FICTION: Paula McLain, The Paris Wife

A California native, Paula McLain received an M.F.A. in poetry from the University of Michigan. She is the author of two collections of poetry, as well as a memoir and a novel. Paula has received numerous fellowships and awards, including grants from the Ohio Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. Last year, she received the Cleveland Arts Prize for Literature. McLain and her family live in Cleveland Heights.

The Paris Wife is the story of a Midwestern boy and girl, Ernest Hemingway and Hadley Richardson, who met, fell in love, married and moved to Paris. Through Hadley’s eyes we see a young, sensitive man who blossoms into one of the most influential writers of the 20th century.

“I first came to know Hadley in the pages of A Moveable Feast, Hemingway’s remarkable memoir of his years in Paris,” Paula explains. “His reminiscences of Hadley were so moving that I decided to seek out biographies of her life — and that’s when I knew that I’d found something special.”

NONFICTION: Susan Orlean, Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend

New York Times best-selling author Susan Orlean describes herself as being “the product of a happy and relatively uneventful childhood in Cleveland, Ohio.” The seeds for Susan’s book, Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend, were planted in her childhood by the Rin Tin Tin figurine on her grandfather’s desk. Years later when she learned that Rin Tin Tin was a real dog with an amazing life, she was drawn to his story.

Rin Tin Tin was discovered as a puppy by a young American soldier during World War I. The soldier took the puppy home where he was able to draw the attention of Warner Bros. During the following decade, Rinty starred in 23 blockbuster films that saved the studio from bankruptcy. He and his descendants transitioned from silent films to talkies and from radio to television. The story that began on a battlefield developed into an enduring bond between humans and animals.

Orlean is the author of seven other books, including The Orchid Thief, which was made into the Academy Award-winning film, “Adaptation.” She’s been hailed as a “national treasure” by The Washington Post.

 

POETRY: Dave Lucas, Weather: Poems

Weather, Dave Lucas’ debut collection, captures the changing seasons and landscapes of Cleveland, his hometown. The poems in this collection provide an enchanting and majestic, yet realistic and earthy, view of the Erie lakefront, steel mills and suburbs of northeast Ohio.

Lucas graduated with a B.A. in English from John Carroll University, and earned an M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of Virginia. He also received an M.A. in English language and literature from the University of Michigan, where he is currently working toward his Ph.D. He is the co-founder and co-director of the popular Market Garden Brewery Reading Series in Cleveland. Lucas has received great praise from fellow poets. Rita Dove, Akron native and Poet Laureate of the United States 1993–95, included him on her “Young Poets to Watch” list. Mark Strand, Poet Laureate of the United States 1990-91, wrote, “[Lucas] is an extraordinarily gifted young poet. In fact, I know of no other poet of his age who is his equal. His poems combine acute observation with a subtle command of the cadences of American verse, creating for the reader a verbal world of astonishing clarity and inescapable harmony.”

 

YOUNG ADULT: Rae Carson, The Girl of Fire and Thorns

Rae Carson’s debut novel sets the stage for the forthcoming books in her trilogy. Readers meet Elisa, the younger of two princesses, who as yet has not done anything remarkable in her life. Then, Elisa learns she is the chosen one: The one person in the century to achieve greatness. Publishers Weekly raved, “A smart, complex fantasy with stellar characters ... Carson’s mature writing style, thoughtful storytelling, appealing characters and surprising twists add up to a page-turner with broad appeal.”

The Columbus resident grew up in California and earned a B.A. in social science from Biola University. In 2004, Carson joined the Online Writing Workshop for Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror where she found her calling, met her future best friends, and her future husband.

 

ABOUT OHIO: Candice Millard, Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President

Ohio native James A. Garfield became the 20th president of the United States in 1880. Four months into his presidency, Garfield was felled by an assassin’s bullet. But, writes author Candice Millard, it was not the bullet itself that killed the statesman. Rather, it was the bitter behind-the-scenes political power struggle and disastrous, archaic and unsanitary medical care he received. Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President documents this tragic event, as well as the heroic efforts of Alexander Graham Bell, who worked around the clock to develop a device capable of finding the bullet.

An Ohio native, Millard grew up in Lexington, but moved to Kansas before her senior year in high school. She received a B.A. from Baker University in Baldwin City, Kansas, and earned her Master’s in literature from Baylor University. Millard is a former writer and editor for National Geographic magazine. Destiny of the Republic is her second book.