Novelists

Henry, Gordon Jr.

Oct. 19, 1955 –

Place of birth: Philadelphia, PA

Place of Principle Residence: Big Rapids, MI

Biography:
Gordon Henry, an Anishinabe poet and novelist, grew up traveling to different military bases with his father Gordon, a member of the U.S. Navy, and his mother MaryAnne.  Henry got his Bachelor’s Degree at University of Wisconsin – Parkside in 1980.  His first break into fame came during his Master’s work in the English/Creative Writing program at Michigan State University where his poetry was included in Songs From This Earth on Turtle’s Back: An Anthology of Contemporary American Indian Poetry.  Before getting his doctorate at University of North Dakota in 1992 Henry worked as an assistant professor at Ferris State University.  He accepted a position as assistant professor of English at Michigan State University in 1993, where he remains today.  Henry is a member of the Chippewa Tribe on the White Earth Reservation and has three children, Kelhi Ardis, Mira Ann, and Emily Rose.

Selected works:

       
• Pine Point Her Breath (1985)
       
• How Soon (1985)
       
• The Failure of Certain Charms (1991)
       
• Sleeping in Rain (1983)
       
• The Dream of The Golden Arrow, Leaving Skin, and Ahwosso—Past (1999)

Awards:

       
• 1997 Nominated for an Excellence in Teaching Award, The College of Arts and Letters, Michigan State University
         
• 1995 The American Book Award, for The Light People; presented by the Before Columbus Foundation, Oakland, California
       
• 1995 The Maxwell Anderson Alumni Award for outstanding achievements in arts and letters; presented by the English Department, the             University of North Dakota
       
• 1994 Nominated for a National Book Award, for The Light People, by the University of Oklahoma Press
       
• 1994-95 Fulbright Lectureship, Fulbright Scholarship Board, Washington, D.C.
       
• 1992 Nominated for a Distinguished Teaching Award, College of Arts and Sciences, Ferris State University
       
• 1986 D’Arcy McNickle Memorial Fellowship, McNickle Center for the History of the American Indian, The Newberry Library, Chicago,              Illinois
         
• 1985 Katherine B. Tiffany Award for outstanding graduate student in the English Department, The University of North Dakota
       
• 1985 North Country Poetry Award, The University of North Dakota
       
• 1985 Thomas McGrath Poetry Award, University of North Dakota
       
• 1984 The American Academy of Poets Thomas McGrath Award, University of North Dakota
       
• 1983 Minority Merit Fellowship, through the American Culture Program, The University of Michigan

Critical Reception:
Gordon Henry is noted for the strong ties in his writing to Native American culture and imagery.  His work has been widely published and he has received several awards for both his books and poetry. 

Relevance of Place to Author’s Work:
Henry focuses on his family history and the oral traditions of the Anishinabe (Ojibwa).  He spreads his stories both locally and regionally as a storyteller and lecturer.

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.

Oates, Joyce Carol

June 16, 1938 -

Place of Birth:  Lockport, NY

Place of Principle Residence:  Princeton, NJ

Biography:
  Joyce Carol Oates was born to Caroline and Frederic (tools and dye designer) Oates at Lockport, New York in 1938.  She led a working-class, rough-and-tumble childhood that she has affectionately recalled in much of her fiction.  Before learning to write, Oates told stories by drawing and painting.  When she received her typewriter at fourteen, Oates began to train herself to write novels.  She attended Syracuse University on a scholarship, during of which she won the much-desired Mademoiselle fiction contest.  In 1960 she got her B.A., and received her M.A. at the University of Wisconsin in 1961.  Oates met her husband, Raymond Smith, at Wisconsin University and the two moved to Detroit, where Oates worked at the University of Detroit, first as an instructor, then as an assistant professor.  In 1967 Oates moved to University of Windsor, where she taught English for eleven years.  During this period she wrote books at an amazing speed, averaging two to three a year.  According to Oates, this efficiency was a product of her daily routine and not viewing writing as work.  In 1978, Oates and her husband moved to Princeton University, where she works today as a writer in residence and a Roger S. Berlind Distinguished Professor of the Humanities.  She and her husband have published a literary magazine, the Ontario Review.  Soon after coming to Princeton Oates began working on the first of her gothic novels, Bellefleur.  While still in her thirties, Oates became a well-known and respected writer.

