "Cemetery Run" in the Women of Appalachia Project, Spoken Word, 2019. Today she proudly lives the poetic lifestyle. Continuing to enjoy the local poetry scene as an open micer and occasional feature. A native Clevelander her poems are inspired by the characters she encounters in life and the beauty of the Cuyahoga Valley, where she now resides.
RAY McNIECE
Ray McNiece is the author of 9 books of poetry and monologues, including New Haiku and Love Song for Cleveland, a collaboration with photographer Tim Lachina. He’s toured Italy twice with Lawrence Ferlinghetti. He toured Russia with Yevgeny Yevtushenko and performed at the Moscow Polytech, the Russian Poets’ Hall of Fame, where he was dubbed “the American Mayakovsky.” The Orlando Sentinel, reporting on his solo theater piece Us—Talking across America at the Fringe Festival, called him “a modern day descendant of Woody Guthrie.” www.raymcniece.com.
MICHELLE R. SMITH
Michelle R. Smith is a black femme feminist, media activist, and admitted Netflix addict that between fighting the good fight and watching copious stand-up specials, dark comedies, and music documentaries manages to write poems, tell stories, teach college and high school kids, and be a loving mother and wife. She is the author of the poetry collection Ariel in Black, and she is currently working on a new collection tentatively titled The Real Jazz Wives of 20th Century America and looking to publish a third collection, called The Vagina Analogues. Michelle has most recently presented her work at the Cleveland Museum of Art, Mac's Backs Books, Telos: A Reading of Purpose at Outlandish Press, and The Persisters at B-Side Liquor Lounge.
STEVE ABBOTT
Columbus native Steve Abbott has been a community activist, alternative newspaper writer and editor, criminal defendant, delivery truck driver, courtroom bailiff, private investigator, PR flack, and college professor. He was a founding member in 1984 of The Poetry Forum, now Ohio’s longest-running poetry series, and continues to co-host the weekly event. He is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus in English of Columbus State Community College. His poems have appeared in dozens of literary journals as well as in several anthologies. He received an Ohio Arts Council Excellence Award in Poetry in 1993 and an OAC residency the following year at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA. He has six poetry collections: five chapbooks, A Short History of the Word (1996) and Greatest Hits (2004), both from Pudding House; The Incoherent Pull of Want (NightBallet Press) and Why Not Be Here Now? (11thour Press) in 2016; and Kicking Mileposts in the Video Age (Moria Poetry, 2017). He has also recorded a live reading on CD titled Stardust in Franklin Park. He edited the anthologies Cap City Poets (Pudding House, 2008), a collection of 74 central Ohio poets, and Everything Stops and Listens (OPA Press, 2013), containing work by members of Ohio Poetry Association. His full-length collection A Green Line Between Green Fields was published in 2018, and a collection of ekphrastic poems, A Language the Image Speaks, will be released in September. He also edits Ohio Poetry Association's annual journal Common Threads, and in 2015 he represented the OPA on the Ohio Arts Council panel selecting Ohio’s first Poet Laureate.
LEONARD KRESS
Leonard Kress has published poetry and fiction in Missouri Review, Massachusetts Review, Iowa Review, American Poetry Review, Harvard Review, etc. His recent collections are The Orpheus Complex, and Walk Like Bo Diddley. Living in the Candy Store and Other Poems and his new verse translation of the Polish Romantic epic, Pan Tadeusz by Adam Mickiewicz were both published in 2018. Craniotomy will appear this summer. He teaches philosophy and religion at Owens Community College in Ohio.
MATT HART
Matt Hart is the author of nine books of poems, including most recently Everything Breaking/for Good (YesYes Books, 2019) and The Obliterations (Pickpocket Books, 2019). Additionally, his poems, reviews, and essays have appeared or are forthcoming in numerous print and online journals, including The Academy of American Poets online, Big Bell, Cincinnati Review, Coldfront, Columbia Poetry Review, Harvard Review, Jam Tarts Magazine, jubilat, Kenyon Review online, Lungfull!, POETRY, and Waxwing, among others. His awards include a Pushcart Prize, a 2013 individual artist grant from The Shifting Foundation, and fellowships from both the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference and the Warren Wilson College MFA Program for Writers. A co-founder and the editor-in-chief of Forklift, Ohio: A Journal of Poetry, Cooking & Light Industrial Safety, he lives in Cincinnati where he teaches at the Art Academy of Cincinnati and plays in the band NEVERNEW: www.nevernew.net.
NICOLE HENNESSY
Nicole Hennessy is a poet and journalist from Cleveland, Ohio. Gypsy Queen [2019, Crisis Chronicles Press] is her debut poetry collection, though she has been chasing poetry for more than twenty years. Her previous publications include Black Rabbit, a nonfiction profile of poet and artist Tom Kryss. Nicole also co-founded the underground art and literary bimonthly, Miser Magazine; and she will eventually launch her art and outreach effort, Universal Eccentrics, with some incredible, like-minded weirdoes. Her work has appeared in local and regional publications, and she was recently recognized as a Wild Wmn by the LA-based women’s artistic and wellness collective of the same name. Nicole is also mom to a spirited four-year-old boy. She’s probably cuddled up at home watching cartoons. You can stalk her on Instagram @nicohenness.
JEANETTE POWERS
Jeanette Powers is a working-class queer anarchist and artist based in Kansas City, Missouri. They are primary architect of Stubborn Mule Press and Logistics Guru at FountainVerse: KC Small Press Poetry Fest. Powers has been published widely and often by online and print magazines but also has a dark side as a visual artist and their work has graced the cover of numerous literary magazines. They have seven full length books of poetry, and a forthcoming 4-way split with some tremendous women and their first novel, Victimless Crime, releases soon from Outlandish Press. Powers can most often be found in a river, swimming in a reverie. Find more at jeanettepowers.com.
DIANNE BORSENIK
Dianne Borsenik is active in the northern Ohio poetry scene and regional reading circuit. Her work has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including Chiron Review, Main Street Rag, Resurrection River Poems (Wick Poetry Center, 2019) and A Rustling and Waking Within (Ohio Poetry Association, 2017); recent books include Raga for What Comes Next (Stubborn Mule Press, 2019), and Age of Aquarius (Crisis Chronicles Press, 2017). Earlier this year, she featured in “We’re No Angels” at Speak of the Devil in Lorain, Ohio and “2 Chefs & a Beat: Poetic Justice Edition” at the Porco Lounge and Tiki Room in Cleveland, Ohio. Lit Youngstown printed her poem “Disco” on their tee shirts, which makes her feel like a rock star. Borsenik is editor/publisher at NightBallet Press, and lives in Elyria, Ohio. Find her on Facebook and at dianneborsenik.com.
