Essayists

Anderson, Lauri

October 27, 1942 -

Place of Birth:  Foxcroft, ME

Place of Principle Residence:  Hancock, MI

Biography:
    Lauri Arvid Anderson was born to Ruby Littlefield of “Old New England” and Arvid Anderson (a Finnish immigrant) in 1942 in Maine.  He attended the University of Maine and achieved his BA in English in 1965 and his MA in International Education in 1969 from Michigan State University.  From 1965 to 1967 Anderson volunteered for the Peace Corps in Nigeria and then served as an English teacher at North County High School in Vermont between 1967 and 1969.  In 1971 Anderson completed a MA in English at the University of Pacific and taught at Mizpah Mission School as the chair of English and Dean until 1972.  He then moved to Izmir, Turkey to work at the American Collegiate Institute as the chair of English until 1976.  From there Anderson went to Hancock, Main where he still serves as the chair of English and the Division Head of Humanities.  In addition her served as and English instructor for the Phillips-Andover Academy, a school for gifted minority students, from 1995 to 1997.  Anderson has authored five prose works and one book of poetry, many of which exemplify a sarcastic tone, and Anderson’s Finnish heritage.  He is the brother of poet Wendy Anderson and author Stuart Anderson and has three children, Eric, Charlotte, and Lucy.

Selected Works:

       
• Impressions of Arvo Laurila (2005)
       
• Misery Bay (2001)
       
• Children of the Kalevala (1997)
       
• Heikki Heikkinen and Other Stories of Upper Peninsula Finns (1995)
       
• Hunting Hemingway’s Trout (1990)
       
• Small Winter Wars (1983)
       
• Snow White and Others (1971)

 

Awards:

       
• 1996-1997 FinnFest guest writer
       
• 1995 MLA guest writer
       
• 1994 Honorable Mention, Fiction Contest, Finnish American Reporter
       
• 1988 Honorable Mention, Writers of the Future
       
• 1985 Selected for NEH Institute in Commonwealth Literature, Indiana U.
       
• 1983 Selected for NEH Seminar in Twelfth-Century Civilization, Mt. Holyoke
       
• 1981 Selected for NEH Seminar in American Humor, U. of New Mexico

Critical Reception:
    Anderson has written and received many grants to continue his academic and creative work. 

For Back to Misery Bay:

“Lauri Anderson deftly and often humorously captures the love-hate relationship that his Finnish-American characters have with Misery Bay, their hearts’ home in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Many of Lauri Anderson’s Finns seem determined to raise their various dysfunctionalities to an art form, but through their very fallibility they tug at our hearts. As one wise old Finn advises his war-shattered nephew, People are really screwed up but love them anyway. They’re all we have.     
          —Judy Hakola, Lecturer in English, University of Maine

For Hemingway’s Trout:Stories:

This short collection of stories and sketches about Ernest Hemingway and an army of fictional characters who study his work is mildly interesting but lacks the order, tension and overarching theme necessary to form an exciting whole.
          - Publishers Weekly

Brief, amateurish essays about Ernest Hemingway here alternate with seven short stories, each constructed around some character or image from Hemingway’s work….some of the individual stories are entertaining, but the collection feels contrived, the prose dated by references to the Sixties. Book budget dollars would be better spent on new editions of Hemingway.
          - Library Journal

Relevance of Place to Author’s Work:
      Anderson teaches at Finlandia University in Hancock, Michigan.  Several of his books, including Children of Kalevala, take place in Upper Michigan. 

 

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.

 

 

 

 

Kirk, Russell

October 19, 1918 – April 29, 1994

Place of Birth: Plymouth, MI
Place of Principle Residence: Mecosta, MI
Biography:
Russell A. Kirk was born to Marjorie and Russell Kirk in Plymouth, Mi in 1918.  He got his B.A. at Michigan State University in 1940, his M.A. at Duke University in 1941, and his D. Litt at St. Andrew’s University (in Scotland) in 1952.  Kirk is the only American to earn the highest arts degree from St. Andrews.  During the course of his life Kirk became the poster child for seizing rich and versatile experiences and became known as one of America’s leading thinkers.  He published over thirty-two books, many short stories, and hundreds of periodical essays appearing in U.S., Britain, Canada, Australia, Austria, Germany, Italy, Spain, Bulgaria, and Poland periodicals. His book, The Conservative Mind, went through seven editions.  In total his books have sold over a million copies and have been translated into German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Korean, and other languages.  Kirk wrote and spoke on topics including modern culture, political thought and practice, educational theory, literary criticism, ethical questions, and social themes.  He lectures on hundreds of American campuses, and some of his public lecture appeared on radio and were broadcast nationally on C-SPAN.  In addition to lecturing, Kirk debated with well-known speakers like Norman Thomas, Hubert Humphrey, and Malcolm X.  He also enjoyed a circle of literary and scholarly friends including T.S. Eliot and Ray Bradbury.  Kirk’s life work won him many awards and much recognition, including being a Fulbright Lecturer in Scotland, receiving a Presidential Citizens Medal from President Reagan, the Christopher Award for his book Eliot and His Age, and twelve honorary doctorates from American universities and colleges.  Kirk edited the educational quarterly journal The University Bookman, and was the founder and first editor of the quarterly Modern Age.  For twenty-five years he wrote a page on education for National Review, and for thirteen years published (through the LA Times Syndicate) a nationally syndicated newspaper column.  Kirk lived with his wife of almost thirty years, Annette Yvonne Cecile Courtemanche, and his four daughters Monica, Cecilia, Felicia, and Andrea at his ancestral place, Piety Hill, in Mecosta, MI.  He converted a toy factory into his library and office, and was a famous narrator of ghostly tales, many of which he picked up during his travels (often on foot) in Scotland, Ireland, Mediterranean and Alpine lands, and Africa.  The Kirk’s house was often packed with Asiatic, African, and European refugees and exiles, along with university students, travelers from antique lands.  Kirk and Annette held many seminars at their residence in connection with the Intercollegiate Studies Institute and the Wilbur Foundation.  Every year they received several literary interns.  Kirk died in 1994 and his work is continued by the Russell Kirk Center.   
Selected Works:

