I grew up on Cleveland’s west side, attended University School for high school, then received a BA with a major in Writing Composition from Denison University. I was Co-Editor of the Denisonian, Poetry Editor for Exile literary magazine, and was also one of three to win the Annie MacNeil Poetry Prize.
After college, I moved from Cleveland to Washington, DC, where I invested three years in the writing of a novel that was destroyed when my hard drive crashed and floppies incurred fatal injuries. Not taking the hint, I started Animals in the Clouds, an overly long novel about nothing in particular. It won rave reviews from friends who wanted to stay friends, and has since been put to use alternately as a door stop and insect bludgeon.
In 2000, an illness in the family drew me back to Cleveland, where I founded VerticalLift, a web design business that also offers photography services. I’ve since built well over a hundred websites, while being hired to photograph numerous events.
I still occasionally write poems. As a special treat for those intrepid friends who so enjoyed my novel, I’ve made a book of them available on this site. I also like to paint, and have even convinced a few kind souls to pay me to do it.
Feel free to contact me at rich@vertlift.com or 216.650.1665 if interested in web design, photography, or portraiture services.
