Among the 1,718 Ohio students who had submitted an entry into this past Letters About Literature contest was Erica Langan, a Seventh grade student from Mercer Elementary School in Cincinnati, Ohio. She wrote her letter to the enigmatic, introverted 19th century poet Emily Dickinson. Erica described the propitious moment when she first made Dickinson's acquaintance.  One afternoon, while she and her mother were browsing the volumes of poetry on the shelves of a local bookstore, Erica came across an edition of Dickinson's work. Having bought the book, Erica perused its pages and was bewitched by how Dickinson utilized an ingenuously quirky yet immediate style to commit her innermost thoughts to paper. Although she wrote about much the same concepts as did her contemporaries (spirituality, nature, art), Dickinson--as Erica later encountered--utilized a more expansive vocabulary, less sentimentality and more nuance than they did. Erica thrilled at the challenge that the poems now afforded her--to determine what they meant to her and to her alone. As she read and contemplated, Erica realized that the poetry of her new found friend had changed her life forever. 

Check out the full story in the Cleveland Plain Dailer.

 One of the world's foremost bookbinders, Jan Bohuslav Sobota, passed away May 2, 2012. Sobota spent a significant amount of time in Cleveland during the 1980s and 1990s.

Sobota studied in Pilsen, (then) Czechoslovakia, and in 1957 he graduated from the School for Applied Arts in Prague. He started his own bookbinding studio, and later worked in Basel, Switzerland at the Papiermuehle, or Paper Mill, the Swiss museum for paper, printing, and writing. Sobota came to the United States in 1984, sponsored by the Rowfant Club of book collectors in Cleveland, and was employed at the conservation lab of Case Western Reserve University. He moved to the Bridwell Library at Southern Methodist University in Dallas as director of their Conservation Laboratory. Conservation work paid the bills, but his friends and colleagues all knew that his first love was the making of fine unique design bindings. He arrived during the renaissance of American book arts in the 1980s and hit the ground running as an active promoter and sponsor of shows and workshops. He and his wife Jarmila established the Saturday’s Book Arts Gallery in Euclid, Ohio, and kept the name and concept of that gallery alive in various places and incarnations as they moved about the world. Day jobs at universities gave Jan financial stability and institutional support, but also multiplied the effect of his book arts efforts. His university affiliations allowed him to bring a profound knowledge of the craft and tradition of bookbinding to the many American students eager to learn, at a time when that knowledge was being lost at a staggering rate. He shared that knowledge generously with anybody who would listen. 

In its 6^th year, the Ohioana Book Festival will once again celebrate Ohio’s authors, their books, and the love of reading and writing! The festival is always tons of fun where all attendees meet nearly 100 Ohio authors, have books signed, attend panel discussions, try some of the crafts and activities in the children’s area, eat at one (or more) of the local food carts, listen to some great music, and take in all the amazing literature Ohio has to offer! All Festival activities are free and open to the public.

Since 1935, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards have recognized important contributions to our understanding of the diversity of human cultures. Today it remains the only American book prize focusing on works that address racism and diversity.  On April 19, 2012, the Cleveland Foundation announced the 2012 winners:
Esi Edugyan, Half-Blood Blues: A Novel. Fiction
David Blight, American Oracle: The Civil War in the Civil Rights Era. Nonfiction
David Livingstone Smith, Less Than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave, and Exterminate Others. Nonfiction
Wole Soyinka, Lifetime Achievement

The Anisfield-Wolf winners will be honored in Cleveland on Sept. 13, 2012, at a ceremony at the Ohio Theatre hosted by the Cleveland Foundation and emceed by Jury Chair Henry Louis Gates. For more information, go to www.anisfield-wolf.org. 
 

The Ohio Center for the Book at Cleveland Public Library is pleased to announce our state's winners of the 2012 Letters About Literature writing contest.  Ohio authors Tricia Springstubb and Robert Noll will speak to the winners and semi-finalists at an awards ceremony in late April 2012.  Many students submitted excellent letters; the task of picking only one first place winner for each level was a difficult job for the judges.  Congratulations to Ohio's top winners:

Level I, First Place:  Erica Langan, for the letter to Emily Dickinson, for Emily Dickinson Poems.

Level I, Second Place: Rachel Guslin, of the Mason Intermediate School, for the letter to Cornelia Funke, for Thief Lord.  Her LAL contest sponsor is Mr. Potts.

