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Gloria, White among Indiana Authors Award winners
DePauw University English professors Eugene Gloria and Chris White were recently announced as two of the Indiana Authors Award recipients for 2020.
White’s novel “The Life List of Adrian Mandrick” took the top honor in the Fiction category, while Gloria’s collection “Sightseer in This Killing City” was selected as the best in the Poetry category.
Both books were chosen from among 35 shortlisted works in eight categories.
Local author Troy Cummings’ book “Can I Be Your Dog?” was shortlisted in the Children’s category. The book honored in this group was Phillip Hoose’s “Attucks!: Oscar Robertson and the Basketball Team that Awakened a City.”
Gloria said he is grateful for the honor, and suggested that his and White’s accomplishments would reflect well on the university’s writing academia in a relatively rural locus like Greencastle.
“As a resident of Greencastle for 20 years, it’s particularly meaningful to be recognized by a literary award that honors the significant presence of writers from Indiana,” he told the Banner Graphic. “It’s also great for DePauw University to have two members of the English department win the award in separate categories.”
“Sightseer in This Killing City” was inspired by signage -- reading Karate/Guns/Tanning -- that Gloria would see in Plainfield coming home from the Philippines, where he was born. He said this was him “trying to come to grips” with issues of gun violence and divisions seen since the 2016 presidential election.
“The poetry I prefer doesn’t come right at you with issues,” Gloria said of what he believes poetry should accomplish. “Poetry is meant to sing and speak indirectly; otherwise it wouldn’t be poetry to me.”
Gloria has compiled three previous collections of poetry: “My Favorite Warlord” (2012), “Hoodlum Birds” (2006) and “Drivers at the Short-Time Motel” (2000). His work has appeared in The American Poetry Review, The New Republic, The Kenyon Review, Memorious, Boulevard, The Indiana Review and The Best American Poetry 2014.
White shares in the excitement of being named an Indiana Authors Award recipient, as it will allow her to help promote such writing throughout the state.
“This novel was a labor of love, and a labor of frustration and survival and joy,” she told the Banner Graphic. “I’m thrilled to share this moment with the great Indiana writers awarded in other categories, like my colleague of many years, the wonderful poet, Eugene Gloria.”
White began writing “The Life List of Adrian Mandrick” while in a marriage which ended in divorce. Following a birder who goes on a life-changing adventure, the book deals with themes of climate change and personal denial. It became centered around the potential for healing -- after seeing what is broken.
“We all wake up and say, ‘I just can’t deal with this reality right now,’” White provided about the human element behind her novel. “But time is of the essence. For the character in my book, for all of us.”
With “The Life List of Adrian Mandrick” being her first novel, White is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter. Her play “Rhythms” won the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding New Play in 1995, and she earned an Award of Merit at the 2014 Women’s Independent Film Festival for her feature-length screenplay “Weasel in the Icebox.”
Promoted by Indiana Humanities with support from Glick Philanthropies, the Indiana Authors Awards are presented every other year. Beginning in 2021, honorees will have the opportunity to participate in a statewide tour to connect with readers, teachers and students in-between award years.
“Indiana has a rich literary tradition, and this class of Indiana Authors Award winners shows that the legacy is alive and growing,” said Keira Amstutz, president and CEO of Indiana Humanities. “We are honored to partner with Glick Philanthropies to raise awareness about these books not only in Indiana, but among readers across the nation.”
Each recipient receives $5,000 and can make a $500 donation to an Indiana library of their choice. As part of a partnership with the Indiana Authors Awards, Indiana Public Broadcasting Stations will produce radio and TV spots about each winner.
Describing the $500 gift as “the sweetest part of the prize,” Gloria said his donation will go to the Putnam County Public Library. White also said she would give hers to PCPL.