PHILIP TERMAN
Philip Terman is the author of five full-length and four chapbook collections of poems, including, most recently, Our Portion: New and Selected Poems (Autumn House Press) and Like a Bird Entering a Window and Leaving Through Another Window, a hand-sewn collaboration with the artist James Stewart and bookbinder Susan Frakes. His poems have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including Poetry Magazine, The Kenyon Review, The Georgia Review, The Sun Magazine, Extraordinary Rendition: American Writers on Palestine, and 99 Poems for the 99 Percent. A selection of his poems, My Dear Friend Kafka, has been translated into Arabic and published by Ninwa Press in Damascus, Syria. He’s a professor of English at Clarion University, where he directs the Spoken Art Reading Series. He is founder of the Chautauqua Writers’ Festival and coordinator of The Bridge Literary and Arts Center in Franklin, PA. Terman’s poems provided the text for three song cycles composed by Dr. Brent Register and, on occasion, performs his poetry with the jazz band, The Barkeyville Triangle. Though he now resides in Clarion, Terman was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. More information can be found at www.philipterman.com.
SANDRA FEEN
Sandra Feen, the author of Fragile Capacites (2018, NightBallet Press), is a former associate editor of Pudding Magazine and currently works as an independent poetry and urban fiction editor. A member of the poetry troupe Concrete Wink, she has a BFA in Creative Writing and a BS in English Education from Bowling Green State University, and an MA in Literature from Wright State University. She was one of twelve teachers selected for the National Endowment of the Arts' first "Change Course" program, through W.S.U.'s Institute on Writing and Its Teaching. Publications include Poetry Motel, Elastic Ekphrastic, and The Pudding House Gang. Her work has been commissioned as part of Thin Places: Poetry and Art Exhibits and Installations at Columbus, Ohio's Jung Haus, and for the Cap City Poets: Columbus and Central Ohio's Best Known, Read, and Requested Poets anthology. She lives in Grove City, Ohio. http://nightballetpress.blogspot.com/2018/10/sandra-feen-has-fragile-capacities.html.
JEREMY JUSEK
Jeremy Jusek is a poet and writer living in Cleveland, Ohio with his wife and two kids. He left Marietta College with degrees in chemistry and theatre, and went on to earn his MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Arcadia. When he's not writing or daddying, Jeremy spends his free time running, gardening, playing video games, and nursing coffee ulcers. For more information on his background and publications please visit www.jeremyjusek.com.
KARI GUNTER-SEYMOUR
Three times a pushcart nominee, Kari Gunter-Seymour’s chapbook Serving (Crisis Chronicles Press 2018) was recently nominated for an Ohioana Award. Her work is included in the 2019 Visible Poetry Project and won top honors from Still: The Journal, BlackBerry Peach and the Hocking Hills Poetry Festival poetry contests. Her poems can be found in many fine journals – Rattle, Crab Orchard Review, CALYX, Stirring, Main Street Rag, The LA Times and on her website www.karigunterseymourpoet.com. She is an instructor in the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University and Poet Laureate for Athens, OH.
KEVIN LATIMER
Kevin Latimer is a poet and playwright from Cleveland, Ohio. He is a Co-founder & Co-Editor-in-Chief of BARNHOUSE. His work has appeared in or is forthcoming from FEELINGS, TRACK//FOUR, A VELVET GIANT, and others. His one act play, 4 BLACK BOYS 2 B ASTRONAUTS debuts with The Manhattan Project in the summer.
TIMOTHY J. RICHARDS
An accomplished commercial photographer in Hollywood, CA for six years prior to earning his Master of Science in Financial Services degree and retiring from the insurance business after 34 years, Tim Richards joined Cleveland State University’s Imagination Writer’s Conference in 2004 and became a part-time Project 60 student, enrolling in creative writing courses and related workshops, then continued his studies in drama and film, writing stage plays, screenplays and acting in student films. He was a second-place winner in the Cleveland State University (CSU) creative writing contest, Spring 2007, and his poetry and prose appeared in 15 issues of The Vindicator, the CSU multi-cultural magazine. He was also a finalist in the University of Akron (UA) playwriting contest, Spring 2008.
Tim Richards is the author of five books: The Richards and Barry Families; Ship Happens! A Tiger Cruise Tale; Warm Water, A Collection of Memories; Buggy, A Fictional Account of Generational Family Abuse; and Afternoon Tomatoes, Accessible Poetry, a collection of reader-friendly, easy to read poems. His poetry has appeared in Common Threads 2018 (OPA), and his prose, poetry and photography have been published in Fredericksburg Literary and Art Review several times. Richards is an active open-mic speaker, reciting the spoken word in 14 venues of the Cleveland/Amherst/Peninsula area. The March 19th reading is his debut as a featured speaker.
STEVEN B. SMITH
Steven B. Smith published Artcrimes (1986-2006), featuring 517 poets/artists, including Charles Bukowski and Harvey Pekar; per the Plain Dealer: "with the publication of 21 issues of ArtCrimes, Smith has made a vital and indelible mark on this city's history." In 2012, his memoir "Stations of the Lost & Found, a True Tale of Armed Robbery, Stolen Cars, Outsider Art, Mutant Poetry, Underground Publishing, Robbing the Cradle, and Leaving the Country" was published by The City. In 2018, Crisis Chronicles Press published "Where Never Was Already Is”, a collection of 244 poems and 29 collages from over 54 years. Steven and his wife, Lady K, spent 2006-9 living in 10 countries on 3 continents recharging their word wells.
