This month OCFB interviews Lee Chilcote. Lee is founder and executive director of Literary Cleveland, whose mission is to “help create and nurture a vibrant literary arts community in Northeast Ohio.” Lee is a teacher, an essayist and journalist whose articles have appeared in national and international publications. And, Lee Chilcote is a poet. Lee’s first poetry collection, The …
Read More OCFB Interviews: Poet and Journalist Lee ChilcoteBorn: 1932 Ohio connection: Birth East Liverpool The daughter of William Jack, Jr., and Helen Margaret (Willis) Curry, Jane Louise Curry was born and raised in East Liverpool, Ohio (the location of her novel for young people, The Lotus Cup). She grew up in a “family compound”, with grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins all living close …
Read More Curry, Jane LouiseBorn: 1949 Ohio connection: Birth Wapakoneta Novelist, essayist, editor, and educator Jennifer Crusie is an award-winning author of romance novels, short stories, and literary criticism. The author of more than 20 books, her work has been published in more than 15 countries and has earned a place on many bestseller lists including the New York …
Read More Crusie, JenniferBorn: 1924 Ohio connection: Birth Cleveland Herbert Gold was born in 1924, the eldest of the four sons of Samuel S. Gold and Frieda (Frankel) Gold. When he was in grade school, a teacher, Ruth Collins, told him that he would be a writer, and this impressed the boy so much that he “had to …
Read More Gold, HerbertBorn: 1945 Ohio connection: Birth Akron A longtime resident of Ohio, poet Elton Glaser was born and raised in Louisiana. He earned an MFA from the University of California, Irvine. Glaser’s collections of poetry include Relics (1984); Tropical Depressions(1988), which won the Iowa Poetry Prize; Color Photographs of the Ruins (1992); Winter Amnesties (2000); and Pelican Tracks(2003). His sixth collection, Here and Hereafter (2005), received …
Read More Glaser, EltonBorn: 1943 Ohio connection: Former Resident Cleveland Robert Crumb, cartoonist, graphic artist, and editor is recognized as a pioneer in the underground comics movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Crumb’s work displays nostalgia for American folk culture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and satire of contemporary American culture. His work often …
Read More Crumb, RobertDo you recall the first time you heard poetry—undoubtedly it was as a toddler, listening to a Mother Goose nursery rhyme. Do you remember the first time you were stirred by a work of verse? During April we have a chance to make poetry a part of our everyday life, as the month is National …
Read More April is National Poetry Month: Celebrate with Cleveland Public LibrarySince 1986, The Spring Literary Festival has featured some of the world’s finest, most distinguished writers of poetry, fiction and non-fiction. The three-day festival is held in April on the Ohio University main campus in Athens, OH. The festival is sponsored by the Creative Writing program in the English Department and is generously funded by …
Read More Spring 2018 Literary Festival Wednesday, April 11 to Friday, April 13, 2018 at Ohio University’s College of Arts and SciencesBorn: 1943 Ohio connection: Resident Cincinnati Yolanda Cornelia Giovanni, Jr. was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, and called “Nikki” by her younger sister early on. The family relocated to Cincinnati, Ohio, when she was young, but Giovanni remained close to her outspoken grandmother, making frequent trips to Knoxville and spending some of her high school years …
Read More Nikki GiovanniBorn: May 10, 1910Died: July 12, 1996 Ohio connection: Birth Castine Born on a farm near Castine, Ohio, Merrill C. Gilfillan was the son of the late Clarence and Bertha (Pierce) Gilfillan. He attended Castine School and graduated from Monroe School in Preble County in 1928. Gilfillan graduated with a degree in zoology from Ohio State University in …
Read More Merrill C. Gilfillan