Born: June 8, 1928Died: March 8, 2018 Ohio connection: Birth Toledo Kate Wilhelm was born Katie Gertrude Meredith, daughter of Jesse and Ann Meredith, in Toledo, Ohio, in 1928. After graduating from high school in Louisville, Kentucky, she worked as a model, telephone operator, sales clerk, switchboard operator, and underwriter for an insurance company. She …
Read More Kate WilhelmBorn: May 25, 1909Died: February 8, 1993 Ohio connection: Birth Greenville Award-winning author Jean Gould was a prolific writer whose work included books for both children and adults. She is most well-known for her biographies of prominent figures in literature, theater, industry and politics. However, her early writing includes fairy tales, plays, and short stories …
Read More Jean Rosalind GouldBorn: 1958 Ohio connection: Resident Poland Nin Andrews grew up on a farm in Charlottesville, Virginia. She received her B.A. in 1980 from Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, and her MFA in 1995 from Vermont College. In 1982, she married Jim Andrews. Nin Andrews’ work has appeared in many literary journals and anthologies. She is …
Read More Nin AndrewsBorn: 1941 Ohio connection: Birth Cleveland Three weeks after her parents, Paul (a psychoanalyst) and Ellen Bergman, arrived in the United States after fleeing the Nazi regimes of Central Europe, Carol Ascher was born in Cleveland, Ohio. Ascher and her family lived in Topeka, Kansas, until she was twelve. The comforts of that Midwestern existence were …
Read More Carol AscherBorn: September 13, 1876Died: March 8, 1941 Ohio connection: Birth Camden Sherwood Anderson was, essentially, a self-educated short-story writer and novelist. With his almost staccato style of writing and by his injecting his own personal experiences and people he knew into his own novels, Anderson helped set a new standard for Midwestern literature. Born in Camden, …
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Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month (also referred to as Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month and Asian Pacific Islander Desi American Heritage Month) provides Ohioans with a chance to either revisit or to learn about all the exciting literary figures that were either born in Ohio or have called the Buckeye State home. And, as always, …
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To view a recording of our conversation, click here to visit our Facebook page! On the eve of the 51st commemoration of the Kent State shootings, the Ohio Center for the Book had the honor of holding a conversation with Derf Backderf about his meticulously researched Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio. In a starred …
Read More Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio – A Conversation with Derf BackderfBorn: May 4, 1952Died: November 8, 2008 Ohio connection: Resident Cleveland A Philadelphia native, Sheila Miriam Schwartz was born to Philip and Ruth (Motiloff) Schwartz. She graduated from Temple University with a B.A. in English in 1974 and earned her M.A. in creative writing from the State University of New York, Binghamton in 1981. Schwartz …
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We were very fortunate this year to be able to celebrate National Poetry Month with two major events: one with the emerging poets of the ID13 Prison Literacy Project and one with three established, award-winning poets in collaboration with the Ohioana Book Festival! We Are Human. We Write: Poetry Readings Featuring ID13 Prison Literacy Project …
Read More National Poetry Month Round-upBorn: April 26, 1941Died: June 16, 2020 Ohio connection: Birth Toledo Robert James Flanagan was born in Toledo in 1941. His father, Robert John Flanagan, was a disabled World War I veteran and his mother was Minnie Jane (nee Treloar) Flanagan. Growing up in Toledo, Flanagan thought he would become a policeman like his grandfather …
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