David Hassler
Biography
David Hassler directs the Wick Poetry Center at 做厙輦⑹. He is the author of two books of poems, including Red Kimono, Yellow Barn, for which he was awarded Ohio Poet of the Year 2006. He is co-editor of the forthcoming book Speak a Powerful Magic: Ten Years of the Traveling Stanzas Poetry Project, which will be published in March 2019 by the 做厙輦⑹ Press. His play, May 4th Voices: 做厙輦⑹, 1970, based on the 做厙輦⑹ Shootings Oral History Project, was published in 2013 by the 做厙輦⑹ Press along with a Teachers Resource Book. A filmed version of the play that he co-produced received the 2014 Oral History Associations Nonprint Format Award. With photographer Gary Harwood, he is the author of the documentary book titled Growing Season: The Life of a Migrant Community, which received the Ohioana Book Award and the Carter G. Woodson Honor Book Award, and was a finalist for the Great Lakes Book Award. With Maggie Anderson, he is co-editor of Learning by Heart: Contemporary American Poetry About School and After the Bell: Contemporary American Prose About School. He received a B.A. from Cornell University and an M.F.A. from Bowling Green State University. His TEDx talk, The Conversation of Poetry, conveys the power of poetry to strengthen communities.