       
• Randolph of Roanoke : A Study in Conservative Thought (1951)
       
• The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Santayana (1953)
       
• Old House of Fear (1961)
       
• Lost Lake: Confessions of a Bohemian Tory (1963)
       
• Eliot and His Age: T.S. Eliot’s Moral Imagination in the Twentieth Century (1971)
       
• Lord of the Hollow Dark (1979)
       
• Edmund Burke: A Genius Reconsidered (1985)

Awards:

       
• 1950-1951 American Council of Learned Societies senior fellow
       
• 1956 Guggenheim fellow
       
• 1966 Ann Radcliffe Award for Gothic fiction
       
• 1972 Christopher Award
       
• 1977 World Fantasy Award for short fiction
       
• 1984 Weaver Award of Ingersoll Prizes for scholarly humane letters
       
• 1985 Freedom Leadership Award, Hillsdale College
       
• 1985 Constitutional fellowship, National Endowment for the Humanities
       
• 1988 Literary Michigan by the Michigan Council for the Humanities
       
• 1989 Presidential Citizens Medal, conferred by President Reagan
       
• n/a Honorary degrees from Boston College, Central Michigan University, Olivet College
       
• n/a For several years a Distinguished Scholar of the Heritage Foundation

Critical Reception:

“As the prophet of American conservatism, Russell Kirk has taught, nurtured, and inspired a generation. From . . . Piety Hill, he reached deep into the roots of American values, writing and editing central works of political philosophy. His intellectual contribution has been a profound act of patriotism. I look forward to the future with anticipation that his work will continue to exert a profound influence in the defense of our values and our cherished civilization.” —Ronald Reagan

“[The Conservative Mind] gave American conservatives and identity and a genealogy and catalyzed the postwar movement.” - The New York Times

Relevance of Place to Author’s Work:
For the majority of his life, Kirk’s home was in Mecosta, MI where a number of people from all over the world, including refugees and scholars, lived with him and his family.  Kirk worked in his library and office in a nearby converted toy factory.  Kirk and his wife held many seminars at their home, and were joined each year by several literary interns.

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.

Passic, Frank Jr.

April 19, 1953 -

Place of Birth:  Albion, MI

Place of Principle Residence:  Albion, MI

Biography:
Frank Passic, Jr was born to Frank, Sr and Pauline Passic in Albion, MI.  After graduating from Albion High School, Passic attended Spring Arbor College and earned his BA degree in 1775.  He is an advent researcher of Albion history and written and published much of his research.  Passic has worked as a curator of local history and an Albion historian for the Albion Historical Society, and has been publishing articles on Albion history for the past twenty-five years.  His weekly columns appear in the Morning Star Shopper, Albion Recorder, and The Mich-Matist.

Selected Works:

     
• History of Albion, MI From the Archives (1991)
     
• A Comprehensive Guide and Key to Artist Albert Ruger’s 1866 Bird’s Eye View of Albion, MI (1988)
     
• Albion’s Banks and Bankers (1985)

 
Awards:

     
• 1983   Heath Literary Award, American Numismatic Association, 1983
     
•         Literary Awards, Michigan State Numismatic Society
     
• 1999   First Place Catherine Sheehan Literary Award for U.S. Paper Money Studies
     
• 1998   American Numismatic Association for article, “The Albion Bank Scandal.” in The Numismatist January 1998 issue

Relevance of Place to Author’s Work:
Passic has devoted most of his life to the history of Albion, and has done much writing on his research, publishing both books and articles for local magazines.  He has access to many resources in Albion history, including Cemetery records and obituaries, family surname files, and photographs that he uses to help other Albion natives look into their family’s roots.

 

 

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