Hoy Tapped for First Coldsmith Award
Special to the Gazette
Friday, September 4, 2009
Emporia State University professor Jim Hoy will receive the 2009 Don Coldsmith Literary Award during the Sunflower State Book Festival on Oct. 10 in Osborne.
Ad Astra Publishing, based in Osborn, sponsors the annual award, which pays tribute to “a distinguished Kansas author whose lifetime contributions have utilized the written word to enhance the proud literary legacy of the Sunflower State,” according to Von Rothenberger, chairman of the Sunflower State book Festival Committee.
The award is named for the prolific and internationally known Emporia doctor and author, Don Coldsmith, who died on June 25, 2009. Coldsmith primarily wrote western fiction and was past president of the Western Writers of America.
Coldsmith wrote more than 40 books, 150 articles and 1,600 newspaper columns. He was named in a recent survey as one of the “Best 24 Western Authors of the 20th Century,” Rothenberger said.
“His ‘Spanish Bit Saga,’ a series of related novels, helped to redefine the Western novel by adopting the point of view of the Native Americans, rather than the European immigrant,” Rothenberger said.
More than 6 million copies of the Saga series are in print, as well as editions in German, French and Swedish.
Hoy, who was raised on a ranch near Cassoday, will be the first recipient of the award. It is being given based on Hoy’s writings about ranching life around the world, his work with young adults and budding writers as a literature professor and editor-consultant, and for being a respected lecturer and promoter of Kansas and Kansans in general.
Rothenberger wrote in a news release that Hoy’s writings have helped popularize a distinct Western literary genre — stories of ranching life, both historical and contemporary, in the Flint Hills of Kansas, across the Great Plains and around the world.
He has been author or co-author of nine books and has published more than 100 articles. Since 1983, he and fellow educator Tom Isern have co-written a popular weekly newspaper column titled “Plains Folk.”
Hoy is a professor of English at Emporia State University, where he has taught since 1971. He was appointed to the board of trustees of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress in 1996 and served as chairman of the board in 2001 and 2002, the last two years of his term.
He is a member of the editorial committee of the University Press of Kansas and a manuscript consultant and referee for several university presses and literary magazines. He also is a member of the board of directors of the Kansas State Historical Society.
He is a member of the Kansas Humanities Council Speaker Bureau.
Ad Astra Publishing LLC was founded as a royalty prss in 2007 by David Readio and Rothenberger, according to a news release from the company. Its mission is to promote the writing of literature by Kansas authors and about Kansas.
Comments
Post a comment
We allow registered users to post comments on this Web site. Our goal with this feature is to encourage thoughtful discussions about the news stories. Using the comment feature to make random attacks on people is not acceptable. Emporiagazette.com neither endorses nor guarantees the accuracy of any user contribution. Responsibility for what is posted or contributed to this site is the sole responsibility of each user. To learn more about our posting policies please read our User Poster Agreement Policy.
(Requires free registration.)