2025 Ohio Poetry Day Contests

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Ohio Poet of the Year, 2025 - Nomination Guidelines

Ohio Poet of the Year, 2025 - Nomination Guidelines

· Poets are invited to self-nominate by submitting their books, along with their complete contact information (mailing address, phone number, and email) and a bio (50-100 words).

· Books may also be nominated by others, such as a publisher, editor, poet colleague or poetry group.

· There is no form to fill out, no fee, and no letter of recommendation is necessary.

· The poet must be a native or a resident of Ohio or, if neither, must have previously lived in Ohio and established close ties to the state.

· The poet must submit two copies of the book. Books will not be returned. Book length: at least 48 pages of poetry. (No chapbooks.) Illustrations and photographs are not included in the page count. The page count does include: front matter and title pages.

o Nominated books may be from a commercial, university, small or hybrid press, but vanity books and self-published books will not be considered.

o They may have received previous awards or honors.

o They must have been published between July 1, 2023 and May 1, 2025.

o They must be the work of one poet, not part of an edited anthology including various poets.

o No translations.

· Poets who have previously entered the contest but did not win, may submit a different book.

· No one will be chosen a second time as Poet of the Year.

· Nominated books must be received on or before May 15, 2025.

· Prize Money: $200.00 and a plaque. The winner will be invited to speak at the OPDA luncheon and a poem from the poet’s winning entry will be the lead-off poem OPDA’s The Best of 2025 book.

· Results will be announced approximately 6 weeks following the submission deadline, or around July 1, 2025.

· Mail two copies of the book plus the additional requested information to:

Ohio Poet of the Year Contest
ATTN: Joanne Greenway, Contest Chair
810 Matson Pl., Unit 1602
Cincinnati, OH 45204

Questions? Contact Joanne Greenway, jgreenway978@gmail.com

Barbara Sabol and Erica Reid named 2024 Ohio Poets of the Year

The Ohio Poetry Day Association has selected Barbara Sabol and Erica Reid as our 2024 Ohio Poets of the Year. Congratulations to these two amazing writers!

Barbara Sabol was selected for her book of poems, WATERMARK: Poems of the Great Johnstown Flood of 1889 (Alternating Current Press, 2023). The poems in WATERMARK follow the path of the “great flood,” from the time prior to the perfect storm of events resulting in the disaster to the devastating aftermath and the reclamation of a bustling industrial city. The book is a poetic testimony of the great flood story through voices of the unidentified victims; their circumstances and lives imagined from morgue entries. The narrative also paints the backdrop of recovery and renewal, in the voices of survivors, telegraphers, aid workers, and historical figures such as Clara Barton. Watermark is a lyric narrative of this country’s largest and most dramatic flood of the 19th century, told from the perspective of those whose lives it claimed and those who lived to tell the tale. 

For more about the book, visit: https://altcurrentpress.com/2023/10/11/watermark/. 

Sabol is the author of six poetry collections, including WATERMARK. Her book, Imagine a Town, won the 2019 poetry manuscript contest by Sheila-Na-Gig Editions. She went on to become the associate editor of the journal, Sheila-Na-Gig online and edited the anthology, Sharing This Delicate Bread, featuring selected poems from the journal. Barbara co-authored a book of Japanese short-form poems with Larry Smith (Bottom Dog Press, 2023.) Her awards include an Individual Excellence Award from the Ohio Arts Council, and she was named the Arts Alive 2024 Literary Artist. Barbara’s work has been nominated for the Pushcart, Best of the Net, and her haibun was short-listed for a Touchstone award. She conducts poetry workshops through Literary Cleveland and the Cuyahoga Falls Library. Barbara lives in Akron, Ohio with her bird artist husband and wonder dog.

Erica Reid was selected for her book of poems, Ghost Man on Second (2024, Autumn House Press), which traces a daughter’s search for her place in the world after estrangement from her parents. Reid writes, “It’s hard to feel at home unless I’m aching.” Growing from this sense of isolation, Reid’s stories create new homes in nature, in mythology, and in poetic forms—including sestinas, sonnets, and golden shovels—containers that create and hold new realizations and vantage points. Reid stands up to members of her family, asking for healing amid dissolving bonds. These poems move through emotional registers, embodying nostalgia, hurt, and hope. Throughout Ghost Man on Second, the poems portray Reid’s active grappling with home and confrontation with the ghosts she finds there. 

For more about the book, visit https://www.autumnhouse.org/books/ghost-man-on-second/.

Erica Reid, M.F.A., is an award-winning writer now based in Colorado. Her debut collection Ghost Man on Second won the 2023 Donald Justice Poetry Prize and was published by Autumn House Press in 2024. Erica’s poems appear in Rattle, Cherry Tree, Colorado Review, and more. Learn more at ericareidpoet.com.

 

 

As Ohio Poets of the Year, Sabol and Reid join the likes of Mary Oliver, David Baker, Kari Gunter-Seymour, and Maggie Smith.

This year's Ohio Poetry Day celebration will occur on October 17–18 in Springfield, Ohio.

 

OHIO POETRY DAY AGENDA

Friday, October 17, 7–9 PM: Meet and greet, overnight poetry contest prompt, et cetera.

Saturday, October 18, 10 AM–4 PM: Includes a morning workshop, open mic featuring Ohio Poetry Day contest winners, reading by Honorable Mention Neil Carpathios, and keynote reading by Ohio Poet of the Year Barbara Sabol. Registration opens at 9 a.m.

