2020 Celebration of Writers - Poetry
Good news was hard to come by in 2020. In a year of extreme difficulty we needed our writing community more than ever—to support each other during the tough times and to celebrate one another's successes.
That's why in this final week of the year we are championing your good news in The Lit Cleveland Celebration of Northeast Ohio Writers!
We asked you about your writing successes this year and boy howdy did you respond. We heard so much good news from more than100 local writers that we couldn't fit it all in one newsletter. So over the next three days we will share your accomplishments by genre—today we feature poetry, nonfiction on Wednesday, and fiction on Thursday, December 31.
Below are the publications, awards, and other accomplishments of our local poets. This was an exciting year for local poetry with the launch of two local poetry presses: Grieveland and Twelve Arts Press. We also saw incredible poems in Gordon Square Review, Neighborhood Voices, and The Fundamental Elements with Lake Erie Ink youth voices. Although we tried to be as comprehensive as possible, the list below is just the tip of the literary iceberg. We encourage everyone to read these local writers and celebrate their successes.
We have such a talented and vibrant literary scene here in Northeast Ohio. Don't miss out on the great work being produced right here at home!
Cleveland Stories: Vol II Mt. Pleasant by Literary Cleveland
Just the Girls by Pamela Anderson
If It Heals At All by Ali Black
The Circus of His Bones by Steve Brightman
Deluge by Leila Chatti
The Rabbits With Red Eyes by Juliet Cook
You Matter to Me by Victoria Davis
The Ohio Haiku Anthology by Joshua H. Gage
We Made It To School Alive by Quartez Harris
May 4 @ 50 by Dorcus Johnson
Love & Solidarity by Brendan Joyce
The Fundamental Elements: Teen Anthology by Lake Erie Ink
ZOETROPE by Kevin Latimer
Silk Scarves: Poems and Stories that Reflect on Growing Up, Growing Older and Growing Happier by Carol A. Lucas
Shrapnel Maps by Philip Metres
Chrysalis by Linda Goodman Robiner
The Vagina Analogues by Michelle R. Smith
Neighborhood Voices Anthology edited by D.L. Ware
'Honey Bee" and "Under the Blossom that Hangs on the Bough: Pollination Poems" by Star Anderson (Wick Poetry Center)
Five Poems by Jean Ann (Scarlet Leaf Review)
"Red Kerchief" and "Pilgrimage" by Shira Atik (The Ekphrastic Review)
"Ain't no such thing as a free lunch" by Lindsay Barba (Poetry X Hunger)
Series of Antarctica Poems by Marion Starling Boyer (Escape into Life)
"Hecate" by Nicole F. Burney (Heavy Feather Review)
"Portrait of Self as Running Water" by Brett Cortelletti (Gordon Square Review)
"At the African American Debutante Ball in Youngstown" by Dom Fonce (Gordon Square Review)
"Not My Shirt" by R.W. Franklin (The Elevation Review)
"Nosebleed" by Kelly Konya (Banshee)
"American Lament" by Cora Liderbach (Why Truth Matters - Cleveland Humanities Festival Staged Reading)
"a tired king constructs a shopping mall that is filled with existence" by DT McCrea (Gordon Square Review)
"but the wind blew me back via Warren, Ohio in the dead of night" by Matt Mitchell (Gordon Square Review | 2020 Spring Poetry Contest Winner)
"To the Women Who Surrounded the Pentagon" by Megan Neville (Gordon Square Review)
"For the girl who wishes she could be less different" by Nardine Taleb (Gordon Square Review | 2020 Spring Poetry Contest Runner Up)
"Parts and Labor" by Ken Tomaro (Blue Lake Review)
Poem by D.L. Ware (Obsidian Foundation)
Shira Atik's poem "Pilgrimage" was nominated for Best Microfiction by The Ekphrastic Review
Star Anderson was a Baldin House Resident at Twelve Literary Arts
Elsa Johnson won the The Hopper Award for Poetry from Green Writer's Press, and her book of poems will be released in 2021
Laura Grace Weldon won the Jack Grapes Poetry Prize from Cultural Weekly
Star Anderson's poem "Build a City" was chosen for an open collaboration with Echoes and Edges, two artists/musicians in Bristol, UK, and performed at the 2020 Cheltenham Literary Festival in Cheltenham, UK
StarVerses: SoulSpeak by Star Anderson (Coming Spring 2021)
Four Poems by Marion Starling Boyer (Coming 2021 from Parhelion Literary Magazine)
Leaving the Flatlands to the Amateurs by Steve Brightman (Coming January 2021)
The Wind Speaks by Elsa Johnson (Coming April 2021 from Green Writer's Press)
Ways to Beg by TJ Sandella (Coming May 2021 from Black Lawrence Press)
Did we miss your 2020 poetry accomplishment? Let us know!
