Meet Holly Brians Ragusa

Today we’d like to introduce you to Holly Brians Ragusa. 

Hi Holly, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
Sure, thank you. Well, I was born to a loving mother on the west side of Cincinnati Ohio in 1971. Family brought its share of comfort and contortion; my siblings and I worked through the adaptation required of children facing divorce as well as a parent’s death that resulted from homicide. I was fifteen. High school was a rather tumultuous period, as one might imagine. I then attended Bowling Green State University in the early 1990s and soon after, met my love and life partner, Damon. We lived in Phoenix and Atlanta but returned to Cincinnati in 2000 pregnant with our second child. We live downtown in Over-the-Rhine, which is a historic district in Cincinnati. My mother lives with us, along with our dog Whiskey and three cats. 

I’ve worn the many hats of bartender, entrepreneur, advisor, board member, writer, poet, and family ringleader. I’ve moved through myriad lessons that people and positions have taught me. Parenting two creative children rooted me further into advocacy and activism. I co-founded a nonprofit for community engagement for a local arts magnet school in 2015 and have since served as both director and executive on several Cincinnati nonprofits. Much of that work began as a young parent advocating and mobilizing for my own and other’s children, and I was elected president to several Parent Teacher Associations and since have contributed to campaigns, arts boards, and historical organizations as director, event planner, coordinator, volunteer, and committee chair. As our children grew and needed less of my time, I turned my attention back to writing, which had always been a way of life that I’d not yet attached to a career. I am passionate about people and consider myself a global citizen and a fierce friend. Place is also important to me; comfortable at home or traveling the globe, I am eager to know more about where we all come from and how that defines, divides, and connects us. And I love the page; whether reading or writing, the written word has always spoken loudly to me. Now, dedicating myself to the page feels quite natural and rewarding. 

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
The road my mom, siblings, and I travelled was definitely not a smooth road. There have not only been potholes but deep and sudden sinkholes. My dad was in a terrible motorcycle accident in the summer of 1986. We followed him through his recovery with such hope only to lose him in March of 1987. Only after he died did we find out that he had been murdered by an orderly while convalescing at Drake Hospital. I was nearly sixteen. He was the first known victim of a serial killer and our grief and this case became very public. We all hit rough spots for a while after that and for me, being the more outwardly expressive child, my need for support stood out. You know, we were all so lucky to have Mom, she is compassionate and strong, and she carried us through it all, got me the help I needed. Now she carries pride for her children on her sleeve and my book, which honors her, in a small blue bag on her arm to share with anyone she meets. A favorite saying of hers is, “I take the bitter with the sweet,” and much like her, I have tasted both. 

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
As a creative first and foremost, my artistic side is engaged in every facet of my life, running through my personal relationships into my home, my writing, research, activism, and nonprofit work. Therefore, my work is my life; they are so intertwined. Writing is certainly my preferred medium; it defines me by how I process this living and how I document, reflect, and relate. And that I am here at this over-fifty stage in my life, developing a body of written work, feels really meaningful. 2023 I will release two full-length poetry manuscripts; the first one, Inverse; informed thoughts by an unfit poet, comes out in February, and Dying to Know Myself in Time, is a book I wrote based on a talk I gave to students at the University of Connecticut last year. What I find most rewarding as an author and an independent publisher is how connected to and in control of the work I put forth. 

And I am in awe of my good fortune; that I can follow passion where she leads means that I don’t keep regular hours or a rigid schedule. I work from home and in the community when creativity visits and where I can be helpful. Though my chosen art form comes through mainly in prose, I have always written poetry and have an eye for photography, a fascination with history and research, so these also show up in my work. Musing on marketing and forging new pathways toward outdated goals also stimulates, so I often invent approachable strategies toward building brand and community. Envisioning and bringing forth well-planned, engaging events, or building a website, stems from that same imagination. 

Compromise, compassion and empathy live in me, and I work to build bridges and drive change. Social justice, as an imperative, is near and dear to my heart and weaves into my work and edification. I continually strive to better understand our potential, our realities, our biases, and fears against the backdrop of our nation’s history. I can love my country while also understanding our abysmal track record on extending dignity to our fellow humans. I see, not past our flaws, but through them to a time and place where our country puts intention and prevention in place to do better by all its residents. I believe success lies in understanding the seasons we have weathered and by facing hard truths. 

My art is in flow, and I like variety, so I find myself involved in several works in progress even when deeply invested in one of them. I employ the “and,” not “or” mentality to most of my living. As for my writing, I tend to cross literary genre as a poet, nonfiction, fiction, and opinion writer. By the way, that imposter syndrome surrounding writers is real- though I have always written, for my own memory and clarity, for sanity, reflection and documentation, I am not sure that I ever allowed myself that descriptor or label of “writer,” until about five or six years ago. That is when writing MET THE END took a front seat in my artistic journey and when my hibernating poetry awoke. 