Selected Works:

         
• By the North Gate (1963)
         
• Expensive People (1967)
         
• The Wheel of Love and Other Stories (1970)
         
• Crossing the Border: Fifteen Tales (1976)
         
• A Bloodsmore Romance (1983)
         
• The Assignation (1988)
         
• We were the Mulvaneys (1996)
         
• Naughty Cherie (2008)

Awards:

         
• 1966, 1968 National Endowment for the Arts grants
         
• 1967, 1973 Guggenheim fellowship
         
• 1967, 1973 O. Henry Award, Doubleday
         
• 1968 Rosenthal Award, National Institute of Arts and Letters
         
• 1968, 1969 National Book Award nomination
         
• 1970, 1986 National Book Award
         
• 1975 Lotos Club Award of Merit
         
• 1979 American Library Association Notable Book
         
• 1980 Los Angeles Times Book Prize
         
• 1988 Literary Michigan by the Michigan Council for the Humanities
         
• 1988 St. Louis Literary Award

Critical Reception:

For The Gravedigger’s Daughter:

“This is neither a depressing story nor an uplifting one. Oates succeeds here, as she often does, in making such judgments feel simple-minded. What it all seems is true and therefore moving and somewhat terrible, but in an exhilarating way. Every aspect of the ungainly plot feels right, including its ungainliness. Resolutions fail to arrive; lost people fail to return. Flowing through and past it all, surfacing for these 600 pages, is Oates’s turbulent, cross-currented prose, with its hot upwellings and icy eddies. It’s the opposite of lapidary, and has the disadvantage of being impossible to quote effectively in a brief review, but for the enthralled reader, Oates’s water will eventually have its proverbial way with other writers’ stone.”             -  The Washington Post

“Joyce Carol Oates’s 36th novel proves that more is, sometimes, more. The Seattle Times calls it an “opus,” while The Oregonian describes it as her “masterpiece.” In a return to upstate New York, the novel, based in part on the life of Oates’s paternal grandmother, carries exceptional emotional heft. While striking Oates’s trademark dark, suspenseful notes at the start, it turns to themes of reinvention and hope as Rebecca journeys through life. The epilogue, when an elderly Rebecca pens letters to a cousin who survived the Holocaust, resounds deeply. A few reviewers cited poor writing, confusing narrative switches, and flat secondary characters, but overall, Gravedigger’s Daughter may be one of Oates’s best novels in years.”             - Bookmarks Magazine

For Blonde: A Novel:

“In the perverse manner all too typical of her singular career, Oates follows up one of her best novelslast year’s plaintive Broke Heart Blueswith one of the worst she (or any other contemporary ``serious’’ author, for that matter) has ever committed to paper. It’s a bloated, humorless fictional speculation on the life and career of Marilyn Monroe that mixes together canned US and film history, fanzine gossip, and heavy-breathing fantasy.”               - Kirkus Reviews

“Oates, for whom writing seems to be as involuntary and constant as breathing, liberates the real woman behind the mythological creature called Marilyn Monroe. In most hands, a fictional retelling of Monroe’s tragic life seems utterly unnecessary, but Oates—long an avid observer of the rise and fall of celebrities and the public’s morbid lust for vicarious violence—transforms a redundant exercise into an act of redemption.”             - Booklist

 

Relevance of Place to Author’s Work:
    Oates attributes Detroit to shaping the person and writer she is today.  In the Michigan Quarterly Review, she commented, “If we [Oates and her husband] had never come to the city of Detroit I would have been a writer (indeed, I had already written my first two books before coming here, aged twenty-three) but Detroit, my ‘great’ subject, made me the person I am, consequently the writer I am-for better or worse.”

 

Panagopoulos, Janie L.

December 17, 1955 -

Place of Birth:  Owosso, MI

Place of Principle Residence: Roscoe, IL and Owosso, MI

Biography:
Janie L. Panagopoulos was born to Clyde and Betty Blount in Owosso, MI.  Before starting school she could read, and in third grade started writing with the encouragement of her teacher.  She attended Jewett’s Women’s College of Business and John Wesley College and graduated with an AA degree.  Panagopoulos is a dedicated historian, spending two to five years researching for a writing project.  She started out in advertising as a freelance writer for newspapers and magazines, and has had over 1,000 articles published between 1774 and 1992.  Besides writing, Panagopoulos has taught courses in theater arts and playwriting, and has had several of her plays produced.  After being an editor for Health Horizon Magazine in 1988-1990, Panagopoulos now works with students as an online mentor and workshop leader to develop their writing.  In 1993 she published her first documentary historical fiction novel, Traders in Time.  Since then she has been granted several awards, including the Michigan Authors Award in 2000 and the Read Michigan Award in 2001.  Panagopoulos does much traveling for research, spending much time in Michigan.  Panagopoulos lives with her husband, Dennis, in Illinois.

