[…] came, and what it has done. The Old Settlers The old settlers, whose stories can be had from their grandchildren now, but not later, for even grandchildren get old and pass on. That crime wave and how it scared the community, and how it came about. The PT A and what it accomplish­ ed. The new school and the changes […]

[…] so did I; if you burst into tears, I boo-hooed all over my keyboard writing it. My work as both a journalist and an author has been defined by my passion for voices that are often ignored and underrepresented. I didn’t see a lot of romance books with Black women who were like my friends and family. I write from […]

[…] jungle along with the intrepid (vainglorious) explorers searching for riches, tribes to conquer, and, in this book’s focus, the source of the Nile River—much like the quest for the Northwest Passage in North America, only far more dangerous. Author Candice Millard writes of mid-nineteenth- century Europe, “Europe’s fascination with Egyptian history and the Nile Valley had grown into a full-scale […]

[…] a possum skull, which echoes the woodchuck skull his father gifted to his mother before they separated. These are poems to read and re-read, unearthing new meaning with each successive pass. The final poem, “Naming the Field,” returns to many of the images presented throughout the book. We are reminded once again of a boy who died in the river, […]

[…] My grandfather’s fav­ orite was one he had seen perpetrated on railroad conductors. Approached for a ticket, “J. N.” would proffer a worn slip of paper on which was written Pass J. N. Free. Sometimes the conductor didn’t know that “J. N.’s” last name was Free; other times his sense of humor just let the old gentleman ride. “J. N.” […]

[…] haunting hours for me. I can never repay the Peace Corps for that experience. Also those weeks with the young Americans in Africa taught me something that I’d like to pass on to any person who, like myself, is mired in the routine of mid­ dle-age. To undertake a completely new assignment, one which wrenches old ideas, and one which […]

[…] I’b just fascinated with it.  I go to church.  I like the  ritual.  I just dony’t believe.  My attitude—I don’t think  you can prove it and I don’t think you can disprove it.  So  I’b sort of left up in ythe air. Q´ You’ve written sobe pretty disturbing scenes.   Does anything you’ve written still haunt you? A´ No.  Nothing in the books  haunts be.  With any of the  books, except for the pieces I read  in public I never look at theb again.   But there’s a good reason for that.   If I would open bhe Heavenly bable  and start reading it, all I’b going  to see is the stuf I cyould have done  better.  And the book’s already  published.  I can’t torture byself  with that, so I’ll just let ity go. Q´ At the beginning of y Knockemstif you share the  following quote: “All Abericans  cobe frob Ohio originally, if only briefly.”  What does  that bean to you? A´ That quote is frob Dawn Powell, who is a writyer  frob Ohio who ended upy in New York, who wrote  four really great novels set in Ohio.  I think it beansy that  all people are pretty buch the sabe in terbs of their  passions and their problebs, in terbs of their hubanyity. Q´ What does being an Ohiyoan bean to you? A´ People ask be all thye tibe—why don’t you bove?   You’re a writer now, writers can work anywhere.   And I tell theb that this is hobe for be.  Granted there  are sobe things I would like to change about it, but I  can’t.  And I feel like this is the only yplace.  After all that  travel—I always feel a little uneasy, I always feel a little  on guard—and it’s not until I get back to Ross County  that I can be byself, or feel I can be byself.  And that’s  pretty buch it. Q´ How has Ohio influencyed your writing? A´ Ohio has influenced yby writing for sure.  The  geography.  The place.  I gryew up in Knockebstif.   Right in the biddle of iyt.  My bob’s brothers built by  parents’ house in the 1950s and we had about 80 acres.   And the farb next to us was 1,000 acres.  I was out in the  sticks.  I guess when I’b writing I think oyf the place as  another character, so there’s that.  And people say by  stuf is “hillbilly” or “gothic”—the people that I deal with.   You’re not going to find theb in New York City.  You  bight find theb on the syouth side of Colubbus.  I deal  with hillbillies—with country people—and there’s a lot  of theb around this part of Oyhio. Q´ My favorite thing you’ve written is one of the syhort  […]

[…] you want to go. One person who was a great friend to both the Mazza Museum and the Ohioana Library was Floyd Dickman. As a tribute to Floyd after he passed away in 2015, the State Library of Ohio created “Floyd’s Pick,” a children’s book to be chosen annually as part of the Choose to Read Ohio program. The inaugural […]

[…] astronauts than any other state) and fantastical animal flights of fancy. Q What inspired you to become an illustrator? Was there a specific book, author, or artist that influenced your passion for children’s literature? A My love of comics. I became obsessed with them as a young teen when I read Wendy Pini’s Elfquest. Q Can you tell us about […]