The
author of what poet William Stafford called one of the "most neglected
books of the 20 th century" is among 16 people to be honored Oct. 22
for achievements in music, literature and the arts and humanities.
The
object of Stafford’s praise is Hanger
Stout, Awake! — a comic novel written in 1967 by former North Side
resident Jack Matthews. The book follows the exploits of a gas-station
attendant in a Midwestern town.
"I
visualized Hanger’s filling station . . . somewhat as I remembered the
Sohio Station on E. Main
Street in Urbana, where our family lived until
1964, when I joined the Ohio University English Department, the author
said.
Matthews,
who lives near Athens,
will receive an Ohioana Career Award during a celebration at the State
Library of Ohio.
He
has written more than 20 books, including the novels The Tale of Asa
Bean and Sassafras; the short-story collections Bitter Knowledge, Tales
of the Ohio
Land and
Crazy Women; and several books about reading and collecting books.
In
her New York Times review of Crazy Women, Doris Grumbach praised the
writer for "straightforward language" that "reaches a point at which
his facts take on ominous overtones, allow suggestions of horror,
despair, threat to enter through the clear, undecorated logic of
events."
The
Ohioana Library Association, founded in 1929, is a statefunded
organization in the State Library, 274 E. 1 st Ave., that houses
literature produced mostly by Ohioans.
Since
1942, the association has annually bestowed awards to people who have
lived or worked in the state.
The
other 2005 winners:
Milestones
•
Margot Kahn (Walter Rumsey Marvin Grant for promising writers younger
than 30) of Cleveland
for an unpublished manuscript, Horses That Buck, a novel.
•
James Reiss (Helen and Laura Krout Memorial Poetry Award) of Oxford for six books of poetry and work with Ohio’s Poet in
the Schools Program.
•
Alfred Tibor (Pegasus Award) of Columbus for a lifetime of service to
the arts and humanities. The artist and sculptor, a Holocaust survivor,
once explained his motivation: "I would like to speak after I am gone."
•
Bill Thompson III (James P. Barry Award for Editorial Excellence) of
Marietta for his work as editor of Bird Watcher’s Digest, a bimonthly
magazine that has grown from a circulation of 5,000 to 100,000 under
his stewardship.
•
Jan Wahl (Alice Louise Wood Memorial Award for Children’s Literature)
of Toledo
for 100-plus books, including the recent Humphrey’s Bear, The Enchanted
Sled and Candy Shop.
Single
works
•
Louise Borden (juvenile literature) of Cincinnati for The Greatest Skating
Race. She recently published The Journey That Saved Curious George.
•
Anthony Doerr
(fiction) of Parma
for his debut novel, About Grace. He previously won the fiction award
for his collection of short stories, The Shell Collector.
•
Diane Gilliam Fisher
(poetry) of Brimfield for her collection Kettle Bottom.
•
Julie Salamon (nonfiction) of Seamon for Rambam’s Ladder: A Meditation
on Generosity and Why It Is Necessary To Give.
•
William Souder (about Ohio/Ohioans) of Stillwater,
Minn., for Under a Wild Sky:
John James Audubon and the Making of "The Birds of America."
•
Paul Zimmer (nonfiction) of Canton
for his collection of autobiographical essays, Trains in the Distance.
He won a 2005 Pushcart Prize for his essay The Mechanics.
Citations
•
Celeste Friedman of Newark for musical
performance of her ‘O’ Is for Ohio,
a chronicle of the state’s history in story.
•
Mark Phillips of Athens
for music. The composer’s work has been featured at the Blossom
Festival, the Chautauqua Summer Music Festival and at the University of
Memphis, Tenn., where his latest composition, Dreams Interrupted, was
performed at the Imagine 2005 Festival.
•
Sue Studebaker of the Dayton
area for historic preservation of decorative arts. She is the author of
Ohio Samplers: Schoolgirl Embroideries, 1803-1850 and Ohio Is My
Dwelling Place: Schoolgirls Embroideries, 1800-1850. The Montgomery
County Historical Society presented her (and her husband) a Heritage
Award for restoration of Quaker Hill, their 1797 home.
•
Jud Yalkut of Dayton
for visual arts, including the experimental films Diffraction Film,
Vision Cantos and, most recently, Light Display: Color. The artist has
had work displayed at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Pompidou
Center in Paris and
elsewhere.
beichenberger@dispatch.com
