Poetry on Authors Night

The grand finale of the Friends of the Library’s Authors Nights on Friday April 25th will feature the beloved Greenville Poets! The season would not be complete until the poets entertained, moved, inspired, and delighted us with their beautiful literary works. As always they’ll have a special program cooked up.

The Greenville Poets formed in 1985 with Miriam Vermilya, Myrna Stone, and Belinda Rismiller. Today their members are left to right, David Lee Garrison, Lianne Spidel, Suzanne Kelly-Garrison, Cathy Essinger, Belinda Rismiller, and Myrna Stone. As a group they have published ten books of poems, three volumes of translation, one book of literary criticism, and two anthologies. Each has won numerous awards, grants, and contests.

David Lee Garrison’s poems have appeared nationwide in various literary journals. Browser Books published two of his four books: Sweeping the Cemetery and Playing Bach in the D.C. Metro. Garrison Keillor read two of his poems on The Writer's Almanac and Poet Laureate Ted Kooser featured one on his website

Lianne Spidel has published poems in many journals and anthologies as well as three books: Chrome, What To tell Joseme, and Pairings. Pairings was in collaboration with Anne Loveland, a Michigan artist. One of her favorite poetry subjects is art as well as people, especially family.

Suzanne Kelly-Garrison is a fiction writer who has turned to poetry. She was a winner in the Dayton Daily News annual contest for one of her short stories and she won a Montgomery County Arts Council grant for a selection from her novel The Stolen Child which was recently published by Bottom Dog Press.

Cathy Essinger is the author of three books: A Desk in the Elephant House won the Walt McDonald First Book Award from Texas Tech University Press; My Dog Does Not Read Plato was runner up in the 2004 Main Street Rag book competition; What I Know About Innocence, which includes a video produced by her son David, was published in 2009.

Belinda Rismiller has been writing for more than 20 years and has received two Professional Assistance Awards, one from the Ohio Arts Council and one from the Darke County Arts Council. She writes realistic poetry about family and farm life.

Myrna Stone has published four books: In the Present Tense: Portraits of My Father by Kelsay Books; The Casanova Chronicles; How Else to Love the World; and The Art of Loss for which she received the 2001 Ohio Poet of the Year Award.

Doors open at 6:00 and the poetry starts at 7:00 - at Montage in downtown Greenville. Enjoy music by J.R. Price and Bill Westfall and a nice supper!