Years ago, I remember reading the writer David Lodge talking about poetry as a unique way of holding space for intense, crystallized moments, and the idea has followed me around ever since. It could be a moment of grief, love, loss or laughter, but it distills moments of clarity, emotion, and transformation often in a small space. For me, that is what makes it a powerful medium for capturing the stories and experiences of women across Ohio.
For the Women of Ohio project, we turned to poetry because it reflects the vivid moments that define our lives: birth, loss, migration, resistance, joy. Poems can carry and give voice to the textures of life, and to the inner lives that often go unseen.
This part of the project came together through both an open call for poems about Ohio women and commissions from writers with deep roots in Ohio, especially in Columbus. What emerged is a chorus of perspectives: some are fierce, others tender, but all are grounded in a sense of place, identity, and connection.
Poetry is not an ornament here — it’s a way of witnessing. It holds complexity. It shows women clearly, in their strength, struggle, and imagination.
Women of Ohio 