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| Acclaimed poets Steve Abbott and Leonard Kress |
Poetry Plus at
Art on Madison will triple your pleasure on November 19th with readings by two acclaimed featured poets -
Steve Abbott (Columbus, OH) and
Leonard Kress (Toledo, OH) - plus an open mic. Doors open at 7 pm, with poetry to begin promptly at 7:30.
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. His latest book,
Craniotomy, will appear soon (if it hasn't already). He teaches philosophy and religion at Owens Community College in Ohio.
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, was 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.
Open mic to follow the features, emceed by Ohio Beat Poet Laureate
John Burroughs.
Poetry+ happens on the third Tuesday of each month. For more information, please visit:
https://poetrypluscleveland.weebly.com.
Upcoming Poetry+ features:
11/19 - Steve Abbott (Columbus) & Leonard Kress (Toledo)
12/17 - Ray McNiece (Cleveland) & Michelle R. Smith (Cleveland)
1/21 - Chuck Salmons (Columbus) & Renay Sanders (Peninsula)
2/18 - Bill Yarrow (Chicago) & Laura Grace Weldon (Litchfield)
3/17 - Leah Mueller (Tacoma WA) & Rikki Santer (Columbus)
