Edison State to Hold Event Featuring 13 Miami Valley Poets

On Thursday, November 16, the English department at Edison State Community College will host 13 regional poets whose work appears in the anthology “Rhyme & Rune: Poets of the Miami Valley,” published by Main Street Rag. The event will begin at 6 p.m. in the Robinson Theater at the Piqua Campus; students, alumni, staff, faculty, and community members are invited.

Former Edison State student Amita Snyder will emcee the evening. The event will begin with current and former Edison State students facilitating conversations with the poets to share insights into the art of poetry. Those facilitating include Sarah Beck, Shelby Boss, Grace Davis, August Evans, Kim Kiehl, Rebecca Spenser, and Erickka Rossiter. “Rhyme & Rune: Poets of the Miami Valley” editor, Steve Broidy, will then present each poet for a reading of their work.

Guitarist Jason Evans will perform. Additionally, Edison State pottery and raku instructor Jessica Williams and her students will make original pottery pieces for each poet that will be on display during the event.

Participating poets include:

• Steve Broidy, Editor: Broidy’s chapbooks “Earth Inside Them” and “Necessary Deceptions,” were published by Main Street Rag. He’s an emeritus professor of education at both Missouri State University and Wittenberg University.
• Anna Cates: Cates is a Ph.D. graduate of Indiana State University and has a Master of Fine Arts from National University. Her poetry has been nominated for Best of the Net, The Pushcart Prize, and the Dwarf Stars, Elgin, and Rhysling awards.
• Linda Z. Chernick: Chernick has had writings published in “The World and I,” Neshama (a Boston literary publication), and others. Her poetry chapbook, “The Turning: Poems of Love, Loss and Renewal,” has been used in a course on grief.
• Rita Coleman: Coleman writes poetry, memoir, and children’s stories. Her poetry books include “And Yet” and “Mystic Connections.” Her full-length poetry collection, “In the Near Distance,” has been accepted for publication by Finishing Line Press.
• Wendy Dereix: Dereix feels great purpose in promoting the importance of good writing with her middle school students in the south Dayton area, where she’s taught English for the past 14 years. She is a member of the Wright Library Poets.
• Cathryn Essinger: Essinger is the author of five books of poetry. Her poems have appeared in various journals and have been nominated for Pushcarts and “Best of the Net.” She is a long-standing member of the Greenville Poets.
• David Lee Garrison: Garrison’s poetry has been read on “The Writer’s Almanac” radio program and featured in Ted Kooser’s column, “American Life in Poetry.” Named Ohio Poet of the Year in 2014, his most recent book is “Light in the River” (Dos Madres Press).
• Gerald E. Greene: Greene is the author of “Kaleidoscope,” “White Window: My View of African-American Experience,” and “Turning Losing Forex Trades into Winners.” His blog is “Short Stories Rated G” on Facebook.
• Betsy Hughes: Hughes is the author of four books of formal verse, including “Breaking Weather,” winner of the Stevens Manuscript Competition, and her most recent, “The Sixth Sense of Loss.”
• Jane K. Kretschmann: Kretschmann’s chapbook, “Imagining a Life,” was published by FootHills Publishing. Recently, her poems appeared in Gyroscope Review, Mock Turtle Zine, NFSPS Encore 2022, and OPA Best of 2022. She’s working on “The Epistles of Lydia of Thyatira,” the seller of purple from Acts 16, and “Scrapping,” her southern poems.
• Herbert Woodward Martin: Martin has published 11 volumes of poetry, with “The Log of the Vigilante” being a notable prize winner. Recently, he’s turned to writing libretti and has written four with the composer Adolphus Hailstork.
• Aimee Noel: Noel’s essays and poems have been published and anthologized in Witness, Michigan Quarterly Review, Provincetown Arts, Belt, and elsewhere. Find her at www.aimeenoel.net.
• Carol Pohly: Pohly’s poetry draws on her strong connections with nature, people, and spirituality, as well as her experience as a caretaker for her parents during the latter part of their lives. She’s had poems accepted for publication by Mock Turtle and Vita Brevis.

The event is made possible by a $1,000 grant awarded to the English department through The Edison Foundation Mini-Grant Program. Copies of “Rhyme & Rune: Poets of the Miami Valley” will be available for purchase.

For more information, email Dustin Wenrich, Assistant Professor of English, or call 937.778.7875.