Category: Poetry

David Wagoner

Born: June 5, 1926Died: December 18, 2021 Ohio connection: Birth Massillon David Russell Wagoner was born in Massillon, Ohio, in 1926, the son of Walter Siffert and  Ruth Banyard Wagoner. In 1933, the family relocated to Whiting, a city outside Gary, Indiana. A voracious reader, Wagoner began writing poetry while in grade school. After graduating from …

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Salinger, Michael

Born: 1962 Ohio connection: Birth Mentor Michael G. Salinger was born in 1962, near Cleveland. A poet, performer, and educator, he is one of the earliest participants in the National Poetry Slam, former board member of Poetry Slam Inc., and current director of the organization’s summer writing and performance conference. Salinger is an eight time captain …

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Cynthia Rylant

Born: 1954 Ohio connection: Resident Rootstown It took Cynthia Rylant only one hour to write her first book, When I Was Young in the Mountains (1982), a collection of vignettes describing the years she spent with her grandparents in Appalachia. Born in Hopewell, Virginia, in 1954, Rylant spent her first four years in Illinois. When she was four, …

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Michael J. Rosen

Born: 1954 Ohio connection: Birth Columbus Michael Rosen was born in Columbus, Ohio, the eldest son of Marvin and Nona Rosen. His childhood home was in a new development situated amid a former pasture. It was there he explored construction sites and fields, collected cocoons, milkweed pods and chrysalises, gathered buckeyes, fed roadside horses, and fished. Rosen attended Kent State …

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