I find that writing is largely informed by reading and I’m grateful that so many expansive and profound authors and poets have taken up residence in my head over the years and continue to stop in and stay there. My craft is honed on the sharp stone of others’ words, and I am beyond thankful for each and every writer who takes a hard look in the mirror or envisions worlds outside of their own. I especially appreciate authors who pick at their scabs and bleed onto the page, which I believe helps personalize agony. 

Digging into pain has informed my own writing and combined with the particular lived experience of loss and trauma in our case, has caused an unintended yet very liberating healing process, culminating in my debut book MET THE END (released at the end of November 2022). This story explores my family dynamics and roles, loss and grief, mental wellness, and my dad’s murder at the hands of Donald Harvey. My book is a promise kept to myself to investigate the case, to understand all that I can about what transpired. My book includes Cincinnati history because my city and I both went through this, though in differing and varying degrees and I believe we both can learn from it. 

A perfect example of my combined skills occurred while early in the throes of writing MET THE END. My husband and I decided to restore a row house in the historic district of Over-the-Rhine near Music Hall. I took on the role of designer and seriously applied myself with strong vision from the outset for this 1895 home that had not been lived in for nearly three decades. It was important for me to maintain character while inventing space and add light and outdoor places where there were none. Having never designed a home, let alone a historic one, when met with hurdles, I sought solutions and educated myself. Creating community and consensus around our design, I met with neighbors and historians while researching the preservation and LEED process as I worked to maintain the integrity of our Chateauesque, French Second Empire home. Then, since I had photographed and documented the entire process along with researching the 125 years of stories and its residents, I made a book about our home, from its origin to the completion of construction with photos, archival texts, news articles, census data, and maps, down to the immigration documents of the original owners. I was sure to credit the artisans and our efforts for posterity. This home is living history and I am drawn to untold stories. Tackling a project like that is not unusual for me, it is exciting to feel the tidal pull of curiosity and if ever I don’t know what I am doing (which, on this particular home project was absolutely the case) I simply dig in and research the how. 

Otherwise, I spend my days writing, walking my neighborhood, and attending monthly poetry groups through the Mercantile Library, one of the last remaining membership libraries in the country, and an absolute treasure to my mind. Also, I serve as Vice President with The Friends of Music Hall, an organization bound to the preservation, education, and celebration of Cincinnati Music Hall, a National Historic Landmark and a hub for our city’s renown resident art companies. Developing events around a historic Wurlitzer organ, I entice a broader community into that remarkable structure, where our dedicated volunteers can then introduce guests to remarkable stories about the hall. I’m also proud to be a part of a wonderful local equity theatre, the Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati, and sit on the Board of Directors where I am part of the DEIA committee. Learning and working toward justice in inclusion brings me a tremendous sense of purpose. I’ll be contributing even more of that important work to other organizations I am involved with. The multitude of talented and diligent people I am able to serve with is a gift. 

Informally, I take on the role of ambassador for my city, and alongside that energizing work, and spending time with my family and friends, and amid book promotion for MET THE END, I am also currently engaged in public speaking and have developed a writing workshop focused on healing that I am thankful to say, is being well received. For the year ahead in 2023, I am working on pulling more poetry from myself and researching a larger regional historical writing project among others. 

We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up.
With an excerpt of a poem I wrote, titled Testimony, which will appear in my upcoming poetry book, INVERSE, I will answer this question. For surely, though there were dolls that brought smiles and cakes that served joy, no childhood moments of newness and excitement exist as vivid in my mind as when a child of no more than seven or eight years, I stood outdoors with what remains one of the strongest memories and senses of certainty I’ve ever had. 

Testimony 

This heart remembers a sun-filled day when filtered through child’s eyes the tangle of artfully veined leaves, both brilliant and black looked down. An erected web of trunk and branch stretched above. Anchored underfoot the muddy earth stood warm and steady. 

Youth and innocence had yet to be conquered, I’d not lived a decade. In that moment, surmounted by the awe of uncertainty, intuitively I became aware that I was not meant to understand all. Possessed by tremendous beauty, the balance of light and shadow held me dizzy beneath its power. 

Witness to the connectedness of life. 

One certainty took root and has held. 

We are part of something deep and meaningful. 

Pricing:

• Met the End hardcover book is $27.99
• The ebook and audio are forthcoming as well as the paperback edition.
• Dying to Know Myself in Time is $11.00 in print and $4.99 ebook
• Inverse; informed thoughts by an unfit poet is going to be available in February for $14.00

Contact Info:

• Website: hollybriansragusa.com
• Instagram: @mothergusa https://www.instagram.com/mothergusa/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HBRWrites
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/holly-brians-ragusa-91b0413b/
• Twitter: @hbrag

Image Credits
Holly Brians Ragusa
Amy Hunter
Michelle Abernathy
John Powell