News

Poet Dave Lucas! For the second time in Ohio’s history, a poet laureate has been named. Serving a two year term is Dave Lucas, a native of Cleveland, award-winner (including an award from Ohioana in 2012), published writer and teacher. It is of course a great honor to the individual, but it’s also a great benefit to the people of ... Read More

  One of the highlights of every holiday season is the release of new films – how many of this year’s crop have you seen? Studios release their biggest and most important films at year’s end not only to draw huge audiences, but also to get the attention of the major awards competitions. Of course the granddaddy of all movie ... Read More

It’s never too late to buy Yuletide/Holiday/Christmas presents. Even if you were to be abducted by aliens on December 24 and not released from the Mother Ship until December 26, you can always apologize to those on your Christmas list. They’ll understand, especially if you take a tip from the Wise Men and arrive bearing a gift. And what gift ... Read More

If you look up the word “pathos” in the dictionary, you’ll find The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry. Not really. But we consider that an oversight to be corrected. Some people consider the story comic, what with the twist and all: the married couple each giving up something cherished in an attempt to give one another a significant ... Read More

December is National Read a New Book Month, and there’s still plenty of month left if you haven’t started yet. We’d like to suggest the latest from Jennifer Chiaverini. The Enchantress of Numbers is the story of Ada Byron Lovelace, the inventor of computer programming. At a recent sold-out book signing event sponsored by Gramercy Books in Bexley, Jennifer answered ... Read More

He looks like a certain jolly old elf and he does bring gifts, but he’s not Santa. He’s King Gambrinus and he doesn’t have a special day, but maybe he should. We’d like to suggest December 5 because of its significance in United States History: it’s the day that Prohibition ended. In 1933, after a less-than-successful run at being alcohol-free, ... Read More

Happy Giving Tuesday! Now that Thanksgiving is over (it’s OK if you don’t want to eat any more turkey) and we can stick a fork in the unofficial shopping holidays, it’s time to get back to basics: supporting the people, places, and things that we care about. Giving Tuesday is a global day of giving fueled by the power of ... Read More

Here at Ohioana, we have a lot to be thankful for. We’re thankful that we get to work with books and people who love them, just for starters. And on this day before Thanksgiving, we want to send a shout-out to some very special folks: To the political leaders who approve our budget. Nonprofit organizations like ours need friends at the ... Read More

We’re not surprised that Ohio writers are named over and over again as award winners, but it is nice to see those recognitions flow in! Amazon released its list of the best books of 2017, and of course the list includes many Ohioans! Fiction: #1, Best Book of the Year:  Little Fires Everywhere, by Celeste Ng (Shaker Heights) Children’s Books #3: ... Read More

    Today is Day One of National Novel Writing Month, the writing sensation that’s been sweeping the nation every November since 1999. So let’s all party like it’s 1999, fuel up on the java, and get some writing done! In 2016, 384,126 participants, including 71,229 students and educators in the Young Writers Program, started the month as auto mechanics, out-of-work ... Read More