Ohioana Library Association

Congratulations to Wil Haygood - his 2026 book The War Within a War: The Black Struggle in Vietnam and at Home (Knopf/Penguin Random House) has been named to the 2026 National Book Award Longlist!

Wil Haygood is the author of ten nonfiction books, including The Butler, which was made into a film directed by Lee Daniels. Haygood has been a correspondent for The Washington Post and The Boston Globe, where he was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. He received the Dayton Literary Peace Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award. A Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow, Haygood is currently the Boadway Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence at Miami University in Ohio, and has recently been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Wil has also won and been a finalist for the Ohio Book Award, several times.

National Book Award finalists will be announced on October 6 and the 77th annual ceremony will be livestreamed on Wednesday, November 18: https://www.nationalbook.org/awards2026/

(Photo credit: Pro Photo, Inc)

The Ohioana newsletter is back!

Check out what's new at Ohioana - including details about our recent move, our new executive director Dr. Amelia Adams, the 2026 Ohio Book Award winners, and more!

E-mail [email protected] if you would like to be added to our mailing list and receive future newsletters, announcements, and information about the Ohioana Library Association.

https://www.ohioana.org/programs/publications/newsletter/

Don't miss this exciting Thurber House event! Tickets are still available!

September 6: One stage, FOUR powerhouse authors! 🤩 This is an evening NOT to be missed—plus, get a signed book before its release! 😁📖

Headliner Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz (The Ballad of the Fugitive William Parker 📗) will be in conversation with special guests (and fellow poets) Ernest Cline (author of Ready Player One 📕), Hanif Abdurraqib Poetry (author of They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us 📘), and Scott Woods (author of Black Night Is Falling 📙).

Learn more and register! ➡️ thurberhouse.org/events

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Barbara Fant Greater Columbus Arts Council Ohio Arts Council Experience Columbus Ohioana Library Association

Yesterday was a sad day with the loss of the legendary Dolly Parton. Dolly once said that she claimed Ohio as her second state, since she came to visit family here when she was young. You can read more about Fran DeWine, Dolly Parton, and the Imagination Library of Ohio in Ohioana's Summer 2021 Ohioana Quarterly!https://www.ohioana.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/OQ-Summer-2021-1.pdf

Congratulations to Juliet Del Rio!

Juliet is the winner of the 2026 Ohioana Walter Rumsey Marvin Grant! Established in honor of Ohioana Library’s second director, Walter Rumsey Marvin, the grant is a $1,000 award given annually to an Ohio writer 30 years of age or younger (as of January 31) who has not yet published a book. The grant will be presented at the 85th annual Ohio Book Awards on October 15 (registration link coming soon).

Juliet holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Drexel University, teaches college composition, and works as a content strategist at a creative marketing agency. Her fiction was shortlisted for the 2023 Lascaux Prize in Flash Fiction, and her children's play received a 2020 Story Medicine grant from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. She is also a trained master gardener.

Learn more about Juliet and all of the 2026 winners: https://www.ohioana.org/programs/ohio-book-awards/

The Ohioana Library is pleased to announce the winners of the 85th annual Ohio Book Awards. First given in 1942, the awards are the second oldest state literary prizes in the nation and honor outstanding works by Ohio authors and illustrators in six categories: Fiction, Poetry, Juvenile Literature, Middle Grade Literature, Young Adult Literature, and Nonfiction. The seventh category, Book About Ohio or an Ohioan, may include books by non-Ohio authors.

About Ohio/An Ohioan:
John U. Bacon. The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald. New York, NY: Liveright Publishing, 2025.

Fiction:
Patrick Ryan. Buckeye. New York, NY: Penguin Random House, 2025.

Juvenile:
Jashar Awan. Every Monday Mabel. New York, NY: SimonKIDS, 2025.

Middle Grade
Rosalyn Ransaw. Smoke & Mirrors. New York, NY: Amulet Books, 2025.

Nonfiction
John Green. Everything is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection. New York, NY: Crash Course Books, 2025.

Poetry:
Arah Ko. Brine Orchid: Poems. Portland, OR: YesYes Books, 2025.

Young Adult:
Mindy McGinnis. How Girls are Made. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2025.

Readers’ Choice:
Marty Ross-Dolen. Always There, Always Gone: A Daughter's Search for Truth. Berkeley, CA: She Writes Press, 2025.

The 2026 Ohio Book Awards will take place online on Zoom, on Thursday, October 15 at 7:00pm, and is free to attend. Details to come! https://www.ohioana.org/programs/ohio-book-awards/

Congratulations to all of our winners!

On August 5, 2026, at 5:00 PM, join us for a special tribute to the incredible works of Toni Morrison, in celebration of Ohio Celebrates Toni Morrison . In partnership with Ohio Poetry Association , we'll dive into Morrison's powerful poetry and discuss the impact of her words on literature and society. Don't miss this opportunity to connect with fellow poets and honor a literary legend. There will be an Open Mic following this event!

Registration closes on Tuesday, August 4, 2026, at 5 p.m. EDT. The Zoom link and any handouts will be sent to registrants at that time.