LEE CHILCOTE
Lee Chilcote is founder and executive director of Literary Cleveland, whose mission is to “help create and nurture a vibrant literary arts community in Northeast Ohio.” Chilcote is a journalist, essayist and poet. His articles have appeared in Vanity Fair, Next City, Belt, Planning, Land and People and other publications. His poetry and creative nonfiction have been published by Great Lakes Review, Pacific Review, Oyez Review and others. His essays have appeared in the books Rust Belt Chic: A Cleveland Anthology, The Cleveland Neighborhood Guidebook, and A Race Anthology: Dispatches and Artifacts from a Segregated City. He previously served as editor of Fresh Water Cleveland and Editorial Director for Issue Media Group. In 2017, his chapbook of poems, The Shape of Home, was published by Finishing Line Press. His poem “Catching Sunfish” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and The Shape of Home was nominated for the Society of Midland Authors Award in Poetry. In 2018, his second chapbook, How to Live in Ruins, is slated to appear from Finishing Line Press. He attended Middlebury College, Lincoln College at Oxford University, and Cleveland State University, where he obtained master’s degrees in English/Creative Nonfiction and Public Administration and was awarded the Leonard Trawick Prize for Creative Writing.
E. F. SCHRAEDER
Ethicist, poet, and speculative fiction writer E. F. Schraeder is the author of two poetry chapbooks, most recently Chapter Eleven (Partisan Press). Schraeder’s work has appeared (or is forthcoming) in many journals and anthologies including Mobius: The Journal of Social Change, Lavender Review, Mystery Weekly Magazine, Sinister Wisdom, Dark Voices, and others. Schraeder's current projects include a queer monster’s coming of age novella and a full length manuscript of poems. Visit online for news at efschraeder.com.
SHELLEY CHERNIN
Shelley Chernin is a freelance writer of legal reference books, an environmental activist and a ukulele enthusiast. She is the author of The Vigil, published by Crisis Chronicles Press in 2012. Her poems have appeared in many journals and anthologies, including Great Lakes Review, Scrivener Creative Review, Guide to Kulchur Creative Journal, Rhapsoidia, Durable Goods, Big Bridge, and Oct Tongue-1. She has also been published in What I Knew Before I Knew: Poems from the Pudding House Salon, While You Were Sleeping, I Dreamt a Poem (a Cleveland Pudding House Salon Anthology), The Cleveland Heights Observer, and in at least four of the annual Hessler Street Fair Poetry anthologies. She was awarded 2nd Place in the 2011 Hessler Street Fair Poetry Contest and received Honorable Mentions twice in the Akron Art Museum’s New Words Poetry Contest.
JULIET COOK
Juliet Cook's poetry has appeared in a small multitude of magazines, including Arsenic Lobster, DIAGRAM, Diode, FLAPPERHOUSE, Menacing Hedge and The Rising Phoenix Review. She is the author of numerous poetry chapbooks, recently including a collaboration with j/j hastain called "Dive Back Down" (Dancing Girl Press, 2015), an individual collection called "From One Ruined Human to Another" (Cringe-Worthy Poets Collective, 2018), and with another individual collection, "Another Set of Ripped Out Bloody Pig Tails" forthcoming from The Poet's Haven. Cook's first full-length individual poetry book, “Horrific Confection”, was published by BlazeVOX close to ten years ago. Her more recent full-length poetry book, "A Red Witch, Every Which Way", is a collaboration with j/j hastain published by Hysterical Books in 2016. Her MOST recent full-length individual poetry book, "Malformed Confetti" soon to be published by Crisis Chronicles Press, is the book on which this reading is based. Cook also sometimes creates semi-abstract painting collage art hybrid creatures. Cook also runs her own tiny independent press, Blood Pudding Press, which sometimes publishes hand-designed poetry chapbooks and sometimes sells art. Find out more at www.JulietCook.weebly.com.
JOHN BURROUGHS
John Burroughs is a nationally-touring poet and performer from the Cleveland area and the author over a dozen books including Water Works, Electric Company, Beat Attitude and The Eater of the Absurd. His latest, Loss and Foundering, will be published in Spring 2018 by NightBallet Press. In various past lives, John served as playwright-in-residence for the Ministry of Theatre at Marion Correctional Institution, his blog was ranked #1 on MySpace, he won the first poetry slam he ever competed in, and he co-founded (with Dianne Borsenik) the infamous Lix and Kix Poetry Extravaganza and almost-annual Snoetry: A Winter Wordfest. John has edited numerous volumes, including the Oct Tongue poetry series, Cheap and Easy Magazine and the anti-censorship anthology Fuck Poetry, and he is probably most proud of his work since 2008 as the founding editor of Crisis Chronicles Press. Find him at www.crisischronicles.com
KEVIN A. RISNER
Kevin A. Risner is ESL Coordinator at the Cleveland Institute of Art, where he also teaches writing, narrative, and philosophy. His work can be found online in many locations Rise Up Review, Rising Phoenix Review, the murmur house, Noble/Gas Quarterly, The Wire’s Dream, Ghost City Review, The Bookends Review, and elsewhere. His first chapbook — My Ear is a Sieve— was published by Bottlecap Press in 2017. A second collection of poems about his dreams, Lucid, was just released by The Poetry Annals. He also writes about beer from time to time at www.porchdrinking.com.
ALEX DIFRANCESCO
Alex DiFrancesco is a writer of fiction, creative nonfiction, and journalism who has published work in Tin House, The Washington Post, Pacific Standard, and more. Their first novel, an acid western, was published in 2015, and their essay collection Psychopomps (Civil Coping Mechanisms Press) and their second novel All City (Seven Stories Press) are forthcoming in Spring of 2019. They can be found @DiFantastico on Twitter, or, more often, snuggling their cat, Sylvia.
MITCH JAMES
Mitch James was born and raised in Central Illinois, where he received a BA in English with a minor in Creative Writing from Eastern Illinois University. He received a Master’s in Literature and a Ph.D. in Composition from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He’s had fiction and poetry published in Decomp, Underground Voices, Kill Author, Digital Americana and Blue Earth Review among others. Most recently, Mitch’s chapbook of fiction The Cut Worm was released by Underground Voices Press, and he his short story "What Floats, What Sinks" was just released with Calliope Magazine. Mitch lives in northeast Ohio, where he’s an Assistant Professor of Composition and Literature at Lakeland Community College. Find more of his work at mitchjamesauthor.com.
ELSA JOHNSON
Elsa Johnson is a poet, a well known landscape designer, and an advocate for the natural environment. She studied poetry writing years and years ago with Fred Eckman at Bowling Green State University in the sixties and then at Indiana University at Blooomington, and more recently with Sarah Gridley and Dave Lucas at Case Western Reserve University. Elsa is co-editor of Gardenopolis Cleveland: Greening the City, a weekly (most of the time) blog about gardening, permaculture, sustainability, nutrition, and – yes! poetry. You can find Elsa’s poetry HERE. She is currently pursuing other reading and publishing opportunities and developing a larger audience.
