Poetry Reading with Pauletta Hansel and Erica Manto Paulson

2-3pm Saturday April 15 | In-Person Event

Celebrate National Poetry Month with award-winning Ohio poets Pauletta Hansel and Erica Manto Paulson, reading from recent works. An Open mic follows. A book signing with featured poets concludes the event.

Pauletta Hansel’s nine poetry collections include Heartbreak Tree, a poetic exploration of the intersection of gender and place in Appalachia, published in 2022 by Madville Publishing, and Friend, Coal Town Photograph and Palindrome, winner of the 2017 Weatherford Award for best Appalachian poetry, all from Dos Madres Press. She was 2022 Writer-in-Residence for The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County and Cincinnati’s first Poet Laureate, 2016-2018. Her writing has been featured in Oxford American, Rattle, Appalachian Journal, The Anthology of Appalachian Writers, American Life in Poetry, Verse Daily and Poetry Daily, among others.

2022 Ohio Poet of the Year, Erica Manto Paulson’s poems have appeared in Thimble Literary Magazine, Sheila Na Gig, the Northern Appalachia Review, Slippery Elm, and elsewhere. A 2021 Pushcart Nominee, her work has also been featured on NPR's "Conrad’s Corner" (WYSO). Erica’s chapbook, Hunger, was recipient of the New Women’s Voices Chapbook Competition and published by Finishing Line Press in 2021.  An Ohio native, Erica is a doula, hypno-birthing educator, and midwife assistant, all of which drives her ongoing obsession with birth in its many forms.  She finds inspiration for her poetry in the fertile fields of her home state, drawing on a deep connection to the surrounding world. Erica and her husband Scott live in Washington Township with their seven children and own a prenatal ultrasound spa in Hyde Park, Cincinnati.