Six faculty named finalists for five book awards

Four current and one retired faculty member from the University of Colorado Arts and Sciences have been named as finalists for the 2009 Colorado Book Awards. Meanwhile, an English professor has been named a finalist for a Shirley Jackson Award, which recognizes outstanding writing in “the literature of psychological suspense, horror and the dark fantastic.”

The finalists for the Colorado Book Awards include Nick Schneider and Erica Ellingson of astrophysical and planetary sciences, Paul M. Levitt of English, Claudia Mills of philosophy and Linda Hogan, a professor emerita of English.

Levitt is one of 10 finalists for the “genre fiction” award for his book “Come with Me to Babylon,” about a Russian family’s dangerous journey to the United States. That book also won third-place in ForeWord Magazine’s Book of the Year Awards.

Mills is among three finalists in the “juvenile literature” category for “The Totally Made-Up Civil War Diary of Amanda MacLeish,” about a girl who conjures up diary entries for a fictional girl caught in the Civil War.

Schneider and Ellingson are co-authors with Jeffrey Bennett (who earned his doctorate in astrophysics from CU) of “Max Goes to Jupiter: A Science Adventure with Max the Dog,” which is one of three finalists in the “children’s literature” category.

Hogan, a 1991 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for her novel “Mean Spirit,” is among five finalists in the “fiction/literary” category for “People of the Whale,” about a fictional group of Native Americans who find their mythical origins in the whale and the octopus.

Also, Stephen Graham Jones of English is one of five nominees in the “novella” category of the Shirley Jackson Awards for his work “The Long Trial of Nolan Dugatti.” Another nominee is “N,” by Stephen King.

Jones, who has also been a finalist for an International Guild of Horror Award, intimated that it’s intimidating to compete against King: “I mean, if this were basketball, sure, I love to watch Kobe and LeBron play—Carmello and J.R. Smith and Chauncey Billups, really—but playing against them? I'd get smoked.”

He added: “Granted, with writing I can hold my own better than I could on the court, but still, King. I mean, if not for him, I probably never would have taken up a pen myself. So, yeah, cool to have my name up there. Maybe I'll get lucky.”

With “Nolan Dugatti,” Jones wanted to explore video games, which “just wholly and completely confuse me.” In the book, a suicidal dad tries to connect with his game-addicted son.

Professor Levitt, one of the Colorado Book Award finalists, said his motivation for writing was personal: “My father emigrated from Russia, but what interested me even more than his personal stories was the fact that six members of his family came to America and returned to Russia. When I looked closer, I discovered that one-third of the 90 million immigrants to America between 1820 and 1920 returned to their country of origin. Why? The answers are many, but all of them rich in meaning.”

Levitt said he writes historical novels and plays because “I want to know where I came from” and because “writing clarifies my ideas. “ Quoting E.M. Forster, Levitt added, “How do I know what I think until I see what I've written?”

Additionally, Levitt notes, “When I write, I am transported into another world, one of imagination and invention, and that ‘high’ is addictive.”

Professor Mills said she is drawn to writing children's books because, “I still love the books I read as a child and read them over and over again; I think I have a 10-year-old voice inside my head.”

She added, “I feel like I am 10, and then I look in the mirror and get this unsettling surprise.”

Mills said “The Totally Made-Up Civil War Diary of Amanda MacLeish” was inspired by a school assignment her boys had at Mesa Elementary School, where they had to keep a diary in the persona of some historical character.

“I would have adored such an assignment when I was young, so I created the character of Amanda MacLeish, an avid fifth-grade writer, who is keeping a diary where she pretends to be Polly Mason, a Civil War-era girl who has one brother fighting for the North and one for the South,” Mills said.

At the same time, her own parents are separating, so she faces a civil war in her own family. The book alternates between a chapter of Amanda's life and a chapter of the diary she writes in the voice of Polly Mason. “It's really about the creative process, how literature and life intersect and interact, and how authors use their writing as a way to engage with the hurts of their own hearts,” Mills said.

Ellingson, co-author of “Max Goes to Jupiter,” said the lead author (Bennett) is a good friend and accomplished author. “Max Goes to the Moon” is a previous Colorado Book Award winner.

The “Max” series are packed with accurate, up-to-date science, and they are brought to life with a fun story and lovely illustrations, Ellingson said.

“A particularly satisfying feature is how the books can be read at several different levels, with Max's adventures pulling the story forward and the ‘Big Kid Boxes’ going deeper into explanations and extra topics for curious older kids and grown-ups. This appealed to us as both professors and parents.”

Schneider, who is married to Ellingson, is an expert on Jupiter and its moons. “He and I spent an evening playing with possible stories and pictures just for the fun of it, and then we asked Jeff whether we could be involved in the next book,” she said.

Ellinson and Schneider are pleased with the recognition the book is getting, and hope that Max will keep kids thinking and learning about space exploration. “It would be such a thrill to have a student in one of our future astronomy classes tell us ‘Oh, I remember reading all about this in the ‘Max’ books when I was a kid!’"

The Shirley Jackson Awards will be presented on July 12 in Massachusetts. The Colorado Book Awards, bestowed by Colorado Humanities, a nonprofit group, will be announced on June 22 in Aspen.