06-86
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 6, 2006
www.jcu.edu
Contact: Christine Somosi, 216.397.4663

John Carroll University’s Professor Dr. George Bilgere Receives
Helen and Laura Krout Memorial Ohioana Poetry Award

Cleveland, OH – Professor Dr. George Bilgere, poet and associate professor of English at John Carroll University, was recently awarded the Helen and Laura Krout Memorial Ohioana Poetry Award. Each year, the honor is presented by the Ohioana Library Association to an exceptional Ohio poet who has made a significant contribution to poetry. The award, established in 1984, was made possible by the bequest of philanthropist Helen Krout.

Bilgere was nominated for the award by fellow colleague, Dr. Steve Hayward, assistant professor of English, John Carroll University.

Earlier in 2006, Bilgere received the May Swenson Poetry Award for his book of poems, Haywire, in honor of May Swenson, one of the most provocative and vital writers in American history. Haywire was published in the summer of 2006.

Prior to that, Bilgere's most recent book of poetry, The Good Kiss, was chosen by U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins to win the University of Akron's Poetry Prize in 2001. Collins said of The Good Kiss, "In the house of American poetry, this book is a welcome breath of fresh air." Bilgere's other books include Big Bang (Copper Beech Press) and The Going (University of Missouri), which received both the Devins Award in Poetry and the Society of Midland Authors Award.

In the past two years, Bilgere has given readings of his poetry at the Library of Congress with U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser, and at the 92nd Street Y in New York with Billy Collins. He has received grants in poetry from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ohio Arts Council, and the Witter Bynner Foundation. He is the 2003 winner of the Cleveland Arts Prize. His poems have appeared in Best American Poetry, Ploughshares, Poetry, The Kenyon Review, Sewanee Review, and many other journals and anthologies. He directs the Writing Program and the Visiting Writers Series at John Carroll, and is the host of Wordplay, Cleveland's only spoken-word radio show.

John Carroll University, located in Cleveland, Ohio, is a liberal arts university grounded in the Jesuit, Catholic tradition. The university has some 3,350 plus undergraduates and just over 750 graduate students. U.S. News & World Report’s 2007 annual college guide ranks John Carroll University among the top five master’s-degree granting universities in the Midwest and second in average graduation rate. Originally founded as St. Ignatius College in 1886, the university was renamed in 1923 to honor America’s first Catholic bishop, John Carroll of Maryland. John Carroll is one of 28 Jesuit colleges and universities located in the United States.

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