Southeast: Region Six
Litwak, Leo
May 28, 1924 –
Place of Birth: Detroit, MI
Place of Principle Residence: San Francisco, CA
Biography:
Leo Litwak was born to Bessie and Issac (a labor leader) in 1924 at Detroit, MI. He attended the University of Michigan before serving in the infantry in Europe during WWII. He completed his B.A. at Wayne State University in 1948 and went on to graduate study at Columbia University between 1948 and 1951. Litwak first worked as an Instructor of Philosophy at Washington University between 1951 to 1960 before moving to San Francisco State University and becoming a Professor of literature and creative writing, where he remains today. His first book To the Hanging Gardens was published in 1964 followed by Waiting for the News, which won the National Jewish Book Award. Litwak lives in San Francisco and has one daughter, Jessica.
Selected Works:
- To the Hanging Gardens (1964)
- Waiting for the News (1969)
- College Days in Earthquake Country: Ordeal at San Francisco State (1971)
- Medic: Life and Death in the Last Days of World War II (2001)
Awards:
- 1959 Longview Foundation Award
- 1969 Edward Lewis Wailan Memorial Book Award
- 1970 Award, Jewish Book Council of the National Jewish Welfare Board
- 1970 Guggenheim Fellowship
- 1970 Daroff Memorial Prize
Critical Reception:
For The Medic:
“A terse, vivid, occasionally funny, quietly ironic, often brutal narrative ... An unflinching portrait of the times.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“A book for the generations. In lean, quick, and ultimately eloquent prose Leo Litwak tells the truth about WWII. He speaks with a young man’s
toughness about events as they were.”
—Earl Shorris, author of Latinos and New American Blues
“Litwak’s timing is compelling, his characters are vivid, memorable, and real, and his story is laced with humor and insight.”
—Molly Giles, author of Iron Shoes and Rough Translations
“A “brutal and yet frequently uplifting saga of war… There are no ‘good guys’ or ‘bad guys’ here, although the presence of both good and evil is
constant. Instead, we witness ordinary men, most of them quite young, striving to survive a conflict that few of them understand… A disturbing,
revealing, and very important glimpse of warfare.”
– Booklist
Relevance of Place to Author’s Work:
Litwak attended the University of Michigan before joining the infantry in the US army during WWII.
Milner, Ron
May 29, 1938 – July 9, 2004
Place of Birth: Detroit, MI
Principle Residence: Detroit, MI
Biography:
Ron Milner never abandoned his native hometown Detroit, MI. His experience as an African-American growing up in an era of racial tension stayed with him all his life. As a young man he attended Highland Park Junior College, Detroit Institute of Technology, and Columbia University of New York. At age nineteen Milner met Woodie King, Jr. who encouraged his friend the short play, American Agony, which the two performed in a small coffee shop. The men continued collaborating for forty-four years. Milner wrote plays for the Concepts East Theater (founded by King in 1959). The same theater produced other famous writers of the Black Arts Movement such as Ed Bullins, Ben Caldwell, Amiri Baraka, and J.E. Franklin. When employed as a writer in residence at Lincoln University, Milner was encouraged to write by his friend Langston Hughes to use a more personal voice in his writing. During this time his writing matured, and Milner gradually came to be known at the “people’s playwright” for his ceaseless commitment in using Black theater for the advancement of Black people. Several of his plays enjoyed great success, including Checkmates, which starred Denzel Washington and Paul Winfield, and What the Wine-Sellers Buy, which earned over a million dollars. In addition to writing many plays, Milner was a director, critic, and editor. He taught creative writing at the University of Southern California from 1979 – 1981 before moving back to Detroit. Milner worked hard to establish regional-level Black theater in Michigan and to educate children by using theater. Milner died of liver cancer in 2004.
Selected Works:
- Don’t Get God Started (1987)
- Crack Steppin’ (1981)
- Season’s Reasons (1976)
- Who’s Got His Own (1966)
- What the Wine-Sellers Buy (1974)
- Black Short Story Anthology (1972)
Awards:
- Rockefeller Grant
- John Hay Whitney Fellowship
- Checkmates performed on Broadway
- What the Wine-Sellers Buy first play by an African American produced by Joseph Papp at the New York Shakespeare Festival at Lincoln Center
Critical Reception:
“It [What the Wine-Sellers Buy] is an interesting play and deserves a wider circulation…Mr. Milner’s picture of the Detroit ghetto has that special authority that infallibly suggests authenticity, and his story of a black kid finally resisting the temptation to become a pimp is satisfyingly moral.’‘
- Clives Barnes of The New York Times
“Detroit is to the Black Theater movement what New Orleans is to jazz, because of the contributions of three men: Lloyd Richards; Woodie King; and Ron Milner.”
