BORN: 1987 OHIO CONNECTION: Resident Columbus In 1976, Ruth Awad’s father fled Abou Samra, Tripoli, Lebanon, to seek asylum in England during the Lebanese Civil War. After immigrating to the United States in the 1980s, he attended Southern Illinois University in Carbondale where he met Awad’s mother. Awad’s mother, a nurse, painted as a hobby. …
Read More Ruth AwadOHIO CONNECTION: Birth and Resident Cleveland and Shaker Heights Since childhood, Cleveland native and freelance writer Patricia Averbach (“a born teller of stories”) was driven to introspection, to observing, and to sharing her thoughts with others. Before learning to write, she verbalized her narratives to her grandmother who lovingly wrote them down for Averbach to …
Read More Patricia AverbachOHIO CONNECTION: Resident Cleveland Born on April 26, 1834, humorist Charles Farrar Browne (aka “Artemus Ward”) grew up in Waterford Flat, Oxford County, Maine. His mother, Caroline Eliza Farrar Brown, was a freethinker descended from the first Puritan settlers of North America in Plymouth, Massachusetts. His father, Levi, was a liberal-minded Congregationalist whose grandfather, Jabez …
Read More Charles Farrar Browne (aka “Artemus Ward”)OHIO CONNECTION: Resident Kinsman Born in Los Angeles, California, on December 7, 1915, writer Leigh Brackett, the beloved “Queen of Space Opera,” was the only child of William Franklin (an accountant) and Margaret Brackett (née Douglass). Through the distaff side, she was of Scotch, Mohawk and Sioux descent. Franklin’s death during the 1918 Pandemic necessitated …
Read More Leigh Douglass BrackettBORN: 1971 OHIO CONNECTION: Resident Oberlin Born in London on April 5, 1971, to Muslim immigrants of Indian, Iranian, and Egyptian descent (political refugees from India), Kazim Ali became fascinated with poetry from his father’s eloquent readings from the Qur’an. After a residency in Jenpeg, Manitoba, between 1975 and 1979, Ali’s family relocated to Buffalo, New …
Read More Kazim AliJournalist, war correspondent, and founder of the Cleveland Folk Arts Association, Theodore Andrica was the Cleveland Press Ethnic (Nationalities) Editor from 1927 to 1973. Born in the Romanian village of Radna on August 9, 1900, Andrica was nineteen years old when he emigrated to the United States in 1920. In the spring of 1927, Andrica …
Read More Theodore Andrica
The November 14th program will feature Don Boozer, Manager of the Literature Department at Cleveland Public Library (home to one of the largest Superman memorabilia collections in the country) and Coordinator of the Ohio Center for the Book speaking on Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster’s connection to Cleveland, Ohio, and their lasting legacy to the …
Read More Public invited to Siegel and Shuster Induction Ceremony into the Jewish-American Hall of Fame, Sunday, Nov. 14Born: July 3, 1898Died: January 1935 Ohio connection: Birth Defiance Writer, novelist, and journalist Thomas Alexander Boyd was born in Defiance, Ohio, the only child of Alice (nee Dunbar) Boyd and James Alexander Boyd. Due to his father’s death three months before he was born and his mother’s move to Chicago, Illinois, to pursue a nursing …
Read More Thomas BoydBorn: 1950 Ohio Connection: Birth | Resident Steubenville | Perrysville Deborah Fleming is the quintessential Ohio author: born in Steubenville, raised in Bloomingdale, and residing in Perrysville. She is a poet, essayist, novelist, and scholar as well as the current editor (2002-present) and director (2016-present) of the Ashland Poetry Press. Earning her Ph.D. at Ohio …
Read More Deborah FlemingBorn: June 12, 1844 Died: June 9, 1878 Ohio connection: Birth New Lexington Januarius A. MacGahan, considered one of the most influential journalist of the 19th century was born on June 12, 1844, near New Lexington, Ohio. The son of James and Ester (nee Dempsey) MacGahan, Januarius was only six years old when his father died, leaving …
Read More Januarius A. MacGahan