Here is a dual collection of two fine poets: Larry Smith for his Morning Dew: Tanka poems and Barbara Sabol for her core & all: haiku poetry. It's a wise and full collection by two veteran poets featuring the human diversity and its commonality.
Larry Smith grew up along the Ohio River in the steel mill town of Mingo Junction. He worked as a newspaper boy, cook, steel mill worker, then
taught high school in Euclid, Ohio. His education came from Muskingum College, then Kent State University. For 35 years he taught writing and film
at the Firelands College of Bowling Green State University in Huron, Ohio, where he and his wife Ann, a nursing professor, raised three children.
He is the author of 8 previous books of poetry, 5 books of fiction, 2 literary biographies, 2 books of Chinese Zen poetry translation. He wrote and
co-produced documentary films on authors James Wright, and Kenneth Patchen.
With David Shevin he co-founded Bottom Dog Press in 1985 and has edited and published 216 books of fiction, poetry, and memoir. He has directed the Firelands Writing Center for 40 years. In 1980-1981 the Smith
family lived in Sicily where he taught literature as a Fulbright Lecturer. Together with Ray McNiece they edited the America Zen: A Gathering of Poets anthology in 2004. In 1990 Smith studied haiku and tanka with Clark Strand at Mount Tremper Zen Monastery near Woodstock, NY. He is a member of the Tanka Society of America, and fond on cycling and playing
guitar.
Barbara Sabol was raised in Pennsylvania coal
and steel country, a place that has strongly inspired
her writing. After working as a waitress, barber,
and secretary, she attended the University of Massachusetts and began a long career as a speech therapist. Barbara's been writing poetry for more than 20 years, and holds an MFA from Spalding University. She is the author of four collections, most recently Imagine a Town which won the 2019 Poetry Manuscript Prize from Sheila-Na-Gig Editions. She has since taken on the role of associate editor of Sheila-Na-Gig online. Barbara conducts poetry workshops for Lit Cleveland, and enjoys guest teaching poetry classes at Our Lady of the Elms High School in Akron, Ohio.
When she's not writing, Barbara's in her garden or on a trail in the Cuyahoga Valley. She lives in Akron, Ohio with her husband and two wonder dogs.