Moderating Cleveland Poetics and an Interview with Cat Russell

Michael Salinger created the Cleveland Poetics blog in 2008 and invited a bunch of local poets to be regular contributors. I was fortunate to be one of them, although life and other pursuits prevented me from contributing as much as I would have liked over the years. At some point a decade or so ago, Michael handed off his role of blog moderator to Geoffrey Landis. Our region owes both of these men an immense debt of gratitude for their generous and indispensable service to the project.

You probably know that Cleveland Poetics is also home to the Northeast Ohio Literary Calendar. Michael created that too. And though I did not contribute as much as I might have liked to the blog, I did early on embrace the role of the primary person responsible for maintaining the online calendar and keeping it as comprehensive as possible. Fortunately, I have had some help from others in the community who have admin rights and can add their own events. Cat Russell, for example, has been particularly helpful in recent months, having agreed to ensure that all of Literary Cleveland's events are included.

But back to the blog. A couple of months ago, Geoffrey Landis decided to hand off his moderator role and offered it to me. Now that I'm no longer as busy with caring for ill family members, publishing, event hosting, and so on, I have a bit more discretionary time and so happily accepted the task. That means I will be sharing more there. I also hope to recruit some more regular contributors.

One of my first posts in my new role there is an interview with the aforementioned Cat Russell about her new book, An Optimist's Journal of the End of Days and Other Stories. [2020, Venetian Spider Press]. I hope you'll check it out. And while you're at the Cleveland Poetics blog, give us your email address (you'll find "Follow by Email" in the right sidebar) so you can stay up to date on future developments, both on the site and around our northeast Ohio literary community. Finally, if you would like to contribute to the blog, feel free to reach out and let me know. 

Cat Russell and the End of Days: An Interview / www.clevelandpoetry.com