DAN SMITH (Cleveland)
Dan Smith is the author of three chapbooks: Crooked River published by Deep Cleveland Press, The Liquid of Her Skin, the Suns of Her Eyes, published by NightBallet Press, and Manic of Days, by Buckeye Midnight Press. His poems have appeared in and/or on the Rhysling Anthology, Dwarf Stars Anthology, While You Were Sleeping I Dreamt a Poem Anthology, Renegade Flowers : d. a. levy and the Digital Revolution Anthology, Zombies for a Cure Anthology, Paper Crow, Scifaikuest, microcosms, Kaleidotrope, Deep Cleveland Junk Mail Oracle, Sein und Werden, The City Poetry, MUSE, One Dead Mule, Basho’s Untidy Hut: Wednesdays Child, The Pedestal Magazine, Smoke, Mist & Mirror Anthology, The Lakeland Forum, Admit Two, HazMat Review, Zen of the Dead, Lupine Lunes and Cthulhu Haiku, RTA Bus Art, Jerry Jazz Musician, Newverse News, Failed Haiku, Hedgerow: A Journal of Small Poems, Cattails, Pudding House, Red Fez, Star*Line, Speed Poets, Two Cranes Press, Brandt 21 Anthology, Lip Smack Anthology, F**K POETRY, The Toledo Free Press, and Bear Creek Haiku. Smith was awarded a first and a third prize in the Hessler Street Poetry Contests. He also has a CD: Matinee Motel- Dan Smith and the Deep Cleveland Trio. He likes to rock out with the band.
KERRY JENSEN TRAUTMAN (Toledo)
Kerry Trautman is a founder/admin for ToledoPoet.com and the “Toledo Poetry Museum” Facebook page. She is a poetry editor for "Red Fez," and she participates in events such as Artomatic 419, Back to Jack, and the Columbus Arts Festival. Her work has appeared in dozens of anthologies and journals, including "Midwestern Gothic," "Alimentum," "The Coe Review," "Five2One," "Naugatuck River Review," and "Third Wednesday." Kerry was a finalist for the "Slippery Elm" poetry prize in 2015, 2016 & 2017, placed three times in the Toledo Museum of Art’s annual Ekphrastic Poetry contest, and won 1st-place Adult Category in "Mock Turtle Zine"’s poetry contest in 2013, 2014, and 2017. In 2015, one of Kerry’s unpublished collections, "Leaning into it," was a finalist for the National Federation of State Poetry Societies Stevens Award, and was a semifinalist for the Crab Orchard Series 1st Book Award. Her second poetry chapbook, "To Have Hoped," is available now at www.finishinglinepress.com . Her third chapbook "Artifacts," was recently published by NightBallet Press in December 2017.
JONIE MCINTIRE (Toledo)
Jonie McIntire is author to two chapbooks; Beyond the Sidewalk, December 2017 through NightBallet Press, and Not All Who Are Lost Wander, March 2016 through Finishing Line Press. Jonie leads the writing team at Toledo Streets Newspaper and is Treasurer of a local non-profit called Sylvania Avenue Neighbors, which works to accentuate and advance arts and walkability in West Toledo. In 2017, Jonie was awarded an Accelerator Grant from the Arts Commission of Greater Toledo in order to promote professionalism in poetry, and she hosts two monthly poetry reading series in Toledo which feature poets from the area and all over the nation. Her work has been published in Khroma, Red Fez, in the anthology Sam & Andy’s Uptown Café (Westron Press), in the Hessler Street Fair Anthology 2016 (Crisis Chronicles press), in Delirious (Nightballet Press), and it has even been stamped into cement as part of the Arts Commission of Greater Toledo’s Sidewalk Poetry series. She lives in Toledo, Ohio with her husband, two children and two dogs.
STEVEN J. ATHANAS: EVAN ST. JASTHANE'S ASTOUNDING SIDESHOW (Toledo)
The first image that Steven J. Athanas drew was his hero at the time, Popeye the Sailor Man, when he was about 5 years old. He majored in Art and English in high school, and received a BA in Art Ed. Athanas put the visual art on the back burner (though he always carried a sketch pad) in the ’70's through 2000, when he performed as lead singer/clown in multiple bar bands in Northwest Ohio including The Raisin Band, The Best and The Homewreckers. The Art teaching jobs seem to have dried up - as well as his desire to front a band - so he now puts his energies into his visual art. His work is a conglomerate of 2D & 3D, utilizing the strangest materials he can find. He has shown his work in NYC, Baltimore, Northwest Ohio/Michigan, Colorado, Chicago and West Palm Beach.
AUBREY CROSBY (Cleveland)
Aubrey Crosby is a PhD student and teaching fellow in the Rhetoric and Composition program at Kent State University. She received her BA from Siena Heights University and her MA from the University of Toledo. She teaches college level and advanced composition courses at various institutions. Her work has been published in the Toledo Poetry Project(2014), The Quill (2014), and in Eclipse literary magazine (2015).
ANDREW FIELD (Cleveland)
Andrew Field is a poet and librarian and earning his master’s in Library and Information Science from Kent State University. He has published essays about poetry at Thethe Poetry Blog, B O D Y Literature, and the California Journal of Poetics, book reviews at the Rumpus and Jerry Magazine, and poems at the Ocean State Review and Mantis. He tweets at https://twitter.com/AField81. In August of 2016, his chapbook, “All I Want,” was published by Red Flag Poetry.
LEAP INTO RIMBAUD
Jessie Herzfeld artist talk with Rimbaud-themed open mic
BILL YARROW
Bill Yarrow of Chicago is the author of five full-length books of poetry and five poetry chapbooks. His poems have been published in Confrontation, Gargoyle, PANK, Contrary, Diagram, Thrush, RHINO, Chiron Review, and many other journals. His most recent book is ACCELERANT from Nixes Mate Books. billyarrow.wordpress.com
LAURA GRACE WELDON
Laura Grace Weldon has published two poetry collections, Blackbird (Grayson 2019) and Tending (Aldrich 2013). She was named Ohio Poet of the Year for 2019. She's written poems on the soles of children’s feet and painted poems on beehives but her work appears in more conventional places such as Verse Daily, One: Jacar Press, Neurology, J Journal, and Amsterdam Quarterly. Laura works as a book editor and teaches community-based writing workshops. lauragraceweldon.com
CHUCK SALMONS
Chuck Salmons is President of Ohio Poetry Association. His poems have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including Pudding Magazine, Evening Street Review, and Everything Stops and Listens. He has two chapbooks, Stargazer Suite [11th Hour Press] and Patch Job [NightBallet Press]. Chuck won the 2011 William Redding Memorial Poetry Contest, sponsored by The Poetry Forum of Columbus, and is recipient of a 2018 Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award for poetry. Find him at www.chucksalmons.com.
