Southeast: Region Six
Bloss, Joan
Dec. 9, 1928 –
Place of Birth: New York, NY
Place of Principle Residence: Ann Arbor, MI
Biography:
Joan Blos, a New York City native, was born on December 9, 1928 to Max (a psychiatrist) and Charlotte (teacher) Winsor, both of whom influenced her professional pursuits. Joan’s love for libraries was inherited from her parents, who took her on frequent trips to it and read out loud to her. Joan attended Vassar College during 1946 – 1949 and got her B.A. in physiology, a decision she contributed to her father. After graduation she worked as a college classroom assistant in a special nursery for disturbed by very young children. It was there she discovered her love for teaching children. Blos went for a year to New York City College to get a master’s degree in psychology, but did not complete the program. Instead she became a doctoral candidate at Yale and also worked as a research assistant in Yale’s Child Study Center where she was employed in the pediatric play program where she interacted with child patients. Blos later attributed this experience to sparking an interest in children’s literature. At Yale she also met her husband, Peter Blos. Three years later she decided academic psychology wasn’t a good fit and moved back to New York City with her husband. Blos reregistered for an M.A. at the City College of New York City and also worked part-time at the Bank Street College of Education, an organization focused on a progressive view of education, in the Publications division. Here she began writing, reviewing, and teaching. In 1970 Blos left New York City for Michigan. She published her first book, “It’s Spring,” She Said and has since released a plethora of other books as well as a stage play.
Selected Works:
- In the City (1964)
- Just Think (1971)
- A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl’s Journal, 1830 – 1838 (1979)
- Martin’s Hats (1984)
- The Grandpa Days (1989)
- On Very Best Valentine’s Day (1989)
- Brooklyn Doesn’t Rhyme (1994)
- Hungry Little Boy (1995)
- Hello Shoes! (1999)
Awards:
- 1980 Newbery Medal for A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl’s Journal
- American Book Award (Children’s Fiction) for A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl’s Journal
- 1987 Globe-Horn Book Honor Award for Old Henry
- Booklist Editor’s choice for Old Henry
- Honorary Doctorate from Bank Street College of Education in NYC
Critical Reception:
Blos’ novel A Gather of Days: A New England Girl’s Journal, 1830-32 received rave reviews. Kirkus Reviews wrote the book was “carefully researched and convincingly delivered.” The St. Louis Post-Dispatch commented that the “careful tuning of psychological nuances to historical elements…gives the story its powerful immediacy. A Gathering of Days not only gives the reader a close look at the early 1800s, it offers… a deeply moving human experience.” The Toronto Globe and Mail described Blos’ book Brothers of the Heart: A Story of the Old Northwest, 1837 – 1838 as “more powerful and more stirring than its award-winning predecessor.” St. James Guide to Children’s Writers wrote Blos’ “language, with its rhythms and lilt of earlier times, is remarkably spare, not replete with full-blown descriptions, yet giving the reader a strong sense of place and characterization. Blos has accomplished the fine feat of balancing history with universal human experience, uniting the book’s past with the reader’s present. Brothers of the Heart was rewritten as a stage play in 1999.
Relevance of Place to Author’s Work:
Living in Ann Arbor has allowed Blos to do local research for her books, most particularly Brothers of the Heart, where she drew inspiration for her setting, as well as spending time in the Ypsilanti Historical Society and the Bentley Library. She is actively involved in the community publishing plays for theatrical companies such as Wild Swan Theater. Today plenty of her time is reading in the Library of the University of Michigan and writing books.
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.
LaGattuta, Margo
September 18, 1942 -
Place of Birth: Detroit, MI
Place of Principle Residence: Rochester, MI
Biography:
Margo LaGattuta was born to Elizabeth and Edwin Grahm in Detroit, MI in 1942. She achieved her BA at Oakland University in 1980 and her MFA at Vermont College in 1984. LaGuttuta has worked as an English Instructor at Oakland Community College and a Process Writing Consultant at Inventing the Invisible. She has published four collections of poetry, and is the Midwest Editor for Plain View Press in Austin, Texas where she has now edited six anthologies. LaGuttuta is also the associate editor for Suburban Lifestyles where she writes a column, articles, and theater reviews. She teaches writing at the University of Michigan in flint and hosts a radio program, Art in the Air. LaGuttuta has received many honors and awards for her work, including two Midwest Poetry Awards, and a two-time nominee for the Pushcart Prize. LaGattuta currently lives in Rochester, Michigan.
Selected Works:
- The Dream Givers (1990)
- Noedgelines (1986)
- Diversion Road (1983)
Awards:
- 1991 The Gwendolyn Brooks Award in Poetry, Michigan State University
- 1990 Ohio Poetry Day Award, First Place
- 1989, 1992 Ragdale Writers Colony Fellowships
- 1980 Departmental Honors in English, Oakland University
- n/a Two-time nominee for Pushcart Prize
- n/a Two Midwest Poetry Awards
Critical Reception:
LaGattuta has won several awards and honors for her work, including two Ragdale Writers Colony Fellowships and two Midwest Poetry awards.
Relevance of Place to Author’s Work:
LaGattuta has lived all her life in Michigan, being born in Detroit and currently residing in Rochester, Michigan. She is involved in a plethora of activities, including teaching at the University of Michigan, and hosting a radio program.