- August Wilson
“Ron Milner, a native Detroit writer, is one of the most produced and highly respected African American playwrights. Since the 1960s his works have become staples of African American theaters around the country”
—Bill Harris, Wayne State University
Relevance of Place to Author’s Work:
Milner received his inspiration and dedication from his hometown, Detroit. According to Milner, he found more clarity and creativity in this environment. He worked tirelessly towards the advancement of Black people through theater.
Minty, Judith
Marcy 28, 1909 - May 9, 1981
Place of Birth: Detroit, MI
Place of Principal Residence: New Era, MI
Biography:
Judith Minty was born in Detroit, Michigan to Karl and Margaret Makinen. During childhood her years were divided into spending the school semesters in Detroit and the summers camping with her family in the North Woods. She graduated with a Master’s in English from Western Michigan University in 1993, and has worked as a Professor at colleges in Michigan, the West Coast, and California. In 1982 to 1993 she served as the director of the Creative Writing Program at Humboldt State University. While teaching, Minty kept up her writing, publishing poems, essays, and short stories that have enjoyed much success and have been published in over fifty anthologies. She is married to Edgar S. Minty and has three children, Lora, John Reed, and Ann. Currently Minty resides in western Michigan by the Lake Michigan shoreline, but spends part of her year at a cabin on the Yellow Dog River in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
Selected Works:
- Lake Songs and Other Fears (1974)
- Yellow Dog Journal (1979)
- In the Presence of Mothers (1981)
- Contemporary Michigan Poetry: Poems from the Third Coast (1988)
- Dancing the Fault (1991)
- The Mad Painter Poems (1996)
- Walking with the Bear: Selected and New Poems (2000)
Awards:
- 1974 Eunice Tietjens Award, Poetry Magazine
- 1974 United States Award of the International Poetry Forum
- 1981, 1983 Grants, Michigan Council for the Arts
- 1985 PEN Syndicated Fiction Award
- California Fiction Award from PEN/The Mead Foundation
- Villa Montalvo Award for Excellence in Poetry
- Kentucky Foundation for Women Residency Grant
- Honorary Doctorate of Humanities from Michigan Technological University
- Mark Twain Award for Distinguished Contributions to Midwestern Literature from the Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature
Critical Reception:
In 1974 Minty’s first book Lake Songs and Other Fears won the US Award of the International Poetry Forum. Her poetry has been praised for its vivid imagery and captivating themes that Minty draws from her own life experiences. Editor Elinor Benedict of Passages North wrote Minty “achieves her power without resorting to excess of diction, metaphor, rhetoric, or quirky play with punctuation. In the web of human relations, she avoids sentimentality; in the depths of the unconscious, she resists portentousness.” Minty’s poems are used in school curriculums and have been said to reflect Michigan in her poetry including nature and animal themes.
Relevance of Place to Author’s Work:
Minty is greatly inspired by her surroundings. Her book, The Yellow Dog Journal, reflects her experience of living in the lake country of Michigan near the Yellow Dog River. In Dancing the Fault Minty compares the lake country of Michigan with the rainy coast of California (where she lived for several years). Critics have recognized the constant thread of place in Minty’s work, whether in Michigan or in California.
Noble, Trinka
Oct. 8, 1994 –
Place of Birth: Albion, MI
Place of Principle Residence: Bernardsville, New Jersey
Biography:
Trinka Noble grew up on a farm with her parents, Carl and Heva, and her six brothers and sisters. The numerous animals wandering about her family’s farm planted an appreciation in Noble, a love that later came out in her books, particularly The Day Jimmy’s Boa Ate the Wash. According to Noble, she first wanted to become an artist at age two by smelling crayons. Childhood memories like these appear in several of Noble’s books. In second grade, her teacher posted her drawing on the bulletin board, an act Noble vividly remembers today. The author memorialized her teacher in The Day Jimmy’s Boa Ate the Wash, by naming a character after her. Noble also praised her father in her book Apple Tree Christmas for buying her a drawing board for Christmas during her childhood. In 1967 Noble graduated from Michigan State University with a Bachelor’s degree of the fine arts and subsequently attended two schools in New York City: Patterson’s School of Design and the New School of Social Research. One of her crowning moments was studying with Caldecott medalist Uri Schulevitz in a Greenwich Village workshop. Noble has worked as an art teacher in elementary schools in Michigan, Virginia, and Rhode Island. She currently lives in a house built in 1780 located in the Jockey Hollow area of Bernardsvill, New Jersey and dedicates herself to writing and illustrating picture books.