RENAY SANDERS
S. Renay Sanders learned to love the spoken word amidst a family of storytellers. She began secretly writing her own stories as poems. She came out of the poetry closet in 2010 with a poem in the Hessler Street Poetry Anthology. She subsequently had poems published in a variety of anthologies. Her most recent accomplishment is the publication of her first chapbook, Dancing in Place. Coming full circle, she has ventured into storytelling and will proudly perform her story "Cemetery Run" in the Women of Appalachia Project, Spoken Word, 2019. Today she proudly lives the poetic lifestyle. Continuing to enjoy the local poetry scene as an open micer and occasional feature. A native Clevelander her poems are inspired by the characters she encounters in life and the beauty of the Cuyahoga Valley, where she now resides.
RAY McNIECE
Ray McNiece is the author of 9 books of poetry and monologues, including New Haiku and Love Song for Cleveland, a collaboration with photographer Tim Lachina. He’s toured Italy twice with Lawrence Ferlinghetti. He toured Russia with Yevgeny Yevtushenko and performed at the Moscow Polytech, the Russian Poets’ Hall of Fame, where he was dubbed “the American Mayakovsky.” The Orlando Sentinel, reporting on his solo theater piece Us—Talking across America at the Fringe Festival, called him “a modern day descendant of Woody Guthrie.” www.raymcniece.com.
MICHELLE R. SMITH
Michelle R. Smith is a black femme feminist, media activist, and admitted Netflix addict that between fighting the good fight and watching copious stand-up specials, dark comedies, and music documentaries manages to write poems, tell stories, teach college and high school kids, and be a loving mother and wife. She is the author of the poetry collection Ariel in Black, and she is currently working on a new collection tentatively titled The Real Jazz Wives of 20th Century America and looking to publish a third collection, called The Vagina Analogues. Michelle has most recently presented her work at the Cleveland Museum of Art, Mac's Backs Books, Telos: A Reading of Purpose at Outlandish Press, and The Persisters at B-Side Liquor Lounge.
STEVE ABBOTT
Columbus native Steve Abbott has been a community activist, alternative newspaper writer and editor, criminal defendant, delivery truck driver, courtroom bailiff, private investigator, PR flack, and college professor. He was a founding member in 1984 of The Poetry Forum, now Ohio’s longest-running poetry series, and continues to co-host the weekly event. He is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus in English of Columbus State Community College. His poems have appeared in dozens of literary journals as well as in several anthologies. He received an Ohio Arts Council Excellence Award in Poetry in 1993 and an OAC residency the following year at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA. He has six poetry collections: five chapbooks, A Short History of the Word (1996) and Greatest Hits (2004), both from Pudding House; The Incoherent Pull of Want (NightBallet Press) and Why Not Be Here Now? (11thour Press) in 2016; and Kicking Mileposts in the Video Age (Moria Poetry, 2017). He has also recorded a live reading on CD titled Stardust in Franklin Park. He edited the anthologies Cap City Poets (Pudding House, 2008), a collection of 74 central Ohio poets, and Everything Stops and Listens (OPA Press, 2013), containing work by members of Ohio Poetry Association. His full-length collection A Green Line Between Green Fields was published in 2018, and a collection of ekphrastic poems, A Language the Image Speaks, will be released in September. He also edits Ohio Poetry Association's annual journal Common Threads, and in 2015 he represented the OPA on the Ohio Arts Council panel selecting Ohio’s first Poet Laureate.
LEONARD KRESS
Leonard Kress has published poetry and fiction in Missouri Review, Massachusetts Review, Iowa Review, American Poetry Review, Harvard Review, etc. His recent collections are The Orpheus Complex, and Walk Like Bo Diddley. Living in the Candy Store and Other Poems and his new verse translation of the Polish Romantic epic, Pan Tadeusz by Adam Mickiewicz were both published in 2018. Craniotomy will appear this summer. He teaches philosophy and religion at Owens Community College in Ohio.
MATT HART
Matt Hart is the author of nine books of poems, including most recently Everything Breaking/for Good (YesYes Books, 2019) and The Obliterations (Pickpocket Books, 2019). Additionally, his poems, reviews, and essays have appeared or are forthcoming in numerous print and online journals, including The Academy of American Poets online, Big Bell, Cincinnati Review, Coldfront, Columbia Poetry Review, Harvard Review, Jam Tarts Magazine, jubilat, Kenyon Review online, Lungfull!, POETRY, and Waxwing, among others. His awards include a Pushcart Prize, a 2013 individual artist grant from The Shifting Foundation, and fellowships from both the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference and the Warren Wilson College MFA Program for Writers. A co-founder and the editor-in-chief of Forklift, Ohio: A Journal of Poetry, Cooking & Light Industrial Safety, he lives in Cincinnati where he teaches at the Art Academy of Cincinnati and plays in the band NEVERNEW: www.nevernew.net.
NICOLE HENNESSY
Nicole Hennessy is a poet and journalist from Cleveland, Ohio. Gypsy Queen [2019, Crisis Chronicles Press] is her debut poetry collection, though she has been chasing poetry for more than twenty years. Her previous publications include Black Rabbit, a nonfiction profile of poet and artist Tom Kryss. Nicole also co-founded the underground art and literary bimonthly, Miser Magazine; and she will eventually launch her art and outreach effort, Universal Eccentrics, with some incredible, like-minded weirdoes. Her work has appeared in local and regional publications, and she was recently recognized as a Wild Wmn by the LA-based women’s artistic and wellness collective of the same name. Nicole is also mom to a spirited four-year-old boy. She’s probably cuddled up at home watching cartoons. You can stalk her on Instagram @nicohenness.
