HAPPY NEW YEAR'S EVE!

Sunday, December 31, 2017

HAPPY NEW YEAR'S EVE!

Happy New Year's Eve! As 2017 closes its sleepy eyes, I have a few literary updates to share with you, dear friends.

I'm extremely honored to announce my poems appear recently in three wonderful publications!

Common Threads, the annual anthology published by the Ohio Poetry Association to showcase the work of its members, published two of my poems: "Paradigm for Unraveling" and "Sometimes, Ordinary." A big thanks to Steve Abbott, editor, for the opportunity to appear in Common Thread's pages. The Ohio Poetry Association supports poets with publications, readings, contests, workshops, and more. You can check out their website here, and OPA's blog here.

Chiron Review, published by Michael Hathaway, arrived in my mailbox this past week with three of my poems between its covers: "Hagiography," "The Same River Twice," and "Illumination." Chiron Review is a truly handsome journal. You can check out the website at www.chironreview.com.

and Oct Tongue 2, a magnificent anthology from Crisis Chronicles Press, long anticipated and exceeding all expectations. John Burroughs, editor/publisher, did a beautiful job with it. Oct Tongue 2 is comprised of eight sections, each section authored by a poet who wrote a poem-a-day during the month of October, 2014. The other poets who participated are Kathleen Cerveny, Juliet Cook, Mark Sebastian Jordan, George Wallace, Margaret Bashaar, Eric Anderson, and Lyn Lifshin. Their poems are, as you would expect them to be, simply brilliant.

My section of thirty-one poems contains several "bookend" poems, looking at things from two different perspectives, and three "moon" poems where I play with the shape of letters to express the moon's changing appearance. Although about a fourth of the poems have been published in various journals and anthologies, this is the first time the collection has appeared intact; I think of my section as Two Moons Over Ohio. You can check it out and get your very own copy directly from Crisis Chronicles Press here! (And yes, there was an Oct Tongue 1...check it out here.)

Much love and gratitude to all the editors who accepted and published my work this past year, and to the hosts of reading series, bookstores, and libraries, who invited me to come and share my poetry. To those of you who buy my books and read my poetry, please know how very much I appreciate you, now and always.

Image result for happy new year 2018 gif

It's exciting to think of 2018 and all the things that might. await in the coming months. Solid plans include:

Attending the opening of Lit Youngstown's Words Made Visible at the Soap Gallery in Youngstown, Ohio, on February 3 (2 pm to 5 pm). My poem "Train, Loud, Lonesome, Leaving Without Me" will be on display as a broadside (designed by the Cranky Pressman).

Dressing one of the windows at Apple Tree Books in Cleveland Heights for April's National Poetry Month with NightBallet Press titles. The emphasis will be on Ohio poets.

Participating as a reader in Kleft Crisis 2018, a three day extravaganza of poetry (details here).

A trip to Kansas City in April for a Fountainverse feature reading with John Burroughs (and others to be announced). Details forthcoming. It will be my first time heading that far west since 2015.

On the non-literary front, I plan to curl up at home tonight with my husband James, our two dogs Bodhi and Angelo, and the big Red Lobster platter of shrimp cocktail we've ordered, to watch the ball drop on television.

However you plan to spend this evening, whatever plans you have for tomorrow and in the New Year, please stay warm and safe, and know that I'm sending love and light your way. Happy New Year!

