Ohio Poetry Day 2016
Press Release
Ohio Poetry Day 2016, in its seventy-ninth year, will be held on the campus of Heidelberg University in historic Pfleiderer Hall October 14-15, 2016. We look forward to welcoming poets from all over Ohio, members of our local community, and two very special guests!
Thanks in part to the Gekler Family English Fund, after sessions with
the Heidelberg University, Eric McHenry, poet laureate of Kansas and
Associate Professor of English at Washburn University, will lead the
Friday evening workshop and present a reading of his work.
The
highlight of the weekend will be the reading Saturday afternoon of Ohio
Poet of the year, Maggie Smith. A Columbus poet who resides in Bexley,
Ohio, Smith's winning volume is The Well Speaks of Its Own Poison
(Tupelo Press, 2015). She is the author of three chapbooks and the
full-length collection Lamp of the Body (Red Hen Press). Smith holds
degrees from Ohio Wesleyan (B.A.) and the Ohio State University (M.F.A.)
She has served as lecturer at Gettysburg College and is now a freelance
writer. Smith has received awards from The National Endowment for the
Arts, Sustainable Arts, and was recognized with an Ohio Arts Council
award for individual excellence.
After Maggie Smith's reading,
authors of poems recognized in the twenty Ohio Poetry Day contests will
be invited to read their work. Winners represent 135 entering poets
from twenty-five states, the province of Ontario, and Cornwall in the
UK. There were a total of 1010 poems entered in twenty-six contests in
2016.
Requests for additional information may be addressed to Bill Reyer, OPD State Contest Chair and Professor of English, Heidelberg University, at wreyer@heidelberg.edu.
