Category: Literature

Zakes Mda

Born: 1948 Ohio connection: Resident Athens A novelist and playwright, Zakes Mda has won every major South African literary prize. He is the author of six novels, among them Ways of Dying (winner of the M-Net Award for best novel and the Olive Schreiner Prize), The Heart of Redness (winner of the Hurston/Wright LEGACY Award for Fiction; a New York Times …

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Paula McLain

Born: 1965 Ohio connection: Resident Cleveland Paula McLain was born in Fresno, California in 1965. After being abandoned by both parents, she and her two sisters became wards of the California Court System, moving in and out of various foster homes for the next fourteen years. After aging out of the system, she supported herself by working …

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Erin McGraw

Born: 1957 Ohio connection: Resident Columbus Erin McGraw was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of Eva Marie and C. Thomas McGraw. She attended the University of California-Davis, earning an A.B. in 1979, and Indiana University-Bloomington, where she earned her M.F.A. in 1986. McGraw’s first two books, Bodies at Sea (1989) and Lies of the Saints, …

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Ronald McFarland

Born: 1942 Ohio connection: Birth Bellaire Educator and poet, Ronald Earl McFarland, the son of Earl A. and Maxine (Stullenberger) McFarland, was born in Bellaire, Ohio, and grew up in Ohio and Florida. His education includes Brevard Junior College, A.A., 1962; Florida State University, B.A., 1963 M.A., 1965; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Ph.D., 1970.   McFarland has …

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Sandra Markle

Fostoria Born: 1946 Ohio connection: Birth Sandra Markle was born in 1946 in Fostoria, Ohio, the daughter of Robert and Dorothy (Sauler) Haldeman. She received a B.A. degree from Bowling Green University in 1968. That same year, she married William Markle, with whom she had two children, Scott and Holly. Sandra Markle went on to do graduate …

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