The Buckeye Book Fair turns page to its 31st year
In “Nature and the Environment in Amish Life,” David L. McConnell and Marilyn D. Loveless examine how this prevailing notion of the environmentally conscious Amish fits with the changing realities of their lives.
A Wooster literary tradition will celebrate its 31st anniversary on Saturday, Nov. 3 with the Buckeye Book Fair at Fisher Auditorium.
“We have 95 authors this year,” said Julia Wiesenberg, executive director of the fair. “I always get so excited, and I know that our local authors are going to be a huge hit.”
Wooster resident Marcy Campbell is making her book fair debut with her picture book, “Adrian Simcox Does Not Have a Horse.”
“I really love this book,” Wiesenberg said. “It’s about imagination and exaggerations and also kindness. The illustrations are gorgeous. It’s great for adults and kids.”
Campbell said she had been working on a novel that “really wasn’t going anywhere” when she decided to write the children’s book. Shortly after becoming a parent, she’d started a file of ideas for a picture book.
“One day I opened up that idea file and came across a line that read, ‘Boy says he has a horse, but girl doesn’t believe him.’ From that starting point, the story took off,” Campbell said.
The Wooster writer has been attending the book fair for years. “I always hoped someday I’d publish a book and be on the other side of the table,” Campbell said.
Campbell’s book was illustrated by Corinna Luyken.
Wooster author Bob Adamov will be back at the fair for his third year. “I believe it’s the premier gathering of authors and readers in Ohio,” he said. “It’s such a privilege to participate.”
Adamov writes adventures and is showcasing three books this year at the fair: “Chincoteague Calm,” “Golden Torpedo” and “Missing,” which contains several scenes that take place in Wooster.
“It’s never too late to achieve your dreams,” said Adamov, who didn’t start writing fiction until he was 51. He has two screenplay projects in the works based on his novels.
Adamov likes to surprise his friends by putting them into his books. “I’m a prankster at heart and like trying to pull the wool over the eyes of my readers with misdirection and unique plot twists,” he said.
Author Helga Long, a retired German teacher from West Holmes High School, wrote a biography of her mother’s life growing up in Germany during World War II. Over 20 years ago she decided to sit down and record her mother’s experiences before they were lost.
“After 20 audio tapes had been filled,” Long said, “I let them lay in a shoe box in my closet for 15 years, too busy with my teaching career to translate the German narratives.”
The project was originally intended to be a journal, yet it quickly became apparent the story of her mother’s resiliency would make an inspiring book.
Two College of Wooster professors will be at the fair to share their book about the complex relationship the Amish have with nature and the environment.
“The Amish are widely seen as a simple, homegrown people who are closely tied to the land, yet their views of the environment are complicated. We wanted to examine Amish engagements with nature in the home, at school, at work and outdoors and to present a thoughtful picture of how the Amish think about nature,” said co-authors David L. McConnell, professor and chair of the sociology and anthropology department, and Marilyn D. Loveless, an emeritus professor of biology.
“We hope that readers will appreciate the diverse ways that the Amish use and think about nature,” the authors said. “While in many ways they are good stewards of natural resources, the Amish have a very utilitarian view of nature. Their detachment from the wider society means that they do not always appreciate the larger impacts their behaviors might have on the environment. Our book shows how Amish responses to regional and global environmental issues such as watershed pollution and climate change reveal their deep skepticism of environmentalists.”
Dr. Susan Albers will be at the fair with her eighth book, “Eating Mindfully for Teens.” This workbook “for teens and tweens teaches them how to eat in a mindful way,” Albers said. “It’s not a diet, as fad diets have been shown to be harmful for teens and adults. Instead, [it offers] tools and tips for how to have a healthy relationship to food for the rest of your life.”
Albers said those with ideas for future books should stop by her table and share.
Of a book about Ohio history, “Inspector Oldfield and the Black Hand Society: America’s Original Gangsters and the U.S. Postal Detective Who Brought Them to Justice,” Wiesenberg said, “This is a pretty unbelievable story.”
The book recounts the story of a group of Italian mobsters who got their start in the back of a fruit store in Marion, Ohio. One of the authors, William Oldfield, is the great-grandson of the Columbus-based postal detective who brought the gangsters to justice in the first international organized crime conviction in the country. His co-author is award-winning broadcast journalist Victoria Bruce.
In an intriguing bit of book fair synchronicity, another book fair author, Melanie Butera, is the great-granddaughter and great-grandniece of two of the perpetrators in the book.
Butera said her great-grandfather came to her repeatedly in dreams as she was doing genealogical research and finding out horrific details of his years in prison.
“He would shout at me in Italian, ‘Traduce per mi,’ translate for me, which to me meant I was supposed to tell his story,” Butera said.
When Butera contacted Oldfield about writing a book, his was already nearly finished, except for information about the family members after they were released from prison. “I knew all this from my research,” she said, “so I was able to help out with the project without having to even write a sentence.”
Butera found that as her great-grandfather Sebastian started to go insane in prison, the warden said he seemed obsessed with God and music. After leaving prison, Sebastian fathered two sons. One became a priest and the other an opera singer.
“God and music,” Butera said, “I feel that this is the story that Sebastian wanted me to tell, that he had made his peace with God and had reached atonement for the horrible things that they did.”
Authors Oldfield and Bruce and contributor Butera will engage in a panel discussion at the fair to tell the story.
The Buckeye Book Fair will run from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Fisher Auditorium is located at 1680 Madison Ave. in Wooster. Admission is $2. Kids under 18 are free. There will be food for purchase.
The schedule for the activities and a full slate of speakers may be found on the website at www.buckeyebookfair.com.
The nonprofit book fair relies on money raised at the fair along with donations to fund their literacy grants and to put on the annual event.
“Ohio Arts Council is our biggest supporter at this time,” Wiesenberg said. “We also get tremendous support from Wooster: individuals, businesses and corporations. We couldn’t have a book fair without them.”