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90th Annual Ohio Poetry Day (includes October 16 Poets Gathering at Handmade Toledo from 7pm-9pm, October 17 Evan Lodge Workshop at Main Library from 10am-Noon, and Art Loop: Ohio Poetry Day Take-Over)
Each year, the Ohio Poetry Day (OPD) Association hosts a celebration of poetry in a different Ohio city. The event features a Friday night gathering and a Saturday of readings and a workshop. This year’s 90th annual Ohio Poetry Day event – held in Toledo – partners with an Art Loop hosted by The Arts Commission for an afternoon of readings by writers from around the state, poetry-themed activities, word games and puzzles, typewriters and a pop-up poetry bookstore.
The Arts Commission is delighted to introduce two new Poets Laureate to the Toledo community: Ohio’s new Laureate, Edward A. Julian Sr. from Columbus, and Lucas County’s newly-appointed Laureate (to be announced September 8). Together with readings by former Laureates Joel Lipman, Jim Ferris and Jonie McIntire all together in one space, it’s a day of poetry not to be missed.
Admission and all activities are free; snacks and books available for purchase. There is a Book Room where books from contest winners and area poets can be purchased, as well as information tables about poetry-related organizations and opportunities.
10:00 AM – 12:00 PM: OPD Evan Lodge Workshop led by Professor Jennifer Moore
Workshop of poems submitted to Ohio Poetry Day contest.
Jennifer Moore was born and raised in Seattle. She is the author of Easy Does It (2021) and The Veronica Maneuver (2015), both from the University of Akron Press, and a chapbook of centos, Smaller Ghosts (Seven Kitchens Press, 2020). Her poems have appeared in Ploughshares, Bennington Review, 32Poems, Tupelo Quarterly, and elsewhere, and she is the recipient of fellowships and residencies with the Jentel Arts Foundation, the Leña Artist Research and Residency Centre, and the Ora Lerman Charitable Trust. A professor of creative writing and Director of the Honors Program at Ohio Northern University, she lives in Bowling Green, Ohio.
Activity stations (12:00 – 4:00 PM):
Typewriters by Dan Peterson
Poetry-themed art stations
Flyku / Rosemarie Wilson
Poetry on Demand / Tony Brewer
Feather poem prompts / Simone Spruce
Wire-bound books / Stefanie Hathaway
Fall-apart books / Tim Geiger
Toledo Museum of Art (1-2 activities)
Ode to the Zip Code / Audrey Johnson
Scrap4Art activity
Book buttons / Library
577 Foundation activity
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM:
Readings by Ohio Poet Laureate Edward A. Julian Sr. and
Lucas County Poet Laureate Sandra Rivers-Gill
Named Ohio Poet Laureate for 2026 and 2027 by the governor of the state of Ohio, Edward A. Julian Sr. of Columbus, Ohio is a published author, poet, motivational speaker, and creator of The Begin Within Initiative Life Skills Course. Though he served 14 years in federal prison as a young man, he then committed himself to becoming a force for positive change, earning an Associate of Arts degree from Cuyahoga Community College and studying social work at Cleveland State University. Through his work and his life, Edward exemplifies the power of beginning within.
Sandra Rivers-Gill, Lucas County’s newest Poet Laureate, is an award-winning poet, playwright and teaching artist. Her debut poetry chapbook, As We Cover Ourselves With Light (Shelia-Na-Gig Editions, 2023), was a finalist for the 2024 Eric Hoffer Book Award, and was featured at the 2024 Ohioana Book Festival. She is currently serving as a Teaching Artist for the Ohio Arts Council and a Poet Ambassador to Ohio Poetry Association representing Northwest Ohio. Her work has appeared in numerous publications and her poetry has garnered nominations for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net.
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM: Reading by Poet of the Year - Chuck Salmons
Chuck Salmons has served as part of the leadership of the Ohio Poetry Association for over a decade. His poems have appeared in numerous journals, including Chiron Review, Evening Street Review, The Ekphrastic Review, and Sheila-Na-Gig Online. He has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and the Paterson Poetry Prize, and received a 2018 Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award for poetry. He has published four poetry collections: Stargazer Suite; Patch Job; The Grace of Gazing Inward: Poems in Response to the Art of Alice Carpenter; and, Surviving the Eremocene, which was released by Sheila-Na-Gig Editions in autumn 2025.
chucksalmons.com
2:00 PM – 3:00 PM: Reading by Ohio Poetry Day contest winners
3:00 PM – 4:00 PM: Readings by prior Lucas County Poets Laureate - Jonie McIntire, Jim Ferris and Joel Lipman
Jonie McIntire, former Poet Laureate of Lucas County, Ohio (2022-2026), has authored Semidomesticated, (rereleased through Sheila-Na-Gig Editions, 2022) which won Red Flag Poetry’s 2020 chapbook contest; Beyond the Sidewalk, (Nightballet Press, 2017); and Not All Who Are Lost Wander, (Finishing Line Press, 2016). She hosts a monthly reading series called Uncloistered Poetry from Toledo, Ohio, currently in its eleventh year.
Jim Ferris is author of Slouching Towards Guantanamo, Facts of Life, and The Hospital Poems. Past president of the Society for Disability Studies and the Disabled & D/deaf Writers Caucus, he has received awards for performance and mathematics as well as poetry and creative nonfiction. Ferris was Poet Laureate of Lucas County, Ohio from 2014-2020. He earned a doctorate in performance studies and was the Ability Center Endowed Chair in Disability Studies at the University of Toledo.
Joel Lipman was the inaugural Poet Laureate of Lucas County, appointed in 2008 and serving until 2014. Founding co-director of the Toledo Poets Center and Radio Room Press, Joel received the Ohio Governor’s Award for an Individual Artist in 1985 and the Ohio State Library Pegasus Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2010. His current books are Origins of Poetry (2022) and Sold
Old Paper (2024), both from Redfox Press (redfoxpress.com). Joel Lipman lived in Toledo from 1975 to 2020, during which time he had a thirty-seven-year career in the departments of Art and English at the University of Toledo, introducing thousands of students to Creative Writing, poetry and the art of the book. Emeritus Professor of English, Joel and his wife, Cynthia, now live in Lambertville, Michigan.
This event is co-sponsored by Arts Commission of Greater Toledo, https://theartscommission.org/projects/ohio-poetry-day
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Event venue
Toledo Lucas County Public Library, 325 N Michigan St,Toledo, Ohio, United States
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