Mount Union College - Site of the 2009 Ohio Poetry Day - October 16th & 17th 2009

Stephen Haven has been chosen for his book Dust and Bread as co-Ohio Poet of  the Year. Haven lives in Ashland, and teaches at Ashland University, where he also directs the MFA in Creative Writing Program and the Ashland Poetry Press. He is also the author of one earlier collection of poems, The Long Silence of the Mohawk Carpet Smokestacks (University of New Mexico/West End Press, 2004), and of the memoir, The River Lock:  One Boy’s Life along the Mohawk (Syracuse University Press, 2008).  The River Lock was nominated for a National Book Award by Syracuse University Press.  A review of The River Lock is available online at http://www.contrarymagazine.com/Contrary/Haven.html  Haven's poems have appeared in Salmagundi, Parnassus, American Poetry Review, The Southern Review, Literary Imagination, World Literature (Beijing), Image, Crazyhorse, and in many other journals.  He will be the luncheon speaker for Ohio Poetry Day on Saturday, October 17, at Mt. Union College in Alliance, OH.  order Dust and Bread

Terry Hermsen has been named co-Poet of the year for his book The River's Daughter. Hermsen lives in Delaware, and teaches at Otterbein College. He has many years of varied teaching experience, including a number of years in the Ohio Arts Council's Artists in the Schools program, teaching in art galleries in Oberlin, Toledo, Cleveland, and several years at the Columbus Museum of Art. He is the author of several collections of poetry, and with David Garrison edited the food-poem anthology O Taste and See. During Poetry Day weekend he will be in Chile doing a poetry residence there. order The River's Daughter

 The 72nd Annual Ohio Poetry Day

Mount Union College - Alliance, Ohio

REGISTRATION FORM HERE!

Mt. Union College information HERE


Ohio Poetry Day

A brief history by M.L. Schurch 

"In 1938, the State of Ohio set the third Friday of every October as Ohio Poetry Day. This was the first poetry day established by a state government in the United States. Tessa Sweazy Webb spent thirteen months lobbying the Ohio General Assembly to create Ohio Poetry Day. She argued, "For each living reader a living poet, for each living poet a living reader." After Ohio approved Webb's idea, other states adopted a day dedicated to poetry as well." Source-Ohio History Central

From Governor John Bricker until this date, every Governor to serve the State of Ohio has declared the third Friday in October Ohio Poetry Day.  Since 1941 , there has been a journal of the winners of the Ohio Poetry Day poetry contests published under various names and formats.  During the 1940's & 1950's the Ohio Poetry Day was observed in every school system in the state to promote the art and value of poetry.  The county school superintendants and teachers in each county organized local celebrations on the 3rd Friday in October and on the Saturday following Ohio Poetry Day, teachers, professors and adult poets from all every corner of the state would gather, often in the Southern Hotel in Columbus, Ohio to read, share and celebrate poets and poetry.  In 1972 the Ohioana Library began to organize the events and by 1975 The Ohio Poetry Day Association Inc. achieved its not for profit status as a 501(c)(3).

The Ohioana Library and the Verse Writers Guild (Ohio Poetry Association) became the primary organizers as public education began to redirect their funding and attention to other needs.  In 1977 The OPD Association began to work with the American Academy of Poets and other states to form a National Poetry Day and at the same time, OPD members were also working with 23 other counties to form a World Poetry Day.  Tessa Web adopted the phrase “First state in the nation, first of all nations”.  It was not until 1996 that the Academy of American Poets along with government agencies and friends of poetry that National Poetry Month began to be celebrated in April of every year. Subsequently, in the year 1999 , March 21st was declared World Poetry Day by UNESCO.

In 1978, Celia Dimmette & Cecil Hale Hartzel became the first Ohio Poetry Day co-poets of the year.  In the years missing in the list below, 1986, 1987 & 1988, there was much reorganization occuring as funding and effort was withdrawn by public education.  To date (July 2009) no evidence has been found of Poets of the Year being named during that time. Since those transitional years the OPD had been upheld by the strength, faith and efforts of many poetry guilds, clubs, associations, educators and volunteers from across the state and is still declared so every October by the Governor of Ohio.

Special Thanks go out to Heidelberg University and Professor Bill Reyer who is the current contest chair and to poet and long time treasurer of Ohio Poetry Day Amy Zook and to President of Ohio Poetry Day, Marilyn Tullys of Canton, Ohio. With that brief history, and with great pride, we present the Ohio Poets of the year since its inception. 

 Ohio Poetry Day 
Poets of the Year

1978 Celia Dimmette & Ceicil Hale Hartzel
1979 Novella Humphry Davis
1980 Mary Oliver & Daisy Lee Donaldson
1981 James Magner Jr.
1982 James Kilgore
1983 Deanna Pickard
1984 Charlotte Mann
1985 Michael J. Rosen &  Richard Hague
1986
1987 
1988 
1989 Robert Wallace
1990 Bonnie Jacobson
1991 David Baker
1992 Debra Allberry
1993 David Citino
1994 Michael Bugeja & Burt Lake
1995 Alberta Turner
1996 Lou Suarez
1997 William Matthews
1998 James Cummins
1999 Susan Grimm & Melissa Haney
2000 Miriam Vermilya
2001 Myrna Stone
2002 Pauletta Hansel
2006 David Hassler
2007 Martha Collins
2008 William Heyen
2009 Terry Hermsen & Stephen Haven

Research continues with The OhioAnna State Library to provide a additional detail.
If you find links realted to previoius Ohio Poets of the year, please send it to webmaster@ohiopoetryassn.org

Note-Free Adobe Reader is required to view & print flyers
 Download Free Adobe PDF Reader Here

 2009 Ohio Poetry Day
Contests & Rules Flyer here

You must read the RULES!

Miss the deadline?  Read the rules and start writing for 2010 !