Novelists
Balducci, Carolyn
Feb. 13, 1946 –
Place of Birth: Pelham, NY
Place of Principal Residence: Ann Arbor, MI
Biography:
Carolyn Feleppa Balducci was born in Pelham, NY to Ernest and Rosaria Feleppa. She first got her interest in writing through art, being both an avid reader and an artist. During her education at Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart in Purchase, NY she wavered between focusing on studio art and English. In the end, she chose studio art, but her interest in writing lived on. “As electives, I took a couple of creative writing courses,” Balducci said. “My best marks were in The History of the English Language — go figure!” After graduation Balducci taught Creative Writing at the University of Michigan. She became interested in theater and started translating plays, as well as writing her own for university productions. Years later Balducci felt the need to become more involved in her hometown, Montauk, and took up the job of program director for the Montauk library. Her job included organizing local actors to do dramatic readings, a task that required catering plays to the interest of the community as well as using the talents of acting companies to their best advantage. One of her translated plays, In Times of War by David Alan Moore, was performed by Stage Left in Chicago. Balducci has written books, articles, poems, plays, and screenplays. Currently she focuses her time on writing stage plays and screenplays.
Selected works:
- Margaret Fuller, A Life of Passion and Defiance (1991)
- A Self-Made Woman: the Life of Nobel Prize Winner Grazia Deledda (1975)
- Earwax (1972)
- Giovanni the Fearless (1971)
Awards:
- ALA Notable Book Award
- S.I.A.E. commendation for contributions to Italian theater in America
- Grants from Michigan Council for the Arts and Ohio Program in the Humanities
- American Library Association ‘Guest Editor’
- Mademoiselle Magazine ‘Who’s Who’
Relevance of Place to Author’s Work:
Working at University of Michigan sparked an interest in Balducci to get involved in writing and translating dramatic works, an occupation she continues today.
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.
Gildner, Gary
August 22, 1938 –
Place of Birth: West Branch, MI
Place of Principle Residence: Grangeville, ID
Biography:
Gary Gildner was born to Jean and Theodore in 1938 in West Branch, MI. He attended Michigan State University, receiving his B.A. in 1960 and his M.A. in 1961. Gildner worked as an instructor at Northern Michigan University, a Professor of English at Drake University and a McGee Professor of Writing at Davidson College. In addition he has been a Fulbright Lecturer both at the University of Warsaw and in Poland and Czechoslovakia, as well as a writer in residence at Michigan State University and a distinguished visiting writer at Seattle University. He is best known for his eight books of poetry, with The Bunker in Parsley Fields winning the Iowa Poetry Prize. Gildner has lectured at the Library of Congress, the Academy of American Poets, and the Manhattan Theatre club, as well as approximately three hundred colleges and schools in the U.S. and abroad. His awards include Pushcart Prizes in fiction and nonfiction, a Robert Frost Fellowship, and the William Carlos Williams and Theodore Roethke poetry prizes. Gildner lives with his family in Grangeville, Idaho.
Selected Works:
- Clackamas (1991)
- Jabon (1981)
- The Runner (1978)
- Bredahl (1973)
- The Bunker in the Parsley Fields (1997)
Awards:
- 1970 Robert Frost Fellowship, Bread Loaf
- 1971, 1976 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships
- 1972, 1973, 1975, 1976, 1978 Yaddo Fellow
- 1974 MacDowell Colony Fellow
- 1976 Theodore Roethke Poetry Prize, Poetry Northwest
- 1977 William Carlos Williams Poetry Prize, New Letters
- 1979 Helen Bullis Poetry Prize, Poetry Northwest
- 1986 National Magazine Award for Fiction
- 1986 Pushcart Prize for Fiction
- 1985, 1986, 1988 Stories cited in The Best American Short Stories
- 1996 Iowa Poetry Prize for Bunker in the Parsley Fields
Critical Reception:
“His characters are aware of being alive, and when we read Gary Gildner, we are, too.”
—Richard Goodman, The New York Times
“Gary Gildner makes everything seem so right, as if telling it just the way it happened.”
—National Public Radio
Relevance of Place to Author’s Work:
Gildner achieved his B.A. and M.A. at Michigan State University, and there worked briefly as a visiting writer in residence.
Harju, Jerry
April 16, 1933 -
Place of Birth: Ishpeming, MI
Place of Principal Residence: Marquette, MI
Biography:
Jerry Harju was born to Arvid and Lydia Harju in Ishpeming, MI on April 16, 1933. Childhood in the Upper Peninsula was an experience Harju never forgot, as demonstrated in the plethora of material it created for several of his books, including Northern Reflections, Northern D’Lights, Northern Passages, and Northern Memories. Harju earned his degree in engineering mechanics in 1957 at the University of Michigan and his MS at the University of Southern California in 1985. Harju stayed in Southern California for over 30 years as manager in the aerospace industry. In 1993, Harju retired and moved to Marquette, beginning a new page of his life as writer. His first book, Northern Reflections, published in 1992, opened the door for Graham-style humor. In addition to his books, Harju writes columns for the Marquette Newspaper and runs a publishing company.
