September workshops for writers in Columbus
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There are two great opportunities for area writers coming up this month, and there’s still time to register!

The Thurber House, where laughter, learning, and literature meet, begins its adult two-session writing workshops on September 11 with Revise Like a Rock Star. Deadline for registrations is soon: September 4. 

SICCO (Sisters in Crime Columbus Ohio), the local chapter of Sisters in Crime, an international organization promoting women in crime writing, is  hosting a day-long forensics writing workshop on Sept. 23. The event is at the lodge at Blacklick Woods Metro Park.

Ohio author Andrew Welsh-Huggins is the keynote speaker along with a U.S. marshal, a state crime investigator and a Columbus police detective. Registration is $60, which includes breakfast, lunch and a reception at day’s end. Buy tickets here.

Announcing an evening of fun and books: The 2017 Ohioana Awards!
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Join us for one of Ohioana’s most elegant evenings: the 76th Ohioana Awards on October 6.

We’ll gather in the Statehouse Atrium on Friday, October 6,  from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. and honor our writers and Ohioana’s grand tradition of recognizing some deserving and creative people.

Tickets are $50 and available for purchase. The cost includes wine and hors d’oeuvres. The Awards Ceremony is always a good time for everyone, and we hope you’ll join us!

This year’s event includes winners in seven categories:

Fiction
Marisa Silver, Little Nothing, Blue Rider Press.

Nonfiction
Douglas Brinkley, Rightful Heritage: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Land of America, Harper.

About Ohio or an Ohioan
J.D. Vance, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, Harper.

Juvenile Literature
C.F. Payne (illustrator) and Sue Macy (author), Miss Mary Reporting: The True Story of Sportswriter Mary Garber, Paula Wiseman Books.

Middle Grade/Young Adult Literature
Sally Derby, Jump Back Paul, Candlewick.

Poetry
Teri Ellen Cross Davis, Haint: Poems, Gival Press.

Reader’s Choice
Tiffany McDaniel, The Summer That Melted Everything, St. Martin’s Press.

 

 

 

Book Festival 2018
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Even though 2018 seems like it’s far into the future, it’s practically tomorrow when it comes to the Ohioana Book Festival. Yes, we have begun planning for our 2018 event and we are once again reaching out to qualifying authors.

The festival will be held on Saturday April 14, 2018, and we’re returning to the Sheraton Columbus Capitol Square. The 2017 event was great fun for all and we pride ourselves on taking care of our authors and providing a first-class experience for our visitors. It’s a great space for book lovers!

The 2018 application is due by October 31. We look forward to hearing from old friends and new to make the 2018 event the best yet!

Ohioana Announces the 2017 Ohioana Awards
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The Ohioana Library has announced the winners of the 2017 Ohioana Awards, including seven book awards and the Walter Rumsey Marvin Grant.

First given in 1942, the Ohioana Book Awards are the second oldest, and among the most prestigious, state literary prizes in the nation. Nearly every major writer from Ohio in the past 75 years has been honored, from James Thurber to Toni Morrison. The 2017 winners are:

Fiction: Marisa Silver, Little Nothing

Nonfiction: Douglas Brinkley, Rightful Heritage – Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Land of America

Poetry: Teri Ellen Cross Davis, Haint

About Ohio/Ohioan: J.D. Vance, Hillbilly Elegy – A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis

Middle Grade/Young Adult Literature: Sally Derby, Jump Back, Paul – The Life and Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar

Juvenile Literature: C.F. Payne, Miss Mary Reporting

Reader’s Choice: Tiffany McDaniel, The Summer That Melted Everything

Six of the awards were selected by juries, while the Readers’ Choice Award was chosen by voters in an online poll.

“It was tough for judges to make a decision,” said Ohioana Executive Director David Weaver. “This year’s thirty finalists included winners of the National Book Award, the Pulitzer Prize, the Newbery Medal, and the Pushcart Prize; a Guggenheim Fellow; two U.S. Children’s Poet Laureates; CNN’s Presidential Historian; and five authors whose titles made either the New York Times or Amazon 2016 year-end “best” list. It was truly an outstanding year for Ohio authors and books.”

