July 3: Open Air Poets in Cleveland Heights feat. Salinger, Chernin, & Burroughs

This Thursday, July 3rd, I'll have the distinct pleasure of reading with the amazing Michael Salinger and Shelley Chernin during Open Air Poets on the lawn outside the Coventry Village branch library in Cleveland Heights.

So many thanks to Mac's Backs-Books and the Cleveland Heights-University Heights Public Libraries.

June 28: Social Justic Poetry at ComFest in Columbus

This Saturday, 28 June at 5:50 p.m. during the 53rd annual Community Festival in Columbus, friends of the Ohio Poetry Association will present Eat Our Words: Social Justice Poetry, featuring readings by Susann Moeller, John Burroughs, Rikki Santer, Christopher Minton, Kathleen S. Burgess, and Charlene Fix on the Peace and Healing Pavilion at ComFest.

From Dr. Moeller's write up: "Besides a declared national Pride and Black Lives Matter Month, June has also been declared the Rebuild your Life Month and June 28 in particular commemorates the Ukraine Constitution Day in the United States. EOW’s poets address the reasons for those dedications and our collective as well as individual experiences with them - emotionally, culturally, socio-economically, geographically, and politically — whether hard to digest or comforting, we are looking at them under the magnifying glass of poetry which serves as yet another tool to promote inquiry, curiosity, ethics, and compassion."

ComFest happens at Goodale Park, W. Goodale Street, 43215. For more information, including the full three-day schedule, please visit https://www.comfest.com/comfest-2025/.

June 27: With A.M. Hayden and friends on Zoom for How to Tie Tobacco launch party

Join us at 7 p.m. Eastern on Friday the 27th at the online book launch party for A.M. Hayden (Windy Chicken Poet)'s chapbook How to Tie Tobacco (from Wild Ink Publishing). This event will also feature short readings by Edward Vidaurre, john compton, Eric Paul Shaffer, Furaha Henry-Jones, Kika Dorsey, Jamey Dunham, Laurie Anderson, Leroy D. Bean, Angela Yuriko Smith, and me.

Tune in at https://sinclair.zoom.us/j/83689495716. 

June 14: Ellen Austin-Li & John Burroughs in Sandusky

I very much look forward to sharing poems from the same mic as friend and Cincinnati poet Ellen Austin-Li this Saturday, June 14th, at Mr. Smith's Coffee House in Sandusky, Ohio. Her new book, Incidental Pollen, was just released by Madville Publishing. I am extremely grateful to Larry Smith, the Firelands Writing Center, and Bottom Dog Press for hosting us. 

I am selecting my poems in solidarity with the No Kings protests.

Coffeehouse Reading feat. John Burroughs & Ellen Austin-Li

Mr. Smith's Coffeehouse
140 Columbus Street
Sandusky, Ohio 44870