[…] 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 […]

[…] time establishing the drama of his story, entering deftly into the mind of Manasseh Cutler as he embarks on a journey from Massachusetts to New York, to lobby Congress for passage of the Northwest Ordinance: BOOK REVIEWS | NONFICTION | Ohioana Quarterly 15 “Never before, as he knew, had any of his countrymen set off to accomplish anything like what […]

[…] 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.” […]

[…] disregard the advantages of learning a poem by heart, for memory requires training, and beyond doubt a poem which jingles a bit is twice as easy to learn as a passage of prose. The first poem I ever wrote has no title and never had. It is not a produc­ tion of which I am proud, and I rather wish […]

[…] 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 […]

[…] for movies and music—all things that still resonant with people today . Q What inspired you to become a writer? Were there any specific books or authors that sparked your passion and led you to this career? A I loved escaping to books when I was growing up, and there were a lot of different writers who inspired me to […]

[…] views of the westward journey from multiple perspectives as the companies faced the perils of the wilderness and the treachery of human nature. Once in gold country, many booked immediate passage home, but some remained with Darcy to work a successful mining operation before returning east with comfortable fortunes. A few, enchanted by the opportunities of the Golden Coast, took […]