 

In addition to the book awards, Ohioana announced Ashley Bethard as the 28th winner of the Walter Rumsey Marvin Grant, a competitive prize for Ohio writers age 30 or younger who have not yet published a book. The grant, named for Ohioana’s second director and endowed by his family, has helped launch a number of notable literary careers, including Anthony Doerr. Doerr won the grant in 2000 at age 26 and has gone on to become one of America’s leading contemporary authors, winning the Pulitzer Prize in 2015 for All the Light We Cannot See.

The Ohioana Awards will be presented Friday, October 6, in the Atrium of Ohio’s historic Statehouse in Columbus. Tickets for event, which include a pre-awards reception, will go on sale August 25.

Ohioana Library Announces 2017 Book Award Finalists.
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The Ohioana Library is pleased to announce the finalists for the 2017 Ohioana Book Awards. First given in 1942, the awards are the second oldest state literary prizes in the nation and honor outstanding achievement by Ohio authors in five categories: Fiction, Poetry, Juvenile Literature, Middle Grade/Young Adult Literature, and Nonfiction. The sixth category, About Ohio/Ohioan, may also include books by non-Ohio authors.

This year’s finalists include such notable names as Douglas Brinkley, Martha Collins, Sharon Creech, J. Patrick Lewis, Loren Long, Candice Millard, Donald Ray Pollock, Julie Salamon, J.D. Vance, and Jacqueline Woodson. Six authors are finalists for their debut books, while nine are past Ohioana Award winners.

Ohioana will profile all the finalists in the coming weeks. Beginning Monday, May 23, it will present “30 Books, 30 Days,” a special feature on its Facebook page in which one finalist is highlighted each weekday thru Friday, June 30.

Winners will be announced in July, and the 2017 Ohioana Book Awards presented at the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus on Friday, October 6.

 

Fiction

Poetry

Juvenile Literature

Middle Grade/Young Adult Literature

Nonfiction

About Ohio/Ohioan

 

One for the record books!
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The 11th annual Ohioana Book Festival is now part of history!

From the people eagerly waiting to get in before the doors opened, the large and enthusiastic crowds at many panel discussions, the huge number of kids and teens in their special spaces, the lines of people waiting to check out at The Book Loft, and the fact that our two food trucks (Sweet T’s and Schmidt’s) sold COMPLETELY out of food before their scheduled end time – all signs point to this being our biggest and best-attended festival ever!

Ohioana’s tagline is “Connecting readers and Ohio writers,” and no event exemplifies that better than the Ohioana Book Festival. We had 120 authors of all genres as well as illustrators, all with an Ohio connection. Either their books were about Ohio or the individuals have called Ohio home at some point.

We love it. And it’s FREE! Always has been, always will be.

Please be on the look-out for next year (which will be here before you know it!) The date is Saturday, April 14, 2018.

 

Ohioana Book Festival
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It’s here! Hope you have time on Saturday to join us for the Ohioana Book Festival! It’s free!

This is the 11th one, and we’re just as thrilled and psyched for this event as we were for the first one in 2007!

(Isn’t the poster fantastic? It’s the creation of Lindsay Ward. She’s going to be at the festival too!)

Come to the Sheraton in downtown Columbus any time from 10:30 in the morning to 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 8. We’ll have 120 authors, foods trucks, activities for kids and teens, and plenty of panel discussions AND OF COURSE BOOKS for sale, courtesy of our on-site vendor, the famous Book Loft of German Village.

See you soon!

The New Kid in Town
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It’s so exciting to have a new bookstore in town! Gramercy Books in Columbus suburb city Bexley opened its doors just about six weeks ago.

What? Aren’t independent bookstores dead? Didn’t they get buried in the rise of the big box stores like Barnes & Noble and Borders? Yes and no. Borders, of course, is gone. And you can buy books at the grocery or drug stores (nothing new there). What about online retailers like Amazon? And what about the rise of the e-book?

