Women of Ohio

See a list of all the winners here.

Here is a poem which reaches towards the hidden figures within Ohio communities mentioned in the brief. It’s a moving poem, full of affection for the matriarchal women that Darren Demaree encountered while working as a librarian. Darren tells us:

I worked on Livingston Avenue (at the Barnett Branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library System) for four years. It was an incredible experience that taught me a lot about community, about building and rebuilding it, and how real promises work in communities that have been legislated into a constant flux. On Livingston Ave., it’s a collection of women (moms, aunts, grandmothers, sisters) that refuse to allow their neighbors to go unseen or un-helped. I was there to provide information, services, materials, hand-offs to community partners, and they ended up taking care of me the same way they take care of everyone else. The incredible women listed in the poem are real. They loved and cared for everyone that walked in our library. They loved and cared for me just because they saw I was an ally that wanted to help the same people. It was so warm and genuine. Buildings should be named after women like this. Politicians should each be assigned an aunt or grandmother from Livingston Ave. to advise them on anything that happens on the Eastside of Columbus. Real change comes from love and care and paying attention when no one else has the time to pay attention. I could think of nobody else more worthy of being honored with a poem than these women. Thank you to each of them for putting an arm around me and teaching me about actual strength.

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Darren C. Demaree is the author of twenty-three poetry collections, most recently So Much More, (Small Harbor Publishing, November 2024).  He is the recipient of a Greater Columbus Arts Council Grant, an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award, the Louise Bogan Award from Trio House Press, and the Nancy Dew Taylor Award from Emrys Journal.  He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Best of the Net Anthology and the Managing Editor of Ovenbird Poetry.  He is currently working in the Columbus Metropolitan Library system.

Instagram: @darrencdemaree

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Website: darrencdemaree.com