Vick's picks for top 5 local authors

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3:05 PM Friday, May 29, 2009

EDITORS NOTE: We asked ‘‘Book Nook‘‘ coliumnist Vick Mikunas to give us his short list of the Miami Valley’s best authors. Here are his top five.

Allan W. Eckert

BELLEFONTAINE

About the author: Eckert has been a nominee for the Pulitzer Prize for Literature seven times. A prolific author of fiction and nonfiction, he wrote the play “Tecumseh!”

Other works of note include: “The Frontiersman,” “Incident at Hawk’s Hill,” “That Dark and Bloody River: Chronicles of the Ohio River Valley” and “A Time of Terror — The Great Dayton Flood”

Ralph Keyes

YELLOW SPRINGS

About the author: Keyes is the best-selling author of 15 works of nonfiction. His most recent book is “I Love it When You Talk Retro.”

Other works of note include: “Is There Life After High School,” “The Courage To Write” and “The Quote Verifier”

Ann Hagedorn

RIPLEY

About the author: Hagedorn is a native Daytonian. A former investigative reporter for the Wall Street Journal, her first book was “Wild Ride — The Rise and Fall of Calumet Farm, Inc.”

Other notable works include: “Beyond the River — the Untold Heroes of the Underground Railroad” and “Savage Peace — 1919 — Hope and Fear in America.”

Arnold Adoff

YELLOW SPRINGS

About the author: Adoff is the author of two dozen books of poetry for young readers. He is a member of one of the Miami Valley’s notable literary families. His wife, the late Virginia Hamilton was a Yellow Springs native and one of the most highly regarded authors in Ohio. His son, Jaime Adoff is an up and coming author of young adult fiction.

Other works include: “Street Music: City Poems,” “Slow Dance Heartbreak Blues” and “Malcolm X.”

Martha Moody

WASHINGTON TWP.

About the author: Moody was a full-time practicing physician in Dayton when she decided to pursue her dream of becoming a novelist. She opened that new career with a best-seller. (See accompanying article)

Other works include: “Best Friends” (2001), “The Office of Desire” (2007) and “Sometimes Mine” (coming in August, 2009)

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