Al Ortolani
Poet, Educator, Raconteur...
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Al Ortolani

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Jack and Al
 Al Ortolani’s prose and poetry has appeared in Rattle, New Letters, the New York Quarterly, The Midwest Quarterly, The English Journal, The Quarterly, The Laurel Review, Prairie Schooner, Word Riot, Camroc Press Review, and others. He is the author of one chapbook, Slow Stirring Spoon, High/CooPress, two collections of poetry, The Last Hippie of Camp 50 and Finding the Edge, both published by Woodley Press at Washburn University. His third book of poetry, Wren’s House, a collection of haiku, published by Coal City Press in Lawrence, Kansas. Book four, Cooking Chili on the Day of the Dead, was published by Aldrich Press, CA. His fifth book,Waving Mustard in Surrender, was released from New York Quarterly Books, New York, New York. His sixth collection, Francis Shoots 
Pool at Chubb's Bar came out in February 2015 from Spartan Press in Kansas City, Missouri. Soon to be released will be Paper Birds Don't Fly, New York Quarterly Books, and Ghost Sign with J.T. Knoll, Adam Jameson, and Melissa Fite Johnson from Spartan Press in Kansas City, White Buffalo Poets.



Al Ortolani
was born in Huntington, New York and grew up in Pittsburg, Kansas. He was
educated at Pittsburg State University and for the past 41 years has taught in
Kansas schools in Baxter Springs, Pittsburg and Overland Park (Blue Valley) as
well as an adjunct at Pittsburg State University. He has worked as a house
painter, chimney sweep, antique dealer, juvenile counselor, pony handler,
canoeing instructor, gas station attendant and soda jerk. Many of his poems have
been inspired by his friends, family and students. He once claimed to have
cooked the best bowl of chili in the state of Kansas. Al Ortolani was on the Board of  
Directors at the Kansas City Writer’s Place and is a co-editor of The Little
Balkans Review
and the Little Balkans Press's Strip Pit Poetry Series. Currently, he
is on the Board of Woodley Press, Washburn University. His poems have been
​nominated for the Pushcart Prize and for Best of the Net. 

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Baseball Season on the Horizon
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