Selected Works:

     
• Little Ship Under Full Sail: An Adventure in History (1997)
     
• Train Called Midnight (1999)
     
• Journey Back to Lumberjack Camp (1994)
     
• Runes of Isle Royale (2000)
     
• Madame Cadillac’s Ghost (2004)
     
• Faraway Home: An Orphan Train Story (2007)

Awards:

     
• 2000   Michigan Author Award
     
• Short Story Awards and “Readers Choice” Awards
     
• 2003   Must Read Award
     
• 1998   Parent & Teacher Award

Critical Reception:
Panagopoulos is a noted Michigan author, and has received several awards including the prestigious Read Michigan Award that was granted by Michigan’s Governor Engler and Michigan’s Secretary of State Candace Miller.  In addition to her awards, Panagopoulos has been nominated for many national, state, and regional awards.

Relevance of Place to Writing:
Spending an enormous amount of time on researching for novels is a part of Panagopoulos’ daily routine.  She has traveled widely across the United States, especially Michigan, to study different histories, including canoeing over 3800 miles on the Great Lakes and Canadian waterways, living with traditional Native Americans, participating in archaeological digs, dog-sledding, snow-shoeing, and traveling with a wagon train.  Her writing dedicated to Michigan has been acknowledged by receiving the Michigan Authors Award and the Read Michigan Award.

 

 

Parker, Virginia Bailey

September 25, 1947 -

Place of Birth:  Chillicothe, OH

Place of Principle Residence:  Canton, MI

Biography:
Virginia Bailey Parker was born to Virginia and John Bailey in Chillicothe, Ohio.  She graduated with an AA degree from Henry Ford Community College in 1967 and a BA in history from Michigan State University in 1969.  After earning her MS degree in historic preservation at Eastern Michigan University, Parker took additional graduate credits at the University of Michigan on heritage interpretation.  Parker started off as a history teacher at Crestwood High School before becoming a professional writer and lecturer.  She has led many workshops, including business and writing workshops at Ford Motor Company at various universities.  In addition to writing and lecturing, Parker owns Snowy Creek Press that publishes books and offers a wide variety of writing and editing services, professional development seminars, and special projects including writing company histories.  During her writing career she has researched and written about local folklore and has written many articles for magazines and newspapers.  Her book The Water’s Edge won two national awards, including Book of the Year award from ForeWord magazine.  She currently lives in Canton, MI with her husband Donald Parker.

Selected Works:

     
• The Water’s Edge (2001)
     
• An Oral History of Our Community (1995)
     
• Canton Township: A Community in Transition (1991)

Awards:

     
• 1995 Historical Society of Michigan Award of Merit for Canton Memories
     
• 1995 Historical Society of Michigan Award of Merit for Crossroads of Canton
     
• 1998, 1999 Managing editor of Michigan Psychiatric Society Newsletter when publication received two Certificates of Honorable Mentions and an Award for             Five Years of Continued Excellence from the American Psychiatric Association
     
• 1997 Nominated for a national Oral History Association Media Award for the archival video series, Canton Memories

Critical Reception:
For The Water’s Edge:
The author has done her homework with this novel, which is filled with good historical research. And although this book is by no means something I would label feminist literature, it certainly has an underlying theme on the plight of seventeenth century English women, such as the fact that midwives were licensed by bishops because childbirth was considered more a religious matter than a medical one—and, even worse, that any midwife discovered doing anything to ease suffering during childbirth would have her license revoked. Highly recommended.
  - The Historical Novels Review Magazine of the Historical Novel Society

Relevance of Place to Author’s Work:
Parker has devoted much time and energy into researching the local folklore of Canton, MI where she currently resides.  In addition she has earned degrees in history, historical preservation, and heritage interpretation at Michigan universities.

 

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