Selected Works:
- Cold Cash
- Here’s What I Think
- Northern D’Lights
- Northern Memories Awards:
- Midwest Independent Publishers Association Book Achievement Award for Cold Cash Critical Reception: For Northern Reflections: A Lighthearted Account of “Growing up North”: “...These stories will tickle your fancy…” University of Mich. Alumnus Magazine “...The book is a fast, rollicking romp into a simpler time.” The Finnish American Reporter “Northern D’Lights is delightfully written. It’s loaded with belly laughs, chuckles, and those memories that bring a smile to the head and heart.” Gene Perret, Head Comedy Writer for Bob Hope “Cold Cash is a hot read. The suspenseful tale will leave you laughing out loud. Read every hilarious word of this gem.” The Green Bay Press Gazette “Cold Cash, a saga of a bungled bank heist, offers laugh-out-loud thrills.” The Grand Rapids Press “Cold Cash is a madly funny romp of a tale. A whirlwind ride from disaster to disaster, following the dopiest pair since ‘Dumb and Dumber,’ with a pistol-toting wronged woman thrown into the mix. The laughs keep flopping along.” The Traverse City Record Eagle Relevance of Place to Author’s Work: Raised there as a child and now living there as a retiree, Harju draws on his life in Upper Michigan to create stories. His string of books gives hearty recognition, if not full out devotion, to the mitten state.
- Plain Song (1965)
- Out of the War Shadow: an Anthology of Current Poetry (1967)
- Locations (1968)
- Un Bon Jour pour Mourir (1973)
- Sundog : The Story of an American Foreman, Robert Corvus Strang (1984)
- Julip (1994)
- The Beast God Forgot to Invent (2000)
- True North (2004)
- 1967-1969 National Endowment for the Arts Grants
- 1969-1970 Guggenheim fellowship
- 2007 Michigan Notable Book Award for Saving Daylight
- Two awards from National Literary Anthology
Harrison, Jim (James Thomas)
Dec. 11, 1937 –
Place of Birth: Grayling, MI
Place of Principle Residence: summer – Livingston, MT : winter – Patagonia, AZ
Bibliography:
Jim Harrison grew up roaming the woods in northern Michigan with his parents Winfield (a county agricultural agent) and Norma. At age seven his left eye was blinded by a piece of glass, an event he now attributes to his desire to stay outdoors in nature as a form of comfort. When a young man, Harrison set off to make his own way in the world, as his family was financially strained with five children. He earned his bachelor’s degree at Michigan State University in 1960 and married his wife, Linda, with whom he has been with for over forty years. In 1964 Harrison got his Master’s at State University of New York. He worked as an assistant professor in English in 1965, but quickly concluded he was “temperamentally unsuited” to teaching. In 1966 Harrison moves back with his wife and newborn daughter to northern Michigan and supported his family through freelance journalism and manual labor. Eventually, his poetry brought him to the attention of major reviewers that in turn led to the release of his first book, Wolf, in 1971. Although his book Farmer, published in 1976, did not initially enjoy much success, his subsequent trilogy Legends of the Fall was a great commercial success and was later made into a film. Harrison also works as an artist, and in addition has taken up screenwriting. Critics have noted Harrison’s desire to preserve the South and rural America both in his art and writing. Harrison recently moved from his northern Michigan home and now spends his summers in Minnesota and his winters in Arizona.
Selected Works:
Awards
Critical reception:
New York Times has praised Wolf: A False Memoir as “…a raunchy, funny, swaggering, angry, cocksure book; it is also a poignant, handsomely-written self-exploration…” Harrion’s book Legends of the Fall has enjoyed particular attention, being made into a movie starring Brad Pitt and Anthony Hopkins. True North has received mixed reviews, but Gordon Hauptfleisch (editor of Blogcritics Books and book reviewer for San Diego Union Tribune) wrote, “still, if Harrison’s newest work is flawed an uneven, it is nevertheless a rich and satisfying read for the strenuously poetic passages detailing not only the complexities, quirks, and intricacies of human emotions and interactions, but also for conveying a solid sense of place.”
Relevance of Place to Author’s Work:
Growing up in northern Michigan has been strongly attributed by Harrison to influencing his writing. As a child he enjoyed hunting and fishing and spent many days roaming the woods. This is clearly represented in much of his writing is rural in nature. In addition, Harrison has developed a strong love of the South and rural America. While living in northern Michigan as an adult, Harrison wrote in an old granary on his property. His love for nature has never faded.