Reminder! Don't wait!

 If you're like me, you see a deadline, and that date feels so far off that you just put it off for a bit. You tell yourself, "I have SOOO much time to put together the perfect submission for this!" You file it in an email folder that you SWEAR to yourself you're going to look at and remind yourself. You promise yourself you will do it tonight, or tomorrow, or definitely by the weekend.

This is your two-ish week warning.

The deadline to submit to the 40 Over 40 Anthology is April 30, which might sound like a lot of time when it's only April 14, but you know you get distracted by things like work and chores and holidays and family stuff and the next thing you know, it will be May 1.

**
Because I know the algorithm means this might be your first time hearing about this--the 40 Over 40 Anthology is funded by an ArtsForward grant. Poets in Northeast Ohio (or who have a past or present connection to the area) who are over the age of 40 may submit between now and April 30 to be included in an anthology to be released in August 2025. Submissions are free, and accepted poets will receive a $40 honorarium, copy of the print publication, and an invitation to read at the book launch celebration at Akron Main Library on Sunday, August 17. Full details in the link below.
**

So don't wait.

Don't.
Wait.

Send your submission now, and enjoy that feeling of ease and satisfaction when you've accomplished a thing on your to-do list that is something you wanted to do for yourself. And then you did it! Huzzah!

Send your poems.

 

Submit HERE!

Meet the judges!

 

I didn't want to be selecting the poems for the 40 Over 40 anthology (submit here!) myself and turn this into a collection of my personal favorite things. It was important to me to assemble a judging panel of brilliant, talented poets with different styles to help compile a great collection. It was also important to me to make sure that we had a blind judging process.

I could not be more excited that all three of these individuals wanted to be part of this project. Below, get to know a little about them and--most importantly if you're submitting--what they look for when reading poems.

 

Michelle R. Smith is a writer, poet, educator, cultural facilitator, and native Clevelander. She is the Programming Director for Literary Cleveland. She is the author of the poetry collections Ariel in Black (2015) and The Vagina Analogues (2020). She has been published in The Normal School, The Gasconade Review, New Note Poetry, Merge Magazine, and io Literary Magazine.

Michelle says: "I appreciate soul, song, story, sensory detail, and spareness in poetry. I like emotionality, elegance, intelligence, and craftsmanship."
 
 
Shaneen Harris’s works include Reflections of My Thoughts: I used to believe in unicorns, and I still do, Because God Said So, and Simply Complex (spoken word CD). Her poem “Clergy Woman Eats Her Shadow” was a finalist in the Wolverine Farm Broadside Poetry Prize. Her writings have appeared in Postcard Poems and Prose Magazine, Rubbertop Review, Crab Orchard Review: Ka-Ching the Money Issue, Watershed Review, Rattle, and the Tampa Review. She served as host of Poetry Unchained and TBN’s Joy in Our Town and Co-Editor of When There Are Nine. Shaneen’s married and the proud momma of three adult children.

Shaneen says what she looks for in poetry is "the poem's ability to make me believe that it is the originator. For instance, if it’s a poem about love, it’s written in a way that is a fresh perspective. I also look at the word choice and flow of the poem. More complexity isn’t always deeper on meaning. Did the last word of a line make me want to read the next one?"

 

 

Steve Brightman lives in Akron OH. His most recent full-length collection of poems, The Circus of His Bones (Kung Fu Treachery Press), is a pandemic baby, birthed in 2020. Other collections of his include The Wild Gospel of Careening and Other Tales from the Rumble Strip, Leaving the Flatlands to the Amateurs, In Brilliant Explosions Alone, and 13 Ways of Looking at Lou Reed.
 

When asked what he looks for in a poem, Steve says:

"It’s a short list, but a big ask.

1) I want to see the specific in a universal way

2) I want to see the universal in a specific way

3) I want to see the world reflected back to me or revealed to me in a way I haven’t yet seen"

 

Now that you've met the judges, plan your submissions and send them in before April 30th!
Submit here!

Peace,
T

Meet the workshop leaders!

As part of the 40 Over 40 project, I also wanted to include poetry workshops to foster the craft of writing. I didn't want this project to only be about publishing a book. Full stop. I wanted the project to be about poetry in the community. I wanted some place for people to find fresh inspiration, or to explore the craft in a safe space, even without any poetry experience.

And I am thrilled to have Diane Kendig and Barbara Sabol on board to teach two upcoming workshops. Diane will be talking about the list poem, but looking at it in new ways you've never considered. Barbara will be sharing her thoughts on the ode, and how adaptable and relevant it is to modern poetry.


Both workshops will take place at Summit Artspace (140 E. Market Street, Akron, OH) at 2pm. Bring a pen and notebook (or laptop, if you prefer) and an excitement to explore new poetry ideas.



