In 2023 I began creating print-on-demand books under the "Miscagon" imprint. It's a made-up word that might describe an object with a miscellaneous number of sides, because I intend to make miscellaneous kinds of books. Check out the project here.
I wrote the Cleveland Museum of Art's entry in the Scala series of short books about museum architecture projects. It's now out of print but still available in places.
My freelance writing career in Cleveland dates to 1989, with more than 100 articles and many photographs printed in publications including Angle, Cleveland Free Times, Cleveland Magazine, Cleveland Plain Dealer, CWRU Magazine, Heights Observer, Hiram Poetry Review, Northern Ohio LIVE, Oberlin Alumni Magazine, and (online) Voice: AIGA Journal of Design and Belt: Dispatches from the Rust Belt. Add to that lots and lots of photographs and articles in Cleveland Museum of Art publications. Below are a few relatively recent publications that exist online.
Written in the Trees, article profiling Oberlin biology professor Mary Garvin's class project around a childhood cancer cluster in Clyde, Ohio. READ
That Better Place, essay on the unpredictable effects of mobility, also published in the print compendium Voices from the Rust Belt (Picador, 2018). READ
When the Story Tells the Numbers, how pre-conceived narratives about "how things are" affect settlement patterns and economic opportunity. READ
The Many Cities of Cleveland, also published in the print collection Dispatches from the Rust Belt (Belt Publishing 2015). READ
Cleveland Heights and the Problem with “Used to Be,” written after the killing of a popular local bar owner prompted prefabricated media responses. READ
Rust Belt Questionnaire, A special quiz. READ
Committees Commit, Designers Design, published in the American Institute of Graphic Arts's old online journal Voice, explored the ways in which democratic processes might make for good design—a thesis that prompted strong commentary for and against from the design community (where monarchy tends to trump democracy). READ
SkunkFest! Annual event draws a distinctive crowd. READ
A Walking Tour: when the Cleveland Museum of Art fully reopened after an eight-year renovation and expansion project in 2014, I had the brilliant idea, as the managing editor and designer of the museum's magazine Cleveland Art, to publish a comprehensive walking tour of the entire museum including highlights called out by each of the 18 curators. The project nearly killed me, but it turned out okay. READ
As the museum magazine's editor, I had the opportunity to interview some fascinating people, one of whom was the acoustic designer Paul Scarbrough. This article, Sound Principles, discusses the renovation of the museum's sonically enigmatic auditorium. READ
For the feature Art in Space, I interviewed the Cleveland Museum of Art's director of design and architecture Jeffrey Strean to get a sense of the goals of the ambitious renovation and expansion project that had begun about 18 months previously and was as yet many years from completion. READ
Other editorial work
Annual report and program-related writing for United Way of Greater Cleveland. 2022 Annual Report; Give for Good publication
English-language editing and writing for Ital Cycling. READ
Contact: info@gmdonley.com