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Three Poets: Jeremy Jusek, Dianne Borsenik & Alissa Sammarco

Join us when poets Jeremy Jusek, Dianne Borsenik, and Alissa Sammarco visit to read from their latest collections.

About the authors:

Dianne Borsenik is active in the northern and mid-Ohio poetry communities. Recent work has appeared in I Thought I Heard a Cardinal Sing: Ohio’s Appalachian Voices, Songs of Wild Ohio , and Poem for Cleveland. Raga for What Comes Next, a full-length collection of Borsenik’s poems, was studied as part of the Modern & Contemporary American Poetry course at Muskingum University. Flight of Honey, another full-length collection, was published in May, 2023. Actor Jonathan Frid used three of her poems in his one-man tour Genesis of Evil, Speak of the Devil (Lorain, Ohio) named a cocktail after her, and Lit Youngstown printed her poem “Disco” on their t-shirts, all of which makes her feel like a rock star. Borsenik lives in Elyria, Ohio. Find her on Facebook and at www.dianneborsenik.com.

Once when I was little and very frightened, I was handed a jar of honey and a spoon. I closed my eyes and tasted beams of sun. Dianne Borsenik’s Flight of Honey reveals the bitter sweetness we discover in dark moments and closes its eyes to taste the moments of love we return to comfort in. There’s a new discovery in each taste from this collection. From the stark “Up the Mountain” through the inquisitive romp of the title poem to the introspection of “Knotted Together,” Borsenik sets us on a beeline path through her gracious mind with all of the wry humor and thoughtfulness we expect from this poetic trailblazer. In life, “blood doesn’t always call to blood” but this collection, like honey, beads warm amber and asks you simply to slow and savor.

—Jonie McIntire, Lucas County Poet Laureate, author of Semidomesticated (Sheila-Na-Gig Editions, 2022), winner of Red Flag Poetry’s 2020 Chapbook Contest

Jeremy Jusek is the poet laureate of Parma, Ohio. He earned his MFA in Creative Writing from Arcadia University and chemistry/theatre degrees from Marietta College. He has authored more than a half-dozen plays and three poetry collections: We Grow Tomatoes in Tiny Towns, The Less-Traveled Street, and The Details Will Be Gone Soon. He hosts the Ohio Poetry Association's podcast Poetry Spotlight, runs the West Side Poetry Workshop, teaches through Literary Cleveland, and founded the Flamingo Writers’ Guild. To learn more, please visit www.jeremyjusek.com.

The Details Will Be Gone Soon is a close investigation of the primordial underpinnings behind Alzheimer’s disease and the emotional wreckage left in its wake. This poetry collection follows the speaker and his grandmother, Nana, and the various memories shared between the two. At times, the collection seeks to illustrate the loose word associations, frustrations, and existential cloud cover that darkens dementia’s horizons. Other poems steer toward youth and hope, extolling love, lessons learned, and shared experiences. This dichotomy allows the collection to successfully walk that critical line that families of Alzheimer’s patients often experience: one that straddles between the unfairly diminished, barely-present caricature versus the vibrant, vigor-filled past-selves that close friends and family spent a lifetime loving.

Alissa Sammarco uses cinematic imagery to freeze those moments in time and evoke the feeling of revisiting them.  She examines the common in life and relationships to find the extraordinary. Her work has appeared in Sheila-Na-Gig, Black Moon Magazine, Change Seven, Quiet Diamonds, The Main Street Rag, Stone Canoe, VIA: Voices in Italian Americana, Rat’s Ass Review, the 2021 and 2022 Lexington Poetry Month Anthologies, and elsewhere. She is the author of two chapbooks, Beyond the Dawn and I See Them Now.  Alissa lives and practices law in Cincinnati, Ohio. www.AlissaSammarco.com.

Moon Landing Day navigates the trajectories of relationships blasted off course by miscalculations, unmet expectations, abuse, and addiction.  In cinematic imagery, these poems reveal the difficult truths of a young woman, the harm that is passed from generation to generation, and the painful journey of acceptance to forgiveness.  From the total loss of control to the emergent spark of self-awareness, this young woman grapples to break the pattern.  She unravels her life and knits it back together in these poems.  They will hold you in their grip and bring you in for a safe landing.

Books will be available for purchase.