Saturday, March 15 - LISTING, with Diane Kendig

Lists, whether you make them down the page or in a cloud, get us started, keep us on track, and
send us off to get our work done. In poetry, first, of course, there is the list poem. Like
Christopher’s long list of his cat’s tributes, Jubilate agno. But there are contemporary poems that
use the idea of lists, like Nancy Willard’s “Questions My Son Asked Me, Answers I Never Gave
Him.” And poems that have lists within them but aren’t all lists, like Lynn Powell’s “Blue.”
We are going to start by brainstorming some lists. Then we will look at different types of list-
inspiring poems and turn our storm into poems asea, listing perhaps as they sail.


Diane Kendig‘s latest books are Woman with a Fan and Prison Terms, and she co-edited the tribute anthology, In the Company of Russell Atkins. Kendig led the University of Findlay creative writing program including a prison writing workshop for 18 years and now back home in Canton, she curates Cuyahoga County Public Library’s weblog “Read + Write” and writes for “Free Poetry Cleveland.”


Saturday, April 26 - The Ode, with Barbara Sabol

The Ode: Considering the Contemporary Praise Poem
In this workshop we will briefly review the history of the ode as a form of lyric praise, discuss
features of the contemporary ode (and anti-ode) with reference to example poems, and engage in
writing and sharing our own odes.

Barbara Sabol was named Ohio Poet of the Year for her collection, WATERMARK (Alternating
Current Press, 2023.) Her book, IMAGINE A TOWN, won the 2019 Sheila-Na-Gig Editions
Poetry Prize. Other honors include an Individual Excellence Award from the Ohio Arts Council.
She conducts workshops through Literary Cleveland and the Cuyahoga Falls Library. Barbara
lives in Akron, Ohio with her bird carver husband and wonder dog.

I hope to see at one or both of these upcoming workshops!
Life, Love, Light,
T

Submission link is live!

 Send your poems here!

When you want something to happen, sometimes you need to do it yourself

The world is a weird place right now. I've found myself swinging wildly from heartbroken anger, to creative excitement, and the artists in my life keep reminding me that both are important, that we need the art to remind us about what we're fighting for.

So I'm sharing about this project that will be taking up a large portion of my time in 2025.

40 Over 40: A Poetry Anthology

I'm going to publish an anthology of local poets, in Summit and surrounding counties, who are over 40 years old.

The idea came to me a few years ago when I was scanning submission listings for various prizes, awards, and fellowships, many of which were targeted at young writers, and thinking about those lists that have titles like, "30 writers under 30 to watch!" I realized that I was aging out of those kinds of recognitions. I started wondering about people who don't come to their craft until later in life. I started thinking about people who don't have the name recognition, but have put in the time to learn their craft. Life doesn't stop at 30. Some of us are just finding our feet under us in our 40s or even later.

When you want to see something happen, sometimes you need to do it yourself.

I put the idea out into the world and applied for an ArtsForward grant, and in a head-snapping who-what-me way, ArtsNow gave me the money to do it!

So I'm thrilled that I have the opportunity to make this anthology happen, in the WAY I want to make it happen. I wanted to recognize poets over 40 (we're not asking how MUCH over 40!) writing exciting work, and to pay those who are accepted into the anthology (more on that in the follow ups about submission details). I wanted to make sure that I had the ability to compensate everyone who was involved for their time--not just in copies, but in a way that says your work and expertise is valued.

If I was going to do this, I wanted to do it the right way. And ArtsNow is giving me that opportunity.


A few dates to note right now:

March 1-April 30 - Submissions will be open! Submissions are free! I will be posting the link everywhere, but it will also be on this page!

March 15 and April 26 at 2pm, we will be hosting two FREE community poetry workshops at Summit Artspace! If you need inspiration, or just want to create some work, we'll have two guest teachers leading you through some exercises to help you create new poems. These classes will be just one more way to support writers (and anyone curious about learning more about writing poetry) in the community. Diane Kendig will be teaching on 3/15, and Barbara Sabol will be teaching on 4/26!

I'll be sharing more exciting details soon, so stay tuned to this page here. But start looking for the poems you want to submit to the anthology.

Life, Love, and Light.
T

Looking back on 2024, and forward to 2025

Early in 2024, I had the opportunity to teach a four-week writing workshop to a group of middle school students participating in Proyecto RAICES, a program for Hispanic and Latinx students. I never thought much about teaching before, and never really expected to teach younger kids. But the chance to use poetry out in the world hooked me, and I said yes. I had no lesson plans, I'd be starting from scratch. All I had was poetry, and a few vague ideas I'd been incubating for a while. And fear. New things, even if they're good things, are always scary. Even if your only audience is a dozen middle school kids whose opinions will neither make nor break you, it's still scary.

I did my best not to have any expectations about what the kids knew or had already been exposed to, or for what kind of work we might create together. But with some help and some flexibility--on my part and theirs--we wrote poetry together.

Teaching those sessions ended up being one of the most positive experiences I've ever had with poetry.

I learned so much from those kids, about what works and doesn't in a teaching setting, how to pivot and adapt on my feet when something isn't working. That where adults will politely go along with something even if a lesson is falling flat, kids will make it known when they're bored or disinterested--or when they're absolutely engaged--if not through their words then their behavior and body language. And if they weren't engaged, that was my problem, not theirs. They were excited when I was excited.