Level II, First Place: Natalie Keyes, for the letter to Isaac Asimov, for the short story "Eyes Do More Than See."

Level II, Second Place: Paris Hudson, of the Hannah Gibbons Nottingham Elementary School, for the letter to Sharon Draper, for the Hazelwood High Trilogy.  Her sponsor in the LAL contest was Adrienne Khan.

Level III, First Place: Audrey Coble, for the letter to Chuck Palahniuk, for Fight Club.

Level III, Second Place: Lynn Desamours, of the Reynoldsburg High School, for the letter to Ellen Hopkins, for Perfect. Her LAL contest sponsor is Linda Young.

For a complete listing of all winners and semi-finalists, click "Read More."

The daughter of Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, Carrie Fisher became a cultural icon in her own right at the age of 19, when she starred as Princess Leia in the Star Wars trilogy. In WISHFUL DRINKING, she tells the true and intoxicating tale of her life as a Hollywood legend - with all the wry wit she poured into such bestsellers as - in an uproarious and sobering look at her "Hollywood hangover." From stardom to divorce, re-marriage to the death of a close friend, addiction to mental illness, Fisher recounts her peaks and valleys with unfailing candor and biting humor, referring to celebrity as just "obscurity biding its time." The VictoriaTheatre in Dayton (138 N. Main St., Dayton, Ohio 45402 | (937) 228-7591 | info@victoriatheatre.com) is hosting the show which runs till Tuesday, April 22, 2012.

On Friday and Saturday September 28th and 29th, 2012, the Central Ohio Fiction Writers will present its annual Writers and Readers Conference at the Worthington, Ohio Holiday Inn. Conference Fees for COFW Members is $125 (COFW members can register early after May 1, 2012). Non-members will need to pay $140 and can register anytime after May 15, 2012.

• Simone Elkeles will be the keynote speaker. Ms. Elkeles is the NY Times & USA Today bestselling author of over seven teen romance novels. She has won various awards and recognition for her books, including the coveted RITA award from the Romance Writers of America for her book Perfect Chemistry and for being named Author of the Year by the Illinois Association of Teachers of English.
• Kristin Higgins will be the Award Luncheon Speaker. Ms. Higgins is a New York Times and USA Today best-selling author of Contemporary Romance Novels and a two-time winner of RWA's Rita award.
• Joanna Bourne will be the Featured Craft Speaker. Ms. Bourne is a nationally bestselling author who, like Ms. Higgins, has also won two Rita's.
• Kristin Nelson--the President and Senior Literary Agent of Nelson Literary Agency (NLA)--will also be in attendance as will Whitney Ross of TOR/Forge Publishing. 

Dmitry Bykov, one of Russia's most prominent and admired writers, visits Northeast Ohio on Friday, March 30, 2012, 7:30 pm, at Forest Hill Church, 3031 Monticello Blvd., Cleveland Heights.  The event will be in Russian and tickets are $30.00. 

Dmitry Bykov is one of the most remarkable figures of modern Russian literary life, and one of Russia's most prominent and admired writers and public intellectuals. He is a writer, poet, journalist, critic, TV host, and biographer. In recent years, he has won 11 literary awards. 

Dmitry Bykov has published five novels and six books of poetry, as well as three books of articles and fairy tales. He is the author of essays, literary and polemical articles that were published in numerous journals and newspapers. 

His biography of Boris Pasternak earned Bykov the 2006 National Bestseller (Russian : Национальный бестселлер ) and Great Book (Russian : Большая Книга ) awards. He later wrote biographies of Maksim Gorky  and Bulat Okudzhava .

Ed Young, Caldecott Medalist and author of many award-winning books for children, is the 2012 winner of the Norman A. Sugarman Children’s Biography Award for his stunning autobiography, The House Baba Built: An Artist’s Childhood in China as told to Libby Koponen.

The Sugarman Award is given biennially by the Cleveland Public Library to honor excellence in the field of biography for children. These books embody the mandated Sugarman award criteria—that titles be selected for age-appropriateness, writing quality and biographical subject matter ‘worthy of emulation.’

Additionally, two Norman A. Sugarman Children’s Biography Honor Awards have been selected for 2012: Larry Dane Brimner's Black and White: The Confrontation Between Reverend Fred L. Shuttleworth And Eugene “Bull” Connor and Harry Houdini: The Legend of the World’s Greatest Escape Artist by Janice Weaver.

A reception and ceremony will be held at Cleveland Public Library on Thursday, April 19, 2012.