Congratulations to Vijay Seshadri!

Congratulations to Vijay Seshadri, winner of the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his book 3 Sections: Poems. Seshadri was born in Bangalore, Indiana and came to the United States with his family when he was five years old. He grew up in Columbus, Ohio, where his father was a chemistry professor at Ohio State…

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National Poetry Month Events in Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Dayton.

Here is some information about some events for National Poetry Month in the state of Ohio. I will also seek out some information on events in other states covered by buckeyemuse. The main library of the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County has readings every week during April. There are usually one to several…

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An Evening With Rick Sowash

  It’s been a long, cold winter here in southwestern Ohio, just like so much of the United States. I didn’t venture out much when I didn’t have to, but I certainly enjoyed one evening in late January. On January 23, storyteller, musician, author and filmmaker Rick Sowash visited the Wyoming Historical Society in Wyoming,…

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March 18, 1958: Merton’s Epiphany

On this day in 1958, Thomas Merton had a spiritual epiphany at the corner of Fourth and Walnut in downtown Louisville, Kentucky. As he later wrote in Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, “In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization…

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Virginia Hamilton: Out of the Heartland.

“Everything I write comes out of Ohio.” –Virginia Hamilton in a talk to Fairborn, Ohio teachers on February 24, 1995. Virginia Hamilton (March 12, 1936–February 19, 2002). Children’s book author, folklorist, anthologist, biographer, born in Yellow Springs, Ohio on a family farm dating back to the 1850s. Many readers know her from her books The…

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Winter: Hail and Farewell

“Farewell to winter’s frozen water-weeds. Farewell to dark hills and clouds that foul the sky; Farewell to snowbirds eating ragweed seeds And winds that blow dead leaves across the rye. And shake old sparrow nests among the eaves; Farewell to daisies under pasture stumps; Farewell warm rabbit blood upon dead leaves And greenbriar thickets where…

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Works by Ohio Valley writers adapted into Oscar-nominated films.

In honor of the Academy Awards this evening, I’ve got an overview here of some of the Academy Award-nominated movies based on books by Ohio valley authors. All of these writers will eventually be profiled here at Buckeyemuse. The man who dominates the list here with two film adaptations is Indiana novelist Booth Tarkington. What…

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It’s Statehood Day in Ohio!

Today is the 211th anniversary of the date Ohio was formally admitted to the Union, making it the 17th state admitted to the young United States of America. Happy Birthday, Ohio! Patrick Kerin

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Born March 1, 1837: William Dean Howells of Martin’s Ferry, Ohio.

Today is a big day here at Buckeyemuse. In addition to being the first day of the month when spring arrives in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s also William Dean Howells’ birthday. Howells is one of the most important of Ohio’s literary lights. Novelist, editor, poet, short story writer, dramatist, promoter of realism in literature, Howells…

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Perspective

“So many bad books get printed, why can’t my bad book get printed?” –Thomas Merton, Secular Journal.

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