The program was made possible by a grant from ArtsForward, and I'm so grateful to them and to Yoly Miller for inviting me to be part of the project. You can read some of the poems written in our workshops at Proyecto Letras.

In 2025, I will be putting together an anthology of poetry from local poets, also funded by ArtsForward. This organization has been funding some exciting new projects in the Akron area, and I'm eager to bring forth this literary project. I'll be putting together a "40 over 40" anthology of poets--in contrast with so many "30 under 30" lists--to celebrate the talent of experienced poets in Summit County and surrounding areas, as well as some other writing events surrounding the book and its release next summer. Stay tuned for announcements about poetry submissions.

I'm so grateful to ArtsForward for the opportunity to make this happen, and I feel blessed to be in the place I am at the time that I am. I'm not overlooking that Akron has plenty of challenges and pain, but I also believe that the art we have, the talented people we have, the good we have here, when harnessed, can also heal and meet those challenges.

Peace in 2025.

A few thoughts on process...

Ohio has always been my home. I've done a fair amount of travel, but I've never lived outside of northeast Ohio. This place is home. It's where the people and things I know and love exist. It is comfort. Have I always loved Ohio? Love for a place is a strange idea. I love the people. I love the communities that have been built here. I love my family. I love my friends. I love my house. But do I love Ohio? I don't know if that's something I would have said a year ago.

In 2023, I had the chance to hear Adrian Matejka on book tour, and he said that when he's writing a poem, something needs to surprise him. It was something that I already knew in my bones, but I had never verbalized it or thought about it in that exact way, in those exact words. When I sit down knowing exactly where the poem is going and what it's going to say, it might end up being an okay poem, but it is never a good poem. The good poems, the best poems, start with me expecting it to take one route, and then the poem taking me on a completely different journey. Poets know that the best poems are written when the poem, not the poet, is in control.

So when Dee Fairweather reached out to Mary Defer and me about her idea for Ohio Reclaimed, I immediately said yes, but I didn't know what about Ohio could still surprise me. I expected to do a lot of research, learn a lot of history about these sites, but I wasn't sure that I would be able to connect on a more creative level with the subject matter.

While discussing how to approach the project, we started planning trips to visit the sites that would be the focus of the project. Seeing something in person gives details that I wouldn't be able to scoop up from doing some research or looking at old photos, and again, I expected to have to rely heavily on those details to make the poems good enough. I didn't think I'd find anything surprising.

Then we made our first site visits, and everything changed for me.

Yes, I met history. Yes, I met interesting facts.

But almost immediately, I met something surprising: hope.

And that was something I could wrap a poem around. Not just one, but a dozen of them.

Those of us who live in Ohio know that we're blessed with our county, state, and national parks. Our parks are something I know I've taken for granted, but we have so many wonderful wild or semi-wild spaces. But despite spending a decent amount of time in and around them for my entire life (see: Ohio has always been my home), I never looked at them from this angle before--an angle from which I saw hope.

A number of the places we visited had been some kind of industrial operation, places that, within living memory, had been devoid of trees or any other green growth, but now sat in the middle of a reforested, thriving area. Without, and sometimes with, the help of people, the earth can recover, life can recover. The work of Ohio Reclaimed is this beautiful illustration of the way that damage, mistakes, harm that we inflict, whether intentionally or not, can be healed, can be recovered.

It renewed my sense of wonder in a place I thought I knew so well. It made me fall in love with Ohio. The voice in most of the poems from Ohio Reclaimed is named as Nature, but the more I think about it, I wonder if maybe it isn't Ohio herself, speaking through these poems, talking to us, showing us our faults, correcting, fixing, healing.

I'm going to be honest: these last few weeks have not been an easy time to live in Ohio. I've felt so much disappointment, disillusionment, and hurt over certain outcomes. In the aftermath, I've seen some people saying very seriously that they're going to leave the state, move somewhere they feel safer, encouraging others not to come here, not to visit, not to vacation or spend money here.

I won't be leaving. This is my home, and always has been, and it feels that way just as much now as it has ever been. Regardless of what the numbers look like on paper, there is so much about Ohio to be loved. Despite things that go wrong, despite the people in the statehouse making decisions I wish they wouldn't make, Ohio is still my home. And I love it. This place with so many of the people I love, this place that has so much promise, this place that deliberately, stubbornly heals itself over and over. This place that rather than destroy us, is willing to give us another chance to do the right thing. Another chance, and another chance, and another chance. She's the parent who won't give up on us.

I'm not saying there's no work involved. We don't get to sit back and let Ohio just fix everything on her own. It took concerted effort to reforest these areas, to learn what once was and put it back to rights in a thoughtful and true way. But it can be done. All is not lost. It never is. There is hope. And it starts with love.

Peace.
T


 "Ohio Reclaimed: What Once Was" is still on view at Summit Artspace (140 E Market St, Akron, OH) through December 14th! See the art, read and listen to the poems. Chapbooks of the poems in the show are EXCLUSIVELY available for purchase only at Summit Artspace through the run of the show. Pick up your copy while you're there.