8 Dayton authors you need to know (and 100 more you can meet in person)
Content Sponsored by Dayton Metro Library
Where do good books come from? New York? London? L.A.? How about right here in Dayton, Ohio?
“Dayton is a cradle of creativity filled with published writers who have a passion to share and inspire through the written word,” said Jennifer Spillman, Manager of Adult Services for the Dayton Metro Library. “We are proud to showcase their work for our community to read, enjoy and embrace.” The Main Library in downtown Dayton has a Local Authors Collection; reserve titles online and they’ll be sent to the Library nearest you.
More than 100 local authors will gather at the Dayton Book Expo and Local Authors Event on Saturday, April 25, 11:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. at Sinclair Community College’s Ponitz Center. This free event brings writers, readers and book lovers of all sorts together to share inspiration, talk about their craft and promote great books. While the event focuses on local writers, international bestselling author Graeme Simsion joins the event via Skype at 1:30 p.m. Simsion is the author of this year’s Big Read book, The Rosie Project. Each year the Big Read encourages area residents to read and talk about the same book. The Rosie Event: A Skype with Author Graeme Simsion wraps up this year’s Big Read.
Spillman knows “who’s who” in the local literary circle, and she offers this list of writers to explore. Each of them has titles in the Dayton Metro Library’s collection, so check them out! Your neighbor, your kid’s teacher, or the person who pulls up next to you at a red light just might have written your next favorite book.
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1. Dr. Herbert Martin - Poet
(Poet) Dr. Herbert Martin is a retired English professor from the University of Dayton known as much for his performances as Paul Laurence Dunbar as his own poetry. He has four books at the Dayton Metro Library, plus commentaries in a number of Paul Laurence Dunbar books. Video of his performance as Dunbar is available in the Library’s Local History collection.
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2. Dr. David Garrison - Poet
(Poet) Dr. David Garrison taught Spanish and Portuguese at Wright State University. His poems have appeared widely in journals such as Connecticut Review, Poem and Rattle, as well as several anthologies. Two poems from his book, Sweeping the Cemetery, were read by Garrison Keillor on “The Writer’s Almanac,” and one was included in Keillor’s Good Poems: American Places.
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3. Steve Bennish - Nonfiction
(Nonfiction) Steve Bennish first became interested in journalism through reading his hometown newspaper. He covers the political economy, transportation, energy and natural resources beats and has worked for Cox Media Group, publisher of the Dayton Daily News, for the past 18 years. His books Scrappers and A City of Neighbors are at the Dayton Metro Library.
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4. Tim Waggoner - Fiction
(Fiction) Tim Waggoner has published close to 30 novels and three short story collections, and his articles on writing have appeared in Writer’s Digest and Writers’ Journal, among other publications. He teaches creative writing at Sinclair Community College and in Seton Hill University’s Master of Fine Arts in Writing Popular Fiction program and plans to keep writing “until he keels over dead.”
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5. C.V. Hunt - Sci-Fi Fantasy, Fiction
(Sci-Fi Fantasy Fiction) Read C.V. Hunt’s bio, and you’ll get an idea of her unconventional nature: “C.V. Hunt lives in Yellow Springs, Ohio. She’s the author of several unpopular books.” She may describe her work as unpopular but we beg to differ. The Dayton Metro Library offers Danse Macabre, Legacy, Phantom and The Endlessly Trilogy among her titles.
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6. John Scalzi - Sci-Fi Fiction
(Sci-Fi Fiction) John Scalzi has been “taunting the tauntable since 1998” and is a film critic/columnist, writer/editor, freelance writer and novelist. He’s written the award-winning sci-fi The Old Man’s War Novels; Agent to the Stars (2005); The Android’s Dream (2006); Fuzzy Nation (2011); Redshirts: A Novel With Three Codas (2012); and Lock In (2014).
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7. Tobias S. Buckell - Sci-Fi & Futurist
(Sci Fi & Futurist) Born in the Caribbean, Tobias S. Buckell is a New York Times Bestselling author. His novels and over 50 short stories have been translated into 17 languages. He has been nominated for the Hugo, Nebula, Prometheus and the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Science Fiction Author.
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8. Katrina Kittle - Fiction
(Fiction) Katrina Kittle has taught middle and high school English and theater. She’s the author of Traveling Light, Two Truths and a Lie, and The Blessings of the Animals. Her novel The Kindness of Strangers was a winner of the 2006 Great Lakes Book Award for Fiction. The Blessings of the Animals was chosen by the Women’s National Book Association as one of 10 Great Group Reads for National Book Group Month (October 2010). Katrina’s first tween novel, Reasons to Be Happy, was published in 2011.
For more information on the Dayton Book Expo, Local Authors Event or the Skype session with Graeme Simsion, call the Dayton Metro Library at (937) 463-BOOK or visit DaytonMetroLibrary.org.