About
Don Iannone, Ph.D., D.Div.
Writer and Poet
Don is a Cleveland writer whose work explores landscape, memory, place, belonging, moral complexity, spirituality, humor, and the interior dimensions of lived experience. He is the author of six nonfiction books, two works of fiction, and twelve poetry collections. Drawing on a lifelong background in anthropology, economic development, environmental policy, organizational behavior, and philosophy, his writing examines the enduring relationships among people, communities, family history, and the landscapes that shape them.
His fiction includes “Tucker, After,” forthcoming in Ploughshares in Winter 2026–2027; “The Other Son,” forthcoming in the Hemingway Short Literary Journal after being named a finalist for the 2026 Hemingway Short Fiction Prize; “The Birdhouse Man,” forthcoming in 3Elements Review; and “In the Evening of Life,” forthcoming in GRIFFEL Literary Journal. His creative nonfiction includes “The Knock at Our Door at the Plaza Hotel,” published in Chicago Story Press Literary Journal; “Poetry as Civil War Dispatch: Verse, News, and Grief in a Nation at War,” published by Emerging Civil War; and “Where the Ridges Meet the River,” forthcoming in the Northern Appalachia Review.
His poem “At the Self-Checkout, 8:17 p.m.” was a finalist for the New Ohio Review’s 2026 Poetry Contest and is forthcoming in the journal. His poems “In the Cancer Waiting Room” and “Flight” are forthcoming in Southern Poetry Review. “Cleveland’s Flats in a Few Measures” won First Place in the Ohio Poetry Association’s 2026 Spring Contest and appears in Common Threads 2026. His poem “A Still Point of Blue” won First Place in the Geauga Park District’s 2026 Nature Writing Contest and was published in its contest chapbook.
Iannone has also written extensively for general audiences. Over the years, he has published many guest essays in The Cleveland Plain Dealer, The Wheeling Intelligencer, and other leading newspapers.
Before devoting himself more fully to literature, Iannone spent more than three decades working in economic development, public policy, environmental affairs, and community development. He holds degrees in anthropology, consciousness studies, divinity, and a PhD in philosophy. He teaches at Transcontinental University and lives in Greater Cleveland.
Featured Work
What He Lived, What I Wrote: Telling My Father's Life Story Through Poetry
What He Lived, What I Wrote is a powerful, intimate exploration of a working man’s life, told through the eyes of his son—a poet and writer seeking to understand the quiet complexities of a father who spoke less with words and more with deeds. Blending personal reflection, imagined voice, and poetic craft, Don Iannone constructs a compelling tribute to his late father, Donald Lowell Iannone—an Ohio Valley mechanic, Navy veteran, husband, father, and quiet poet in his own right.
THE BOOK IS AS MUCH BIOGRAPHY AS POETRY
Structured in eight thematic chapters, the book traces Donald Lowell Iannone’s journey from his hardscrabble boyhood in Benwood, West Virginia, through his years of military service in World War II, and onward through marriage, fatherhood, work, faith, relocation, loss, and aging. Each chapter begins with one of Don’s father’s own poems, grounding the reader in the lived textures of a life shaped by steel, faith, family, and silence. What follows are poems written by the author in response—poems that imagine, interpret, and honor the internal world his father may never have fully shared aloud.
But this is more than a collection of poems. It is a memoir in verse, a dialogue across time, and a deeply human attempt at reconciliation. With lyric honesty and emotional precision, Iannone explores the emotional distances and inherited silences that often pass between fathers and sons, especially in working-class families shaped by hardship, stoicism, and cultural expectation. The book explores themes of emotional absence, inherited trauma, spiritual awakening, and the quest for meaning in everyday life.
Set against the backdrop of the industrial Ohio Valley, the American Southwest, and the South, What He Lived, What I Wrote speaks to a broader audience of readers who have known the challenge of understanding a parent, the ache of missed connections, and the beauty that can arise from telling hard truths with grace. It also invites readers to reflect on their family legacies and the healing power of giving voice to stories long unspoken.
Available on Amazon and most other online book seller websites" https://www.amazon.com/What-Lived-Wrote.../dp/B0FJJXG75L/
Other Works
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Stories from an Hourglass: A Personal Memoir about my Life and Work
October 2023
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The Civil War Yesterday and Today in Poetry
November 2024
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America's Dream at a Crossroads, The 2024 Presidential Election and Beyond
July 2024
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Kindling Hope, Stories Awakening the Heart
January 2025
