Dianne Borsenik

Dianne Borsenik, poet, performer, producer, and publisher, is active in the northern Ohio poetry scene and regional reading circuit. She is a member of the Ohio Poetry Association, the Haiku Society of America, and the Ohioana Library Association. In 2011, she founded NightBallet Press, and has since published over 150 titles for poets across the United States. In 2015, she produced BeatStreet Cleveland, featuring, among others, Ingrid Swanberg, D. R. Wagner, and Alex Gildzen, as part of the National Beat Poetry Festival. A copy of her haiku chapbook, Blue Graffiti (Crisis Chronicles Press, 2011), is in the Decatur Haiku Collection at Millikin University. Her poetry has appeared in numerous and varied publications and places, including Wick Poetry Center's Speak Peace—American Voices Respond to Vietnamese Children's Paintings, Amy Mothersbaugh's Studio 2091, Growing Up: Persons, Places and Things—a dramatic presentation by Cleveland State University's Mirror of the Arts program, S. A. Griffin's The Poetry Bomb project, and in Genesis of Evil, a live, one-man show performed by actor Jonathan Frid (Barnabas on television's Dark Shadows). Her poem "Lovechild" rode the buses and trains of Cleveland as part of the RTA Moving Minds Project in 2008. In February 2011, Borsenik and John Burroughs coproduced Snoetry 2, a record-breaking marathon involving over 100 poets reading for 150 hours nonstop. In 2012, Borsenik won second place in her first ever slam competition, and first place in her second slam. In both 2013 and 2014 she won first place in the Best Cleveland Poem Competition. In 2015, her poem "Disco" was selected by Youngstown Summer Festival of the Arts to appear on its reusable tote bags, and by Lit Youngstown to be printed on their tee shirts, which makes her feel like a rock star. In 2016, Crisis Chronicles Press published her first full-length collection of poetry, Age of Aquarius. In 2019, Stubborn Mule Press published her second full-length collection, Raga for What Comes Next. She believes in the musicality of language and the originality of expression in poetry, and continues to seek publication in journals, magazines, chapbooks, and anthologies. She is willing to travel for readings, to present workshops pertaining to small press publishing, and to participate with her press at independent literary festivals.