Tuesday, March 15, 2022

The New Dianne Borsenik




Behold the new Dianne Borsenik, post-retirement, post-pandemic, post-redhead! I still do a double-take when I look in the mirror, but I like having long silver hair. 

I have settled quite comfortably into retirement, and I don't miss anything about work except seeing my friends every day. There wasn't much to report in my poetry life for the past two years, but here in 2022 things are looking great and it's time to update!

I'm delirious with joy to report I just received my copy of I Thought I Heard a Cardinal Sing: Ohio's Appalachian Voices in the mail, containing my poem "Fall Out." Edited by Ohio Poet Laureate Kari Gunter-Seymour and published by Sheila-Na-Gig Editions, this gorgeous anthology contains poems by dozens and dozens of fine Ohio poets, and I want to read it cover to cover. (You can purchase your own copy here.)



I'll be reading from this book at three scheduled readings:

April 14, 2022, 7 -9 pm at the McDonough Auditorium at Marietta College, Marietta, Ohio 
                           
June 23, 2022, 8 - 10 pm at the National Federation of State Poetry Societies conference in Lewis Center, Ohio, sponsored by the Ohio Poetry Association. 

October 15, 2022, 2 - 4 pm at the Johnson-Humrickhouse Museum in Coshocton, Ohio

(For more detailed information, or to see the other readings that are scheduled, go here.)

I haven't read to a live audience in over two years, so I'm really looking forward to getting out and about and seeing my mid-Ohio and southern Ohio friends again!

I found myself unable to write during 2020 and 2021, right up to December 4, 2021, when my poetry came back to me with a vengeance. Since then, I've written sixteen poems, and sometimes it seems as if my fingers won't type fast enough to keep up with the vision in my head.

One of my new poems, "Up the Mountain," has been accepted by Slipstream for inclusion in their Bread/Blood/Beats issue, to be published this summer. Slipstream is a beautiful journal, and I'm excited and grateful to be a part of it.

"Up the Mountain" has also been chosen by Lit Cleveland for a staged reading during the Cleveland Humanities Festival at the Cleveland Public Library, April 9, 2022, at 3 pm. This staged reading examines the theme of "How Do We Talk to Each Other?" and will feature professional actors performing the chosen pieces. I can't wait to see the actor(s) "do" my poem. 

I've been active in other poetry events, as well. I'll be judging a "lilac poem" contest for Lorain this spring. I wrote a blurb for Alex Gildzen's new book Arroyo Chamisa: poems rescued from a blog, I submitted a proposal to Lit Youngstown for their Fall Literary Festival, I submitted a specially-themed poem for the Edith Chase Symposium in Kent, Ohio. and I have several poems out to various journals for their consideration. Freed from the constraints of being on call for my employment, I joyfully signed up for and am attending the monthly Poetry Intensives series of workshops conducted by Lit Youngstown. These workshops are great! Many thanks to Karen Schubert for hosting them, and to the various workshop leaders for sharing their writing insights. 

I've missed seeing my friends and I hope to catch up with YOU, soon!

I love my time being my own. So many possibilities and opportunities abound . . . viva retirement!

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