JEANETTE POWERS
Jeanette Powers is a working-class queer anarchist and artist based in Kansas City, Missouri. They are primary architect of Stubborn Mule Press and Logistics Guru at FountainVerse: KC Small Press Poetry Fest. Powers has been published widely and often by online and print magazines but also has a dark side as a visual artist and their work has graced the cover of numerous literary magazines. They have seven full length books of poetry, and a forthcoming 4-way split with some tremendous women and their first novel, Victimless Crime, releases soon from Outlandish Press. Powers can most often be found in a river, swimming in a reverie. Find more at jeanettepowers.com.
DIANNE BORSENIK
Dianne Borsenik is active in the northern Ohio poetry scene and regional reading circuit. Her work has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including Chiron Review, Main Street Rag, Resurrection River Poems (Wick Poetry Center, 2019) and A Rustling and Waking Within (Ohio Poetry Association, 2017); recent books include Raga for What Comes Next (Stubborn Mule Press, 2019), and Age of Aquarius (Crisis Chronicles Press, 2017). Earlier this year, she featured in “We’re No Angels” at Speak of the Devil in Lorain, Ohio and “2 Chefs & a Beat: Poetic Justice Edition” at the Porco Lounge and Tiki Room in Cleveland, Ohio. Lit Youngstown printed her poem “Disco” on their tee shirts, which makes her feel like a rock star. Borsenik is editor/publisher at NightBallet Press, and lives in Elyria, Ohio. Find her on Facebook and at dianneborsenik.com.
PHILIP TERMAN
Philip Terman is the author of five full-length and four chapbook collections of poems, including, most recently, Our Portion: New and Selected Poems (Autumn House Press) and Like a Bird Entering a Window and Leaving Through Another Window, a hand-sewn collaboration with the artist James Stewart and bookbinder Susan Frakes. His poems have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including Poetry Magazine, The Kenyon Review, The Georgia Review, The Sun Magazine, Extraordinary Rendition: American Writers on Palestine, and 99 Poems for the 99 Percent. A selection of his poems, My Dear Friend Kafka, has been translated into Arabic and published by Ninwa Press in Damascus, Syria. He’s a professor of English at Clarion University, where he directs the Spoken Art Reading Series. He is founder of the Chautauqua Writers’ Festival and coordinator of The Bridge Literary and Arts Center in Franklin, PA. Terman’s poems provided the text for three song cycles composed by Dr. Brent Register and, on occasion, performs his poetry with the jazz band, The Barkeyville Triangle. Though he now resides in Clarion, Terman was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. More information can be found at www.philipterman.com.
SANDRA FEEN
Sandra Feen, the author of Fragile Capacites (2018, NightBallet Press), is a former associate editor of Pudding Magazine and currently works as an independent poetry and urban fiction editor. A member of the poetry troupe Concrete Wink, she has a BFA in Creative Writing and a BS in English Education from Bowling Green State University, and an MA in Literature from Wright State University. She was one of twelve teachers selected for the National Endowment of the Arts' first "Change Course" program, through W.S.U.'s Institute on Writing and Its Teaching. Publications include Poetry Motel, Elastic Ekphrastic, and The Pudding House Gang. Her work has been commissioned as part of Thin Places: Poetry and Art Exhibits and Installations at Columbus, Ohio's Jung Haus, and for the Cap City Poets: Columbus and Central Ohio's Best Known, Read, and Requested Poets anthology. She lives in Grove City, Ohio. http://nightballetpress.blogspot.com/2018/10/sandra-feen-has-fragile-capacities.html.
JEREMY JUSEK
Jeremy Jusek is a poet and writer living in Cleveland, Ohio with his wife and two kids. He left Marietta College with degrees in chemistry and theatre, and went on to earn his MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Arcadia. When he's not writing or daddying, Jeremy spends his free time running, gardening, playing video games, and nursing coffee ulcers. For more information on his background and publications please visit www.jeremyjusek.com.
KARI GUNTER-SEYMOUR
Three times a pushcart nominee, Kari Gunter-Seymour’s chapbook Serving (Crisis Chronicles Press 2018) was recently nominated for an Ohioana Award. Her work is included in the 2019 Visible Poetry Project and won top honors from Still: The Journal, BlackBerry Peach and the Hocking Hills Poetry Festival poetry contests. Her poems can be found in many fine journals – Rattle, Crab Orchard Review, CALYX, Stirring, Main Street Rag, The LA Times and on her website www.karigunterseymourpoet.com. She is an instructor in the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University and Poet Laureate for Athens, OH.
KEVIN LATIMER
Kevin Latimer is a poet and playwright from Cleveland, Ohio. He is a Co-founder & Co-Editor-in-Chief of BARNHOUSE. His work has appeared in or is forthcoming from FEELINGS, TRACK//FOUR, A VELVET GIANT, and others. His one act play, 4 BLACK BOYS 2 B ASTRONAUTS debuts with The Manhattan Project in the summer.
TIMOTHY J. RICHARDS
An accomplished commercial photographer in Hollywood, CA for six years prior to earning his Master of Science in Financial Services degree and retiring from the insurance business after 34 years, Tim Richards joined Cleveland State University’s Imagination Writer’s Conference in 2004 and became a part-time Project 60 student, enrolling in creative writing courses and related workshops, then continued his studies in drama and film, writing stage plays, screenplays and acting in student films. He was a second-place winner in the Cleveland State University (CSU) creative writing contest, Spring 2007, and his poetry and prose appeared in 15 issues of The Vindicator, the CSU multi-cultural magazine. He was also a finalist in the University of Akron (UA) playwriting contest, Spring 2008.
Tim Richards is the author of five books: The Richards and Barry Families; Ship Happens! A Tiger Cruise Tale; Warm Water, A Collection of Memories; Buggy, A Fictional Account of Generational Family Abuse; and Afternoon Tomatoes, Accessible Poetry, a collection of reader-friendly, easy to read poems. His poetry has appeared in Common Threads 2018 (OPA), and his prose, poetry and photography have been published in Fredericksburg Literary and Art Review several times. Richards is an active open-mic speaker, reciting the spoken word in 14 venues of the Cleveland/Amherst/Peninsula area. The March 19th reading is his debut as a featured speaker.
STEVEN B. SMITH
Steven B. Smith published Artcrimes (1986-2006), featuring 517 poets/artists, including Charles Bukowski and Harvey Pekar; per the Plain Dealer: "with the publication of 21 issues of ArtCrimes, Smith has made a vital and indelible mark on this city's history." In 2012, his memoir "Stations of the Lost & Found, a True Tale of Armed Robbery, Stolen Cars, Outsider Art, Mutant Poetry, Underground Publishing, Robbing the Cradle, and Leaving the Country" was published by The City. In 2018, Crisis Chronicles Press published "Where Never Was Already Is”, a collection of 244 poems and 29 collages from over 54 years. Steven and his wife, Lady K, spent 2006-9 living in 10 countries on 3 continents recharging their word wells.