Selected Works:
- The Day Jimmy’s Boa Ate the Wash (1980)
- Hansey’s Mermaid (1983)
- Meanwhile Back at the Ranch (1987)
- Jimmy’s Boa and the Big Splash Birthday Bash (1989)
Awards
- American Booksellter Pick of the List
- Booklist Children’s Editors’ Choice for Jimmy’s Boa and the Big Splash Birthday Bash
- American Book Award
- Reading Rainbow Featured Selection
- American Bookseller Pick of the Lists
- North Dakota Flicker-Tail Children’s Book Award
- Arizona Young Reader’s Award for Meanwhile Back at the Ranch
- Child Study Children’s Book Committee Books of the Year
- Junior Literary Guild Selection for Apple Tree Christmas
- IRA-CBC Children’s Choice for Jimmy’s Boa Bounces Back
Critical Reception:
Noble’s quirky stories and illustrations have received much recognition. The Day Jimmy’s Boa ate the Wash and Jimmy’s Boa and The Big Splash Birthday Bash have been translated into six different languages. In 2002 Noble was names Outstanding Woman in Arts and Letters in the state of New Jersey for her dedication to writing for children.
Relevance of Place to Writing:
Noble’s childhood on a Michigan farm clearly shines through her writing. Developing a boa as a principle character in her book traces back to the number of animals traipsing around her farm. The encouragement she received from childhood figures like her second-grade teachers and her father fueled her desire to become a nationally recognized writer and illustrator.
Nye, Russel
Feb. 17, 1913 – Sept. 2, 1993
Place of birth: Viola, Wisconsin
Place of Principle Residence: East Lansing, MI
Biography:
In 1913 Russel Nye was born to Charles and Zelma in Viola, Wisconsin. In 1934 Nye graduated from Oberlin College and went on to University of Wisconsin, where he received his Masters in 1935 and his Doctorate in 1938. He married Kathryn Chaney and the two had one son, Pete. Besides writing, teaching was Nye’s chief profession; he served as a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Michigan State University for thirty-nine years. Nye’s first book George Bancroft: Brahmin Rebel, published in 1944, became a huge success, winning a Pulitzer Prize. Nye accredited the book’s origin to browsing through his grandfather’s library. Besides delving into historical figures, Nye enjoyed a colorful assortment of interests, such as jazz musicians Bix Beiderbecke, the Civil War battlefield at Gettysburg, comic strips from The Chicago Tribune, the “Gunsmoke” television series, Tom Swift and Horatio Alger books, hair styles, and automobile racing. He died in Lansing, Michigan on September 2, 1993.
Selected Works:
- George Bancroft: Brahmin Rebel (1945)
- Fettered Freedom: Civil Liberties and the Anti-Slavery Controversy (1947)
- A Baker’s Dozen: Thirteen Unusual Americans (1957)
- The Unembarrassed Muse: American Popular Culture (1970)
Awards:
- 1945 Pulitzer Prize, Biography
- 1947 Rockefeller Fellowship
- 1948 Newberry Library Fellowship
- 1977 Donner Medal, Donner Foundation and the Association for Canadian Studies
- 1978 Distinguished Service Award, Society for the Study of Midwestern History and Literature
- 1984 Distinguished Service Award, Michigan Council for the Humanities
- 1968 Litt.D., Northern Michigan University
- 1968, 1976 LL.D., Ferris State College; Bowling Green State University
- 1944 Knopf Fellowship
Critical Reception:
George Bancroft: Brahmin Rebel, Nye’s very first book, won enthusiastically received and won a Pulitzer Prize. New York times praised the author as “a prodigious scavenger of the trivial past” and that “reading his book is like spending an afternoon in a country antique store.”
Relevance of Place to Author’s Work:
Nye published much of his work during his thirty-nine years at Michigan State University.