Born: 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 …
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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 …
Read More Robert James FlanaganBorn: April 5, 1935Died: August 22, 2018 Ohio connection: Birth Stark County H. M. Hoover, the pen name of author Helen Mary Hoover, was born in 1935 in Stark County, Ohio. The daughter of Edward Lehr and Sadie (Schandel) Hoover graduated from Louisville High School in 1952 and attended Mount Union College in Alliance, Ohio. …
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Happy St. Patrick’s Day to you all! Although everyone’s a little Irish on St. Patrick’s Day, numerous authentic Irish-American authors have called Ohio home! Here are just a tiny sample of authors with Irish heritage for you to explore. Click the links to find out more about each of them. George Condon (former resident, Lakewood; …
Read More Lá fhéile Pádraig sona dhaoibh!Born: March 7, 1873Died: April 25, 1936 Ohio connection: Birth Cadiz Prominent drama critic and journalist, Percy Hunter Hammond was born in Cadiz, Ohio. Although his father was Cadiz’s leading merchant, at thirteen, Percy Hammond felt irrepressibly drawn towards newspaper journalism, and worked as a “printer’s devil” for his uncle’s newspaper, the Cadiz Republican. In …
Read More Percy HammondBorn: March 13, 1947Died: October 17, 2005 Ohio connection: Birth Cleveland David Citino was born in Cleveland, Ohio. He graduated from St. Ignatius High School and went on to received his B.A. from Ohio University in 1969, an M.A. from The Ohio State University (OSU) in 1972, and a Ph.D. from OSU in 1974. In …
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