Southeast: Region Six
Eshleman, Clayton
June 1, 1935 -
Place of Birth: Indianapolis, IN
Place of Principle Residence: Ypsilanti, MI
Biography:
Clayton Eshleman was born to Gladys and Clayton Eshleman in 1935 in Indianapolis, IN. He attended Indiana University and received his BA in philosophy in 1958 and M.A.T. in Creative Writing in 1961. He was an instructor in English for a year before moving to Kobe, Japan as an English language and writing instructor for Matsushita Electric Corporation. In 1966 he moved to New York City as an instructor at the American Language Institute and as a publisher and editor for Caterpillar books and Caterpillar magazine. Eshleman became founder and editor of Sulfur magazine in 1981. Starting in the 1970s Eshleman traveled around the country as a visiting professor and poet in residence. In 1986 he moved to Eastern Michigan University as a Professor of English. Eshleman is a known translator, winning the National Book Award in 1979 for his co-translaton of Cesar Vallejo’s Complete Posthumous Poem. In addition to being the main American tranlator of Cesar Vallejo, Eshleman has also translated books by Antonin Arlaudi and Bernard Bador, among others. Eshleman has made frequent trips with his wife, Caryl, to France to study Ice Age Cave Art and finished his research in the 1990s with publishing his findings in his book, Juniper Fuse. He has one son, Matthew, by his first wife Barbara Novak.
Selected Works:
Poetry:
- Cantaloups and Splendour (1968)
- Under World Arrest (1994)
- Archaic Design (2007)
Prose:
- Companion Spider (2002)
Translation:
- The Collected Poetry by Aimé Césaire (1984)
- The Complete Poetry of César Vallejo (2007)
Awards:
- 1968 Poetry Magazine Award for “Five Poems”
- 1977 Carnegie Author’s Fund Award
- 1978 Guggenheim Fellowship in Poetry for research on Upper Paleolitic Cave Art
- 1989 Distinguished Faculty Research/Creativity Award, Eastern Michigan University
- 1992 Michigan Artists Award, Arts Foundation of Michigan
- 2002 Landon Translation Prize, Academy of American Poets, for “Trilce”
- 2002 Sabio Award for Excellent in Literary Translation, San Diego State University
Critical Reception:
“This [The Complete Poetry, César Vallejo] is a crucially important translation of one of the poetic geniuses of the twentieth century.”
- William Rowe, author of Poets of Contemporary Latin America: History and the Inner Life.
“Sulfur must be the most important literary magazine which has explored and extended the boundaries of poetry. Clayton Eshleman has had a nose for smelling out what was going to happen next in the ceaseless evolution of the art.”
- James Laughlin, New Directions Books.
Relevance of Place to Author’s Work:
Eshleman is a Professor of English at Eastern Michigan University.
Frazier, Neta
April 18, 1890 – June 2, 1990
Place of Birth: Owosso, MI
Place of Principle Residence: Spokane, Washington
Biography:
Neta Lohnes Frazier was born to Jennie and Emory in Owosso, MI in 1890. She moved with her family to Spokane in 1905 and attended Whitman College, receiving her B.A as a Phi Beta Kappa member. She taught at Waitsburg High School where she met and married another teacher, Earl Frazier. The two moved to Spokane in 1920. Frazier published fourteen books between 1947 and 1973, four of which received Junior Literary Guild Awards. Most of her work was based on Pacific Northwest History. In 1978 Women in Communications gave Frazier their first “Award of Excellence” for her fifty years as an author. She died in 1990, and was survived by her three children Lesley, Philip, and Richard, and her five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
Selected Works:
- By-Line Dennie (1947)
- My Love Is a Gypsy (1952)
- Secret Friend (1956)
- One Long Picnic (1962)
- Sacajawea, the Girl Nobody Knows (1967)
Awards:
- Foremost Women in Communications
- Junior Literary Guild Selections
- 1960 One of the outstanding Kappa Kappa Gamma alumnae
- 1968 Fort Wright College Award
- 1968 Governor’s Award
- 1978 Women in Communications Award for Excellence
- Spokane Pen Women
Critical Reception:
Frazier’s writing has enjoyed many awards, including four Junior Literary Guild awards for four of her fourteen books.
Gauch, Patricia
January 3, 1934 –
Place of Birth: Detroit, MI
Place of Principle Residence: Hyde Park, NY
Biography:
Patricia Lee Gauch was born to Muriel and William Melbourne (an investor) on January 3, 1954 in Detroit, MI. As a child she ran barefoot on the beaches of Michigan during the summer, racing turtles and swimming, and sipping milkshakes. She attributes this experience to the sense of freedom and spontaneity captured in her children’s books. Gauch received her B.A. in English Literature in 1956 at Miami University and subsequently worked as a reporter for the Louisville Courier Journal and a freelanced for the Detroit Free Press. She married Ronald Gauch, a scientist and administrator, and had three children, Sarah, Christine, and John. After the birth of her first child, Gauch turned from journalism to children’s literature. She took a writing class from a well-known children’s author, Jean Fritz, who Gauch attributes the sale of her first book. In 1970 Gauch received her M.A.T. and PhD at Manhattanville College and worked at Coward-McCann as a Publisher and Writer. Between 1972 and 1983 Gauch was a teacher for Gill – St. Berhards School and then went on to teach children’s literature at Drew University and Rutgers University. In 1985 she became the edititor-in-chief for Philomel Books and served as chairman of Rutgers University Advisory Council on Children’s Literature from 1984 t0 1986. Gauch has published almost forty picture books and novels, several of which have been inspired by her children. Her free-form verse book Thunder at Gettysburg is still used as a classroom resource thirty years after its publication date. In the 1970s Gauch was one of the first authors to present strong female characters in her books, which are now considered a requirement. Gauch currently lives with her husband in Hyde Park, New York.
