Home again (briefly) then off to Massachusetts this weekend!

What a wonderful mini-tour with Jeanette Powers! I can't thank our friends in Toledo, Cleveland, Connecticut, Woodstock, New York City and Long Island enough. I dropped Jeanette off at the airport a little while ago and am now feverishly working on catching up on hundreds of things that need done between now and Friday, when I'll drive nine hours back to New England to launch the next leg of my tour.

Saturday (9/28) at 11:30 a.m. and Sunday (9/29) at 1:30 p.m. I will have the privilege of performing at the 2019 North Quabbin Garlic and Arts Festival in Orange, Massachusetts, hosted by U.S. National Beat Poet Laureate Paul Richmond and Human Error Publishing.

Then on Friday, October 4th, Crisis Chronicles Press and I will head to Frostburg, Maryland for the Western Maryland Independent Literature Festival....

If I owe you a message, I promise I'll get back to you as soon as possible. Any books I still owe folks will go into the mail by tomorrow. I am so grateful for your kind wishes and support.

https://www.facebook.com/events/699906550468769/.

Touring with Kansas City Poet Jeanette Powers This Month!

art/photo by Jeanette Powers

Finally home from the first of three trips to the east coast this month. I will spend today and tomorrow catching up on a million things, including hundreds of emails, a stack of bills, packaging and mailing books, running to Akron to pick up the 2nd printing of Nicole Hennessy's Gypsy Queen, mowing the lawn, getting a pdf proof for Nick Gardner's forthcoming Crisis Chronicles Press book (So Marvelously Far) to him and cleaning my house. Then Sunday, 9/8, in Toledo I will meet up with one of my favorite poets/artists/humans, Jeanette Powers of Kansas City, where we will have the privilege of reading with Barbara Sabol and Clarissa Jakobsons for Uncloistered Poetry at Calvino's Restaurant and Wine Bar.

After that, I will emcee two readings featuring Jeanette in the Cleveland area:

• Tues. 9/10 - Poetry+ featuring Jeanette Powers & Dianne Borsenik at Art on Madison in Lakewood, Ohio.
• Wed. 9/11 - Michelle R. Smith, Rikki Santer & Jeanette Powers at Mac's Backs in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.

And then Jeanette's tour will continue as we head to the east coast for these events:

• Sun. 9/15 - Fall into Poetry at Sol’s Path (feat. Jake St. John, Meg Harris, Jeanette and me) in Northford, Connecticut.
• Tues. 9/17 (my birthday) - Woodstock Open Mic Poetry with John Burroughs & Jeanette Powers.
• Fri. 9/20 (her birthday) - Puma Perl's Birthday Bash Pandemonium (feat. Puma Perl and Friends, Annie Petrie, Jeanette, me and more) in New York City.
• Sat. 9/21 - Celebrate Poetry & Prose (feat. John Greiner, Jeanette and me) in Oceanside, New York.
• Sun. 9/22 - Poetry Street with John Burroughs and Jeanette Powers in Riverhead, New York.

Then we'll drive back to Cleveland, Jeanette will fly home, and at the end of the month I'll drive east again to read with U.S. Beat Poet Laureate Paul Richmond and others on 9/28 and 9/29 at the Word Stage at Garlic & Arts Festival in Orange, Massachusetts.

And if that wasn't enough, in October, I'll be heading to Maryland, Kansas City and North Carolina, among other places.

Now Curating Poetry+ in Lakewood

I am happy to announce that I am now curating the monthly Poetry+ reading series at Art on Madison in Lakewood, Ohio. I'd like to thank previous longtime curator Timothy Gaewsky for the marvelous job he has done creating and maintaining the series and consistently bringing in excellent writers, and I wish him all the best as moves forward. I'm also grateful to Ivan Kende, Vanessza Wright and Art on Madison for being supportive of the local literary community and affording me this opportunity to take the baton and run with it.

Poetry+ has traditionally aimed to shine "the spotlight on a single writer, providing that writer with the platform and time necessary to present a body of their work and to connect with their audience." I plan to maintain that spirit, but expand a bit to feature two writers each month, ideally one great out-of-town writer paired with one great local/Ohio writer. I want to experiment with including a tight but inclusive open mic as well.

Usually Poetry+ takes place on the 3rd Tuesday of each month, though for September 2019 ONLY we will hold it on the 2nd Tuesday. We have some fantastic featured poets coming up, and I hope you'll come out and show your support! 

July 16: Poetry Plus Presents Jeremy Jusek

August 20: Poetry+ featuring Philip Terman & Sandra Feen

September 10: Poetry+ featuring Jeanette Powers & Dianne Borsenik

October 15: Poetry+ featuring Matt Hart & Nicole Hennessy

November 19: Poetry+ featuring Steve Abbott & Leonard Kress







For more information, please visit our website: https://poetrypluscleveland.weebly.com.

My "Whend" nominated for a Pushcart Prize

This Thanksgiving Day, I'm honored and grateful to learn that my poem "Whend" has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize by NightBallet Press, alongside poems by Alex Gildzen, Bill & Pat Hurley, Sandra Feen, Jeanette Powers and M.J. Arcangelini. Many thanks to editor Dianne Borsenik!

"Whend" was the first significant poem I wrote after my wife Geri's untimely death in 2016. It was published in my 2018 chapbook Loss and Foundering.

Read more at https://nightballetpress.blogspot.com/2018/11/pushcart-prize-nominees-from-2018.html.