Boardman native is poetry prize finalist

Staff report

COLUMBUS

Katie Hartsock, a 2000 graduate of Boardman High School, is a finalist for the 2017 Ohioana Award for poetry.

An English professor at Oakland University in Michigan, where she lives with her husband, Hartsock published her first book of poetry, “Bed of Impatiens,” in November. The Ohioana awards honor outstanding Ohio authors and books. The winners will be announced in July and honored at an event at the Statehouse on Oct. 6. Each winner receives a $1,500 cash prize.

Hartsock is the author of two poetry chapbooks: “Hotels, Motels, and Extended Stays” (2014) and “Veritas Caput” (2015). Go to katiehartsock.com.

Hartsock says her poetry is influenced by Youngstown, particularly the beauty that pokes through its gritty landscape, but also the stone walls and well-worn trails of Mill Creek Park.

“Being from [Youngstown] makes me more ecstatic to encounter beauty in otherwise unlovely places – makes it seem more the blessing that it is,” she said in a published interview this year.