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The Public Persona

Dianne Borsenik is active in the northern Ohio, Cleveland-area, poetry scene and regional reading circuit, and travels to perform her poetry throughout the Midwest. She is a member of the Ohio Poetry Association and the Haiku Society of America. In 2011, she founded NightBallet Press (where she is M.F.W.I.C.), and has since published over 120 titles for poets across the U.S. In September 2015, she produced BeatStreet Cleveland as part of the National Beat Poetry Festival. In 2023, her book Raga for What Comes Next was studied as part of the Modern & Contemporary American Poetry course at Muskingum University in New Concord, Ohio. Borsenik spent a day at MU to discuss the book with the students and did a featured reading from her new collection of poems, Flight of Honey. Flight of Honey was published by Luchador Press in May, 2023. Her poetry has been published in hundreds of journals, magazines, anthologies, and more, including Main Street Rag, Chiron Review, The Offbeat, Rosebud, Slipstream, Lilliput Review, bottle rockets, Voices of Cleveland, Poems-For-All, Haiku World: An International Poetry Almanac, and The Magnetic Poetry® Book of Poetry. Her poetry has also appeared in numerous galleries and projects, including Cleveland Heights Arts Gallery's "Ekphrastacy," the Wick Poetry Center's "Speak Peace - American Voices Respond to Vietnamese Children's Paintings," the 2019, 2020, and 2022 Edith Chase Symposiums, Amy Mothersbaugh's Studio 2091, & S. A. Griffin's cross-country project "The Poetry Bomb." A copy of her haiku chapbook Blue Graffiti (Crisis Chronicles Press, 2011) is in the Decatur Haiku Collection at Millikin University. In 2016, Crisis Chronicles Press published her first full-length collection of poetry, Age of Aquarius, and in January, 2019, Stubborn Mule Press published her second full-length collection, Raga for What Comes Next, which was released at the "We're No Angels" event at the acclaimed cocktail bar Speak of the Devil in Lorain, Ohio. In September of 2019, Stubborn Mule Press published a four-woman anthology, Heaven We Haven't Yet Dreamed, containing 23 pages of new poetry by Borsenik. She has also performed her poetry with 2 Chefs and a Beat - "Poetic Justice Edition" - at Porco Lounge and Tiki Room in Cleveland, Ohio. Actor Jonathan Frid (Barnabas on television's Dark Shadows) used three of her poems in his one-man touring show Genesis of Evil. Her poem "Let's Get It On" (from her chapbook Thunderclap Amen) was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. In 2013 and again in 2014, she won first place in the Best Cleveland Poem Competition. She has taught poetry at Southview Middle School (Lorain, OH), given workshops at Lit Youngstown's Literary Festival, and serves annually as a juror in the Cleveland Institute of Art's Scholastic Writing Awards. In Summer 2015, her poem "Disco" was selected by the Youngstown Summer Festival of the Arts to appear on its reusable tote bags, and Lit Youngstown printed the poem on their tee shirts, which makes her feel like a rock star. She believes in the musicality of language and the originality of expression in poetry, and continues to seek publication in journals, magazines, chapbooks, and anthologies. She is willing to travel for readings, to present workshops pertaining to small press publishing, to serve on panels about editing and publishing, and to participate with her press at independent literary festivals. Contact Dianne at dborsenik@gmail.com.

The Personal Shizzle

Dianne Borsenik was born Dianne Lynn Keith on Wednesday, February 2 (yes, Groundhog's Day), 1955 in Oberlin, Ohio, during a waxing gibbous moon. She is the Zodiac sign Aquarius and the Chinese Zodiac sign the Sheep. In 1959 her parents moved to Elyria, Ohio, about thirty minutes west of Cleveland, along with daughters Dianne and her younger sister. Dianne grew up roaming Cascade Park: a jewel of green trees, Black River, and East and West Falls in the heart of Elyria, and bookstores, wherever she could find them. In 1977 she met James Borsenik, and in 1979, married him. Their honeymoon was made especially exciting by Hurricane David hitting Florida while their car was sitting disabled in a Kissimmee parking lot. She kept her maiden name and added (unhyphenated) Borsenik. People the world over know her by the initials DLKB. Sadly, Dianne's beloved husband James died July 1, 2023. She misses him profoundly. James and Dianne were blessed with several dog-children over the years: Nickolas Wonder, Bahloo, and Dory Kiss Me Quick; she is still grieving her much-beloved Bodhisattva and little Michel-Angelo. In 2020, Speak of the Devil in Lorain, Ohio, created a tasty cocktail and named it "Borsenik's Law" -- ("That which is poured must be consumed.") She is inordinately pleased to have a listing in the IMDb for photographs she took at the Lix & Kix Poetry Extravaganza, which appeared in the documentary "Twisted Sisters." Favorite Dianne things include Toronto, the Black Hills, Led Zeppelin (emphasis on Robert Plant), steak, lobster, shrimp cocktail, asparagus, Star Trek (emphasis on Leonard Nimoy/Spock), the Monkees (emphasis on Peter Tork), apocalyptic and disaster movies, the Weather Channel, the English Royals, reading (especially biographies, nonfiction), sleeping with the windows open, going barefoot, carnations, honeysuckle, rap music (Snooooooop), riding in a convertible yeah, we're rolling with the top down, strong coffee, sweet tea, Blackstrap Rum, spicy Bloody Marys, Old Fashions made with Old Overholt Rye, the internet, getting her hands dirty growing herbs and flowers, floating in the pool, Tennessee Williams, travel, thunderstorms, Glenn Miller, Frank Sinatra, Nine Inch Nails-the Closer album, Andrea Bocelli, Devo, Ravi Shankar, the Beatles, the Doors, Pink Floyd, and of course, poetry.