LEE CHILCOTE
Lee Chilcote is founder and executive director of Literary Cleveland, whose mission is to “help create and nurture a vibrant literary arts community in Northeast Ohio.” Chilcote is a journalist, essayist and poet. His articles have appeared in Vanity Fair, Next City, Belt, Planning, Land and People and other publications. His poetry and creative nonfiction have been published by Great Lakes Review, Pacific Review, Oyez Review and others. His essays have appeared in the books Rust Belt Chic: A Cleveland Anthology, The Cleveland Neighborhood Guidebook, and A Race Anthology: Dispatches and Artifacts from a Segregated City. He previously served as editor of Fresh Water Cleveland and Editorial Director for Issue Media Group. In 2017, his chapbook of poems, The Shape of Home, was published by Finishing Line Press. His poem “Catching Sunfish” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and The Shape of Home was nominated for the Society of Midland Authors Award in Poetry. In 2018, his second chapbook, How to Live in Ruins, is slated to appear from Finishing Line Press. He attended Middlebury College, Lincoln College at Oxford University, and Cleveland State University, where he obtained master’s degrees in English/Creative Nonfiction and Public Administration and was awarded the Leonard Trawick Prize for Creative Writing.
E. F. SCHRAEDER
Ethicist, poet, and speculative fiction writer E. F. Schraeder is the author of two poetry chapbooks, most recently Chapter Eleven (Partisan Press). Schraeder’s work has appeared (or is forthcoming) in many journals and anthologies including Mobius: The Journal of Social Change, Lavender Review, Mystery Weekly Magazine, Sinister Wisdom, Dark Voices, and others. Schraeder's current projects include a queer monster’s coming of age novella and a full length manuscript of poems. Visit online for news at efschraeder.com.
SHELLEY CHERNIN
Shelley Chernin is a freelance writer of legal reference books, an environmental activist and a ukulele enthusiast. She is the author of The Vigil, published by Crisis Chronicles Press in 2012. Her poems have appeared in many journals and anthologies, including Great Lakes Review, Scrivener Creative Review, Guide to Kulchur Creative Journal, Rhapsoidia, Durable Goods, Big Bridge, and Oct Tongue-1. She has also been published in What I Knew Before I Knew: Poems from the Pudding House Salon, While You Were Sleeping, I Dreamt a Poem (a Cleveland Pudding House Salon Anthology), The Cleveland Heights Observer, and in at least four of the annual Hessler Street Fair Poetry anthologies. She was awarded 2nd Place in the 2011 Hessler Street Fair Poetry Contest and received Honorable Mentions twice in the Akron Art Museum’s New Words Poetry Contest.
JULIET COOK
Juliet Cook's poetry has appeared in a small multitude of magazines, including Arsenic Lobster, DIAGRAM, Diode, FLAPPERHOUSE, Menacing Hedge and The Rising Phoenix Review. She is the author of numerous poetry chapbooks, recently including a collaboration with j/j hastain called "Dive Back Down" (Dancing Girl Press, 2015), an individual collection called "From One Ruined Human to Another" (Cringe-Worthy Poets Collective, 2018), and with another individual collection, "Another Set of Ripped Out Bloody Pig Tails" forthcoming from The Poet's Haven. Cook's first full-length individual poetry book, “Horrific Confection”, was published by BlazeVOX close to ten years ago. Her more recent full-length poetry book, "A Red Witch, Every Which Way", is a collaboration with j/j hastain published by Hysterical Books in 2016. Her MOST recent full-length individual poetry book, "Malformed Confetti" soon to be published by Crisis Chronicles Press, is the book on which this reading is based. Cook also sometimes creates semi-abstract painting collage art hybrid creatures. Cook also runs her own tiny independent press, Blood Pudding Press, which sometimes publishes hand-designed poetry chapbooks and sometimes sells art. Find out more at www.JulietCook.weebly.com.
JOHN BURROUGHS
John Burroughs is a nationally-touring poet and performer from the Cleveland area and the author over a dozen books including Water Works, Electric Company, Beat Attitude and The Eater of the Absurd. His latest, Loss and Foundering, will be published in Spring 2018 by NightBallet Press. In various past lives, John served as playwright-in-residence for the Ministry of Theatre at Marion Correctional Institution, his blog was ranked #1 on MySpace, he won the first poetry slam he ever competed in, and he co-founded (with Dianne Borsenik) the infamous Lix and Kix Poetry Extravaganza and almost-annual Snoetry: A Winter Wordfest. John has edited numerous volumes, including the Oct Tongue poetry series, Cheap and Easy Magazine and the anti-censorship anthology Fuck Poetry, and he is probably most proud of his work since 2008 as the founding editor of Crisis Chronicles Press. Find him at www.crisischronicles.com
KEVIN A. RISNER
Kevin A. Risner is ESL Coordinator at the Cleveland Institute of Art, where he also teaches writing, narrative, and philosophy. His work can be found online in many locations Rise Up Review, Rising Phoenix Review, the murmur house, Noble/Gas Quarterly, The Wire’s Dream, Ghost City Review, The Bookends Review, and elsewhere. His first chapbook — My Ear is a Sieve— was published by Bottlecap Press in 2017. A second collection of poems about his dreams, Lucid, was just released by The Poetry Annals. He also writes about beer from time to time at www.porchdrinking.com.
ALEX DIFRANCESCO
Alex DiFrancesco is a writer of fiction, creative nonfiction, and journalism who has published work in Tin House, The Washington Post, Pacific Standard, and more. Their first novel, an acid western, was published in 2015, and their essay collection Psychopomps (Civil Coping Mechanisms Press) and their second novel All City (Seven Stories Press) are forthcoming in Spring of 2019. They can be found @DiFantastico on Twitter, or, more often, snuggling their cat, Sylvia.
