Lakewood’s Own Michael Gill Named 2025 Outstanding Literary Artist
Congratulations to long-time Lakewoodite, Michael Gill for his recent honor: “Outstanding Literary Artist Of 2025,” awarded to him because of his endeavors as the founding executive director of Collective Arts Network, and editor/publisher of “CAN Journal.”
Those of us in Lakewood know him for a variety of things, like the whimsical Water Moose sprinkler, which is always a hit with the kids at the Summer Meltdown, and other events around town. He was also a partner with the LO in the early great railroad track clean ups 1 & 2, and wrote the amazing piece for the Free Times about the Lakewood Observer’s successful effort to catch the country’s most prolific pedophile, Phil Distasio, who was working Lakewood from his Rocky River home. (We have just received approval to rerun this story in an upcoming Lakewood Observer.)
Michael's arts journalism career began in the early nineties, writing for regional publications: he was arts editor at the Cleveland Free Times and Cleveland Scene when they were both cutting edge journalism with sections covering visual art, theater, dance, and books every week. He was editor of the regional bike paper, “Northcoast Courier.” He then launched the Collective Arts Journal, CAN. Under his leadership, CAN Journal was named Best Magazine in Ohio in 2019 by the Press Club of Cleveland, and he personally was named Best in Ohio in Reviews and Criticism in 2022 and 2023.
Mr. Gill has a BA in English (Hiram College) and an MFA in Creative Writing (Eastern Washington University). He has lived, worked, and studied in Washington DC, England, Wales, and Ecuador before returning to Cleveland. Mr. Gill’s poetry has been published in dozens of literary and other magazines, including Rolling Stone, and several chapbooks, which include "The Atheist at Prayer" and "The Solution to the Crisis is Revolution: Graffiti of Ecuador," collected and translated. He has exhibited in solo shows at William Busta Gallery, BAYarts Sullivan Gallery, Tregoning & Co., and the Massillon Museum, and internationally at the Alte Feuerwasche Loschwitz Gallery during a residency at the Grafikwerkstatt in Dresden, Germany.
His books are held in Special Collections in the Lakewood and the Cleveland Public Libraries.
Congratulations Michael Gill, as always the kudos are well deserved.
Jim O'Bryan
Publisher, Lakewood Observer, Inc.