Where:   Christ Church Springfield,
                  409 E. High Street
                  Springfield, OH 45505

Previous Ohio Poets of the Year

1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994	Hallie Cramer Muriel de Chambrun Virginia Moran Evans Cecil Hale Hartzell Celia Dimmette Novella Humphrey Davis Daisy Lee Donaldson Mary Oliver James Magner, Jr. James C. Kilgore no award given Charlotte Mann Richard Hague Michael J. Rosen J. A. Totts Timothy Russell Amy Jo Schoonover Robert Wallace Bonnie Jacobson David Baker Debra Allbery Grace Butcher Frankie Paino David Citino Tom Andrews Michael J. Bugeja	A Sprig of Bittersweet Sudden Soring To Seek the Sun Song on the Anvil Ocean Carry Us Far There Was This Place Surface Fragments Twelve Moons Till No Light Leaps African Violet     --- Grape Pitcher Ripening A Drink at the Mirage Outside the Dream The Possibility of Turning to Salt New & Used Poems The Common Summer Stopping for Time Sweet Home, Saturday Night Walking Distance Child, House, World The Rapture of Matter The Discipline The Hemophiliac's Motorcycle After Oz
1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020   2021 2022 2023	Alberta Turner Lou Suarez William Matthews James Cummins Susan Grimm Miriam Vermilya Myrna Stone Pauletta Hansel Deanna Packard Elton Glaser Cathryn Essinger Herbert W. Martin David Hassler Martha Collins William Heyen Stephen Haven Terry Hermsen Will Wells George Looney Linda Ann Schofield Lianne Spidel Dzvinia Orlowsky David Lee Garrison Jeff Gundy Maggie Smith Kathy Fagan Susan Glassmeyer Laura Grace Weldon Kari Gunter-Seymour Quartez Harris Erica Manto Paulson Rikki Santer	Beginning With And Losses of Moment Time & Money Portrait in a Spoon Almost Home Heartwood The Art of Loss Divining ln Dreams We Kiss Ourselves Goodbye Pelican Talks My Dog Does Not Read Plato Escape to the Promised Land Red Kimono, Yellow Barn Blue Front The Confessions of Doc Williams Dust and Bread The River's Daughter Unsettled Accounts Open Between Us Psalms of the Hood What to Tell Joseme Silvertone Playing Bach in the D.C. Metro Somewhere Near Defiance The Well Speaks of Its Own Poison Sycamore Invisible Fish Blackbird A Place So Deep Inside America It Can't Be Seen We Made It to School Alive Hunger Resurrection Letter: Leonora, Her Tarot, and Me

 

2024 Ohio Poet of the Year nomination guidelines

Ohio Poet of the Year, 2024

 

Nomination guidelines

• Poets are invited to self-nominate by submitting their books, along with their complete contact information (mailing address, phone number, and email) and a bio (50-100 words).
• Books may also be sent in by others, such as a publisher, editor, poetry colleague or poetry group. 
• There is no form to fill out, no fee, and no letter of recommendation is necessary. 
• The poet must be a native or a resident of Ohio, or if neither, must have previously lived in Ohio and established close ties to the state.
• Books must be at least 48 pages in total (including front matter, title pages, photographs, art work).
• They may be from a commercial, university, small or hybrid press, but vanity books and self-published books will not be considered.
• They may have received previous awards or honors.
• They must have been published between September 1, 2022 and May 1, 2024.
• They must be the work of one poet, not an edited anthology including various poets.
• No translations.
• Poets who have previously entered the contest but did not win, may submit a different book.
• No one will be chosen a second time as Poet of the Year.

 

• Nominations must be received by May 15, 2024.

 

• Mail two copies of the book to:

 

Ohio Poet of the Year Committee

206 East Dixon Avenue

Dayton, OH 45419 

2024 Ohio Poetry Day Contests

 

Rikki Santer named 2023 Ohio Poet of the Year

[Crossposted from the OPA blog:]

The Ohio Poetry Day Association (OPDA) has selected Rikki Santer as its Ohio Poet of the Year for 2023. Santer was selected for her book of poems, Resurrection Letter: Leonora, Her Tarot, and Me (Materialist Press/Cereal Box Studio, 2023), a book-length sequence in tribute to the surrealist artist Leonora Carrington.

A resident of Columbus, Ohio, Santer has had published five full-length poetry collections and six chapbook sequences exploring such topics as the Hopewell earthworks of Newark, Ohio; the late Kahiki Supper Club of Columbus, Ohio; the world of ventriloquism, the art of fashion, and the classic television series Twilight Zone. She is a member of the teaching artist roster of the Ohio Arts Council, a vice president of the Ohio Poetry Association, and a member of the poetry troupe, Concrete Wink. Her poetry has been widely published and has received many honors including several Pushcart and Ohioana book award nominations as well as a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Learn more at rikkisanter.com.

As an Ohio Poet of the Year, Santer joins the likes of Mary Oliver, David Baker, Kari Gunter-Seymour, and Maggie Smith. The complete list of previous Poet of the Year winners is below.

Santer will be featured at this year’s Ohio Poetry Day celebration, October 13–14. The event will feature a morning workshop, readings, and the keynote from Santer, who will read from her winning collection. See agenda details below.

OHIO POETRY DAY AGENDA

Friday, October 13, 7–9 PM: Meet and greet with Santer and previous Poets of the Year, overnight poetry contest prompt.

Saturday, October 14, 10 AM–4 PM: Evan Lodge Workshop, reading by Rikki Santer, open mic featuring Ohio Poetry Day contest winners.

Where:   Troy Hayner Cultural Center
                301 W. Main St., Troy, Ohio 45373
                troyhayner.org