Register here for this free event: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/celebrating-the-poetry-of-toni-morrison-virtual-event-tickets-1981814479457?aff=ebdsoporgprofile

for more information, visit OPC online: https://www.ohiopoetryassn.org/events

IN CASE YOU READ THIS by Edward Underhill is a 2026 Ohio Book Award Finalist, in the Young Adult Literature category!

Arden isn’t excited about moving. Los Angeles was an easy place to fit in and find a supportive q***r community. But Winifred, Michigan? That sounds like a much more difficult place to exist.

Pasadena, California, is the perfect city for Gabe’s reinvention. Everyone knew everything about him in small-town Shelby, Illinois. Gabe, who wants to be out and proud, can’t wait to relocate.

When Arden and Gabe randomly meet in the lobby of a motel in Nebraska, it feels like fate. Both are trans, but more importantly, both are huge fans of the band Damaged Pixie Dream Boi. Clearly, the universe is trying to tell them something. Right?

But after an incredible evening of hanging out, the pair part ways only knowing the other’s first name. And as both boys struggle to adjust to their new homes, their thoughts keep being drawn back to their time together. Is one perfect night enough to bring Arden and Gabe back to each other, or will the boys need some help to find each other again?

Edward Underhill grew up in the suburbs of Wisconsin, where he could not walk to anything, so he had to make up his own adventures. He studied music in college at Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio , spent several years living in very small apartments in New York, and currently resides in California with his partner and a talkative black cat. He is the author of THE IN-BETWEEN BOOKSTORE as well the YA novels ALWAYS THE ALMOST, THIS DAY CHANGES EVERYTHING, AND IN CASE YOU READ THIS. His books have earned starred reviews, been named Indie Next and ALA Rainbow List selections and LibraryReads Top 10 picks, and been included on numerous “best of the year” lists, including from YALSA, School Library Journal, and Booklist.

SHE WAITS FOR YOU BEYOND THE DARK by Kristen Simmons is a 2026 Ohio Book Award Finalist, in the Young Adult Literature category!

It’s been one month since Ian’s reunited friends escaped the hellish game of Meido and saved him (in Simmons first Death Games novel, FIND HIM WHERE YOU LEFT HIM DEAD). The survivors may have sealed the gate to the world of the dead shut and destroyed Empress Izanami, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t still reeling over the challenges they endured. Trying to relax back in the world of the living, they take solace in the fact that they rescued Ian from the nightmare that tried to steal him away. But there’s just one problem―Ian didn’t come home alone.

The empress―now possessing Ian's heart―hitched a ride into their world and the only way to free Ian from her grasp is to find three artifacts for her, sacred objects which have been hidden across many realms. Unwilling to leave Ian behind a second time, his friends dive into a new deadly game, with terrifying challenges that not only test their mettle, but demand sacrifices―including their very lives.

If they don’t retrieve the empress’s artifacts, Ian will be lost forever, but if they do, it could be the end of their world as they know it.

Kristen Simmons is the critically-acclaimed young adult author of over twenty novels. Her work has received star reviews, librarian recognitions, and been short-listed for the Edgar, Anthony, and Bram Stoker Awards for horror and mystery. Several of her titles are included in junior high and high school reading curricula, and are used in reluctant reader programs nationwide. Kristen’s writing is inspired by her work with trauma survivors as a mental health therapist. She currently lives with her husband and son in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she spins stories, herds a small pack of semi-wild dogs, and teaches Jazzercise.

FALSE PROMISES: THE STRUGGLE FOR BLACK VOTING RIGHTS IN 1800S OHIO by Ric S. Sheffield is a 2026 Ohio Book Award Finalist, in our Book About Ohio or an Ohioan category!

In FALSE PROMISES, the fight for Black voting rights in Ohio comes alive through narratives of men of color who defied the state’s nineteenth-century restrictions on suffrage. Though ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment ostensibly extended the franchise, state election laws still forced men of color into a perilous struggle for full citizenship. Ric S. Sheffield depicts their courage and determination, revealing their humanity through stories of sacrifice, resistance, and hope.

Drawing on Saidiya Hartman’s concept of critical fabulation, Sheffield weaves together historical records with imaginative reconstructions of dialogue, setting, and descriptive elements beyond the dusty courthouse pages. Grounded in archival evidence yet reimagined to fill in the silences, these stories recount the lived experiences of those who risked everything to exercise their right to vote.

FALSE PROMISES also connects these historical battles to the present, illustrating how voter-suppression tactics in today’s Ohio have roots in the racial exclusions of the nineteenth century. By exposing the enduring legacy of white supremacist policies, the book challenges the widespread misconception that racial disenfranchisement was solely a southern problem. Ohio’s complex racial history—noted for its role in the Underground Railroad but also for its repressive Black Laws—also includes a fierce and ongoing struggle over the right to vote. Through compelling storytelling, historical analysis, and a reclamation of voices lost to history, FALSE PROMISES urges readers to reconsider their understanding of democracy and the right to vote.

Ric S. Sheffield is a professor emeritus of legal studies and sociology at Kenyon College. In addition to publishing articles, reviews, and book chapters on African American social and legal history, he is the author of WE GOT BY: A BLACK FAMILY'S JOURNEY IN THE HEARTLAND.