MITCH JAMES
Mitch James was born and raised in Central Illinois, where he received a BA in English with a minor in Creative Writing from Eastern Illinois University. He received a Master’s in Literature and a Ph.D. in Composition from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He’s had fiction and poetry published in Decomp, Underground Voices, Kill Author, Digital Americana and Blue Earth Review among others. Most recently, Mitch’s chapbook of fiction The Cut Worm was released by Underground Voices Press, and he his short story "What Floats, What Sinks" was just released with Calliope Magazine. Mitch lives in northeast Ohio, where he’s an Assistant Professor of Composition and Literature at Lakeland Community College. Find more of his work at mitchjamesauthor.com.
ELSA JOHNSON
Elsa Johnson is a poet, a well known landscape designer, and an advocate for the natural environment. She studied poetry writing years and years ago with Fred Eckman at Bowling Green State University in the sixties and then at Indiana University at Blooomington, and more recently with Sarah Gridley and Dave Lucas at Case Western Reserve University. Elsa is co-editor of Gardenopolis Cleveland: Greening the City, a weekly (most of the time) blog about gardening, permaculture, sustainability, nutrition, and – yes! poetry. You can find Elsa’s poetry HERE. She is currently pursuing other reading and publishing opportunities and developing a larger audience.
DAN SMITH (Cleveland)
Dan Smith is the author of three chapbooks: Crooked River published by Deep Cleveland Press, The Liquid of Her Skin, the Suns of Her Eyes, published by NightBallet Press, and Manic of Days, by Buckeye Midnight Press. His poems have appeared in and/or on the Rhysling Anthology, Dwarf Stars Anthology, While You Were Sleeping I Dreamt a Poem Anthology, Renegade Flowers : d. a. levy and the Digital Revolution Anthology, Zombies for a Cure Anthology, Paper Crow, Scifaikuest, microcosms, Kaleidotrope, Deep Cleveland Junk Mail Oracle, Sein und Werden, The City Poetry, MUSE, One Dead Mule, Basho’s Untidy Hut: Wednesdays Child, The Pedestal Magazine, Smoke, Mist & Mirror Anthology, The Lakeland Forum, Admit Two, HazMat Review, Zen of the Dead, Lupine Lunes and Cthulhu Haiku, RTA Bus Art, Jerry Jazz Musician, Newverse News, Failed Haiku, Hedgerow: A Journal of Small Poems, Cattails, Pudding House, Red Fez, Star*Line, Speed Poets, Two Cranes Press, Brandt 21 Anthology, Lip Smack Anthology, F**K POETRY, The Toledo Free Press, and Bear Creek Haiku. Smith was awarded a first and a third prize in the Hessler Street Poetry Contests. He also has a CD: Matinee Motel- Dan Smith and the Deep Cleveland Trio. He likes to rock out with the band.
KERRY JENSEN TRAUTMAN (Toledo)
Kerry Trautman is a founder/admin for ToledoPoet.com and the “Toledo Poetry Museum” Facebook page. She is a poetry editor for "Red Fez," and she participates in events such as Artomatic 419, Back to Jack, and the Columbus Arts Festival. Her work has appeared in dozens of anthologies and journals, including "Midwestern Gothic," "Alimentum," "The Coe Review," "Five2One," "Naugatuck River Review," and "Third Wednesday." Kerry was a finalist for the "Slippery Elm" poetry prize in 2015, 2016 & 2017, placed three times in the Toledo Museum of Art’s annual Ekphrastic Poetry contest, and won 1st-place Adult Category in "Mock Turtle Zine"’s poetry contest in 2013, 2014, and 2017. In 2015, one of Kerry’s unpublished collections, "Leaning into it," was a finalist for the National Federation of State Poetry Societies Stevens Award, and was a semifinalist for the Crab Orchard Series 1st Book Award. Her second poetry chapbook, "To Have Hoped," is available now at www.finishinglinepress.com . Her third chapbook "Artifacts," was recently published by NightBallet Press in December 2017.
JONIE MCINTIRE (Toledo)
Jonie McIntire is author to two chapbooks; Beyond the Sidewalk, December 2017 through NightBallet Press, and Not All Who Are Lost Wander, March 2016 through Finishing Line Press. Jonie leads the writing team at Toledo Streets Newspaper and is Treasurer of a local non-profit called Sylvania Avenue Neighbors, which works to accentuate and advance arts and walkability in West Toledo. In 2017, Jonie was awarded an Accelerator Grant from the Arts Commission of Greater Toledo in order to promote professionalism in poetry, and she hosts two monthly poetry reading series in Toledo which feature poets from the area and all over the nation. Her work has been published in Khroma, Red Fez, in the anthology Sam & Andy’s Uptown Café (Westron Press), in the Hessler Street Fair Anthology 2016 (Crisis Chronicles press), in Delirious (Nightballet Press), and it has even been stamped into cement as part of the Arts Commission of Greater Toledo’s Sidewalk Poetry series. She lives in Toledo, Ohio with her husband, two children and two dogs.
STEVEN J. ATHANAS: EVAN ST. JASTHANE'S ASTOUNDING SIDESHOW (Toledo)
The first image that Steven J. Athanas drew was his hero at the time, Popeye the Sailor Man, when he was about 5 years old. He majored in Art and English in high school, and received a BA in Art Ed. Athanas put the visual art on the back burner (though he always carried a sketch pad) in the ’70's through 2000, when he performed as lead singer/clown in multiple bar bands in Northwest Ohio including The Raisin Band, The Best and The Homewreckers. The Art teaching jobs seem to have dried up - as well as his desire to front a band - so he now puts his energies into his visual art. His work is a conglomerate of 2D & 3D, utilizing the strangest materials he can find. He has shown his work in NYC, Baltimore, Northwest Ohio/Michigan, Colorado, Chicago and West Palm Beach.
AUBREY CROSBY (Cleveland)
Aubrey Crosby is a PhD student and teaching fellow in the Rhetoric and Composition program at Kent State University. She received her BA from Siena Heights University and her MA from the University of Toledo. She teaches college level and advanced composition courses at various institutions. Her work has been published in the Toledo Poetry Project(2014), The Quill (2014), and in Eclipse literary magazine (2015).
ANDREW FIELD (Cleveland)
Andrew Field is a poet and librarian and earning his master’s in Library and Information Science from Kent State University. He has published essays about poetry at Thethe Poetry Blog, B O D Y Literature, and the California Journal of Poetics, book reviews at the Rumpus and Jerry Magazine, and poems at the Ocean State Review and Mantis. He tweets at https://twitter.com/AField81. In August of 2016, his chapbook, “All I Want,” was published by Red Flag Poetry.