True story: independent bookstores began returning after the Great Recession of 2008, which seems to defy explanation and logic. Per the American Booksellers Association, 2009 was the year when independent bookstores experienced a resurgence in numbers and popularity.

Turns out people like stores that specialize in books. Don’t you make sure to visit bookstores when you travel? Of course you do.

Columbus is part of the trend, which is gloriously reassuring. We’ve got craft beer, vibrant arts scenes in different parts of the city, tech innovation – and an indy bookstore!

What makes the whole thing even more special is that store owner Linda Kass is also a novelist. Her book, Tasa’s Song, about music, survival, and World War II, has been the source of musical inspiration. If you visit her website to learn more about her book, you can hear original music composed by Charles Wetherbee of the Carpe Diem String Quartet.

Book stores inspire as well. There’s nothing like the experience of stepping into a well-stocked space and meeting a new book, sure to be your new best friend.

Congratulations to Linda Kass! We look forward to many visits and many purchases!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!
by | posted in: Ohioana Book Festival | 0

People all over central Ohio are crossing the days off on their calendars and getting their wish list together. But it’s not the first month of winter and the days are getting longer, not shorter. So what are we talking about?

It’s spring in Columbus and that means the Ohioana Book Festival is fast approaching! If you haven’t yet jotted down the date, now’s your chance:

SATURDAY, APRIL 8, 10:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

We’re back at the Sheraton this year, the one at Capitol Square. There’s parking all over the place, including the garage for the Columbus Commons. In fact, the Sheraton borders the Commons. Easy to find. There’s also parking under the Capitol if you would like to park there. And you might find a spot on the street. It could happen! Most wonderful time of the year, right?

 


So after you get your car parked, be ready for fun! We’ll have food trucks, workshops, stuff just for kids and teens and BOOKS AND AUTHORS!

Our authors are the best and the Ohioana Book Festival is a great place to meet your favorites. You can talk to them and get a signed copy of their books, for one. We also try to seat authors in similar genres together so that you’ll get a chance to talk to more than mystery author (if you like mysteries) or book illustrator (if you like great drawings). Our authors also present during festival so be sure to check the schedule to find who is talking about what – and when and where! The Sheraton’s not that huge, but why risk missing hearing one of your favorites speak?

The Book Festival is also heavy on SHOPPING! That’s right! It’s America’s favorite pastime and makes this event even more like that other most-wonderful-time-of-the-year. Heck, you can even get a huge head start on the one that begins in December by getting waaaaay ahead of the holiday rush.

So don’t forget: SATURDAY, APRIL 8, 10:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Ephemera in the Ohioana Archives
by | posted in: Collection Highlights | 0

As we continue to celebrate National Archives Month, we’re sharing some ephemera from Ohioana’s archival collections. Although these items were designed to be thrown away after they had served their purpose, paper can be surprisingly resilient. Today they provide a unique, often fun, and sometimes beautiful glimpse of everyday life.

PumpShowPCloresBecause the 2013 Circleville Pumpkin Show is now history, we thought we’d share this postcard promoting the 1912 show. Although it’s difficult to see in this image, the pumpkin is embossed. Note that the postcard was provided by Crites’ Book Shop and printed by the Circleville Union-Herald, a weekly newspaper that ran under that title from 1888-1927.

LabDayticketloresAlthough this pass for the 1912 New London Labor Day Celebration is not as well-preserved as the postcard above, the beautiful typography is still visible.

The 1938 Ohio State Fair ticket shown below was provided by the Ohio State Journal, which began as the Western Intelligencer in 1811. It was central Ohio’s first newspaper, and was published in Worthington with James Kilbourne as its original editor. When Columbus became the state capital, the paper moved downtown and served as the official reporting newspaper of the Ohio General Assembly. After several name and ownership changes, it became known as the Ohio State Journal in 1840. Although the paper became part of the Dispatch Printing Company in 1950, it continued to be printed under the same name until 1959, when it merged with the Columbus Citizen to become the Columbus Citizen-Journal.

StFairTicklores

And finally, some advertising ephemera from Circleville.

EggAdvloresCanLabellores

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