Selected Works:
- Aaron and the Green Mountain Boys (2004)
- Tanya and the Red Shoes (2002)
- Presenting Tanya The Ugly Duckling (1999)
- Tanya and Emily in a Dance for Two, Philomel (1994)
- Dance Tanya (1989)
- Thunder at Gettysburg (1975)
Awards:
- 1976 Mark Twain Award Nominee
- 1978 Boston Globe – Horn book award
Critical Reception:
For Christina Katrina and the Box:
“You won’t believe how much fun a cardboard box can be! A gleeful little story of imaginative play enlivened by the delightful illustrations.”
—School Library Journal
“The idea of imaginative play is convincingly and elaborately pursued. The illustrations augment the story with visual detail.”
—The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
Relevance of Place to Author’s Work:
As a child Gauch spent her summers on the beaches of Michigan. She later incorporated her memories of the spontaneity and freedom of these summers in her children’s books.
Guest, Edgar Albert
August 20th, 1881—August 5th, 1959
Place of Birth: Birmingham, England
Place of Principal Residence: Detroit, MI
Biography
In 1891, at the age of ten, Albert Guest followed his family to the United States. They moved to Detroit, where Guest found a job at the Detroit Free Press. He used the paper as an outlet for his poetry. After his father’s death in 1898, Guest dropped out of high school and began working full time. In 1904 he started a weekly column called “Chaff”. The column was later picked up by over 300 United States newspapers.
Albert Guest married Nellie Crossman in 1906. They had three children. His first two books, Home Rhymes and Just Glad Things, were published through his brother Harry. The works became popular, and a publishing house from Chicago picked them up. Guest was soon writing full-time and publishing about one book every year.
Throughout the 1930s, Guest hosted for a weekly Detroit radio show, and then later for an NBC television series called A Guest in Your House. By the time died in 1959, he had written over 11,000 poems. His works have been published in Reader’s Digest as well as in prominent poetry magazines and journals.
Selected Works
- Home Rhymes, from Breakfast Table Chat (1909)
- A Heap o’ Livin’ (1916)
- A Dozen New Poems(1920)
- All That Matters (1922)
- Harbor Lights of Home (1928)
- Faith (1932)
- Collected Verse of Edgar Guest (1934)
- All in a Lifetime (1938)
- Between You and Me: My Philosophy of Life (1938)
- Living the Years (1949)
Awards
- Named the “People’s Poet”
- Poet Laureate of Michigan
Critical Reception
Guest called himself “A newspaper man who wrote verses.” His poems were simple, sentimental, and usually around fourteen lines. Those who read Guest considered him an optimist, who wrote to express the joys and wonders of life as it was lived. “I take simple everyday things that happen to me and I make simple rhymes out of them.”
Relevance of Place to Author’s Work
For most of his life, Guest was a writer for his local newspaper. The city of Detroit had a significant impact on his writing.
Hamilton, Steve
January 10, 1961 -
Place of Birth: Detroit, MI
Place of Principal Residence: Cottekill, New York
Biography
Steve Hamilton was born to Nonna and Robert Hamilton Detroit, Michigan on January 10, 1961. He graduated with a BA from the University of Michigan in 1983. Hamilton earned recognition for his writing early on in life when he was given the Hopwood Award for Fiction from the University of Michigan. His first book, A Cold Day in Paradise, was enthusiastically received, and sparked a chain of novels in the Alex McKnight series. Hamilton currently works at IBM and lives in Cottekill, NY with his wife Julie and their two children.
Selected Works
- Night Work
- A Stolen Season
- Blood is the Sky
- North of Nowhere
Awards
- Hopwood Award for fiction
- 2006 Michigan Author Award in 2006
- Private Eye Writer’s of America award for Best First Mystery for A Cold Day in Paradise won the by an Unpublished Writer
- MWA Edgar and the PWA Shamus Awards for Best First Novel
Critical Reception
For North of Nowhere:
“Steve Hamilton writes the kind of stories that manly men and tough-minded women can’t resist.”
- The New York Times
“No longer a cop, inactive as a private eye, classic loner Alex McKnight has retreated to his lakeside cabin in this superb yarn, [and while] Alex
McKnight would probably hate the idea, mysteries this good may make him extremely popular.”
- Publishers Weekly
“If Steve Hamilton isn’t careful, he’ll bring an influx of new residents and development to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Like his former novels,
Hamilton’s North of Nowhere is smooth. [It’s] a book to settle down with, be it spring, summer or winter.”
- Plots with Guns
“It grabbed me from the first page and kept me going right till the end. Every time I thought I had everything figured out, BAM, another twist.”
- Books ‘N Bytes
“Alex is at his best and the support cast augments the isolated feeling of going North Of Nowhere that shows why Steve Hamilton is an award-
winning author.”
- Internet Book Watch
Relevance of Place to Author’s Work
Hamilton was born in Detroit, Michigan and attended and graduated from The University of Michigan. Hamilton also won the Michigan Author Award in 2006.