Biographies
Poets
RYAN BUNCH (he/him) is a poet, writer, performance artist, and nonprofit administrator living in Toledo, Ohio. He’s helped to form the Lucas County Poet Laureate program, Poetry Sidewalks public art project, Ode to the Zip Code poetry contest, established Toledo’s creative placemaking program and Culture Trail framework, as well as planning and hosting numerous literary, arts, and cultural events. Ryan’s work has appeared in the Istanbul Literary Review, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, Toledo City Paper, and others. He’s released three collaborative spoken word albums with musician Lance Hulsey under the moniker Kyrux Macist and hosted his first visual art exhibition, a collaboration poetry-photography show titled ALLUVIUM in mid-2022. Ryan is the founder of the OHMI Mid-Coast Industrial Workshop, a conceptual project building creative and travel networks across the Michigan-Ohio border.
TIMOTHY GEIGER (he/him) has published three poetry collections and ten chapbooks, most recently Weatherbox, winner of the 2019 Vern Rutsala Prize from Cloudbank Books. His work has received a Pushcart Prize XVII and a Holt, Rinehart and Winston Award in Literature, as well as many state and local grants from Ohio, Minnesota, and Alabama. He runs a small farm in Northwest Ohio raising goats, chickens, ducks, and pigs; is the proprietor of Aureole Press, a letterpress imprint publishing contemporary poetry since 1989; and teaches Creative Writing and Book Arts at The University of Toledo.
JONIE MCINTIRE (she/her) is the first female Poet Laureate of Lucas County, Ohio. Her most recent chapbook, Semidomesticated (re-released by Sheila-Na-Gig Editions, 2022) won Red Flag Poetry’s 2020 chapbook contest. Her prior chapbooks are Beyond the Sidewalk (Nightballet Press, 2017) and Not All Who Are Lost Wander (Finishing Line Press, 2016). She is the poetry editor at Of Rust and Glass, Membership Chair at Ohio Poetry Association, and hosts a monthly reading series called Uncloistered Poetry from Toledo, Ohio. Visit her online at https://www.joniemcintire.net.
DUSTIN PEARSON (he/him) is the author of A Season in Hell with Rimbaud (BOA Editions, 2022), Millennial Roost (C&R Press, 2018), and A Family Is a House (C&R Press, 2019). In 2019, The Root named Dustin one of nine Black poets working in “academic, cultural and government institutions committed to elevating and preserving the poetry artform.” He is an assistant professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at the University of Toledo where he teaches creative writing.
KERRY TRAUTMAN (she/her) is a lifelong Northwest-Ohioan, UT graduate, and author of eight books. She co-founded ToledoPoet.com and the "Toledo Poetry Museum" page on Facebook to promote local poetry events. In 2019 her one-act play “Mass” was a winner of The Toledo Repertoire Theater’s “Toledo Voices” competition. She has served as judge/workshop leader for the Northwest region of Ohio’s “Poetry Out Loud” competition since 2016. Kerry has participated in local events such as Artomatic 4-1-9, Momentum Festival, Ode to the Zip Code, the Toledo Museum of Art’s ekphrastic writing contest, and Back to Jack.
Host
JULIE E. BLOEMEKE (she/her) is the 2021 Georgia Author of the Year Finalist for Poetry. Her debut full-length collection Slide to Unlock (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2020) was also chosen as a 2021 Book All Georgians Should Read. Co-editor of Let Me Say This: A Dolly Parton Poetry Anthology (Madville Publishing, 2023) she is also the winner of the 2022 Third Coast Poetry Prize. An associate editor for South Carolina Review and a Virginia Center for the Creative Arts fellow, her work has appeared in numerous anthologies and publications including Writer’s Chronicle, Prairie Schooner, Nimrod, Cortland Review, Gulf Coast, EcoTheo Review, and others. In 2023, a broadside of her poem, “Glass City,” was commissioned by the Hiltons at Toledo Downtown to be on permanent view as part of the hotel’s art collection. She is a proud native of Toledo. Visit her online at www.jebloemeke.com.
Photographer
DOUG HINEBAUGH (he/him) is lovingly known in the Glass City as Dougiefresh. He is a Toledo photographer and personality who's been on a mission to tell the world why returning to the home he once left is the best thing he ever did. 2023 has been a banner year for Doug as his Board of Directors positions for both Jake & Cooper's Bark Park and FilmToledo helped launch a new dog park in Oregon, OH and elevated FilmToledo to the City of Toledo's official film commission. With his lovely partner Kristen by his side and his trusty goldendoodle Elsa along for the ride, Doug looks to celebrate his hometown with the world for many years to come.
Letterpress
SVEN OLAF NELSON (he/him) is the founder of Pineapple Press and Design in Toledo. His passion for graphic design and letterpress began as a student at Ball State University and has since bloomed into a collection of over 400 metal and wood typefaces spanning two centuries. Sven specializes in individual custom small batch orders and is committed to letterpress education and perpetuating beauty, working with clients on paper selection, design, font, and layout. While his range includes cards, invitations, posters, and custom orders, he is particularly interested in poetry broadsides. All of Sven’s projects are printed on antique letterpress equipment including a 1940s Chandler & Price press, a 1905 Vandercook No.01 proof press, along with other small foil presses, and book presses. He also hand mixes all of his inks and incorporates handmade papers into his work. Committed to teaching about