LOCAL

LOCAL

Open poetry readings

NILES — The Second Tuesday Open Poetry Reading on Tuesday at the Outreach Gallery at the Eastwood Mall will be sponsored by Pig Iron Literary & Art Works of Youngstown.

Presenters are asked to sign in at the door before 6:45. Readers are allowed eight minutes to recite from their own writing or from traditional or other poems.

Open-mic presentations will begin at 8 p.m. There is no admission charge, and all are welcome to participate.

Youngstown author plans TV appearance, signing

YOUNGSTOWN — Youngstown resident and author William Johnson will appear as John Hancock on the WFMJ Community Connection program Nov. 1 and for a book signing Nov. 7 at the Poland Public Library.

His novel, “The Seeds of Love ... and War: Still Shaggin’ for a Shillin,’” taps documented resources and reconstructs a chronicle of the events leading up to the 1770 Boston Massacre. The book is the second part of a trilogy about pre-revolutionary Boston.

Johnson conducts seminars nationwide on safety and leadership.

Author will share tips on Alzheimer’s care

POLAND — Frank Fuerst, author of “Alzheimer’s Care with Dignity,” will present a workshop based on his book at the Poland Public Library, 311 S. Main St., at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 28.

The book is a guide based on the author’s own experience in caring for his wife at home for 17 years after she was diagnosed in her 40s with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.

From secrets of survival to financial and legal issues, Fuerst shares his experiences in detail. His book includes step-by-step routines for bathing, dressing, eating and even travel tips.

More information can be found at www.dementiacaregiving.com.

Friendship quilt inspires interest in Columbiana Co.

SALEM — Lynda Salter Chenoweth, a resident of Sonoma, Calif., has been researching and writing a book about a quilt she found nine years ago in an antique shop in Petaluma, Calif.

The Quaker Friendship quilt is made up of 25 squares with one or more names in each square. Most squares also include the name of New Garden, the words Columbiana County, Ohio, and the date 1853.

Chenoweth and her husband visited Columbiana County in 2002 to go to cemeteries, historical societies and the Salem Public Library to research people listed on the quilt. The information from various sources has led to material about the families on the quilt and life in Columbiana County in the mid-19th century.

Chenoweth’s book, “Philena’s Friendship Quilt,” is available at the Salem Historical Society gift shop. Gift shop hours are Sunday, 1-4 p.m., or Monday and Wednesday, 9 a.m. to noon. Call the gift shop at (330) 337-8514 for more information.

STATE

Ohio parenting expert lauded for new book

NUTLEY, N.J. — Brenda Nixon, M.A., has earned The Good Parenting Seal from Parental Wisdom, a patented parenting Web site, for her book “The Birth to Five Book: Confident Childrearing Right From the Start.”

Nixon, an Ohio resident, has an extensive background in early childhood development and parent education. The book is organized into three sections: Parenting Your Infant, Parenting Your Toddler and Parenting Your Preschooler.

A member of the Advanced Writers and Speakers Association, Nixon is a contributing author to 24 titles, a frequent media guest expert, and quoted in Parenting, Good Housekeeping and on WebMD.

AWARDS

Thurber Prize to Frazier

NEW YORK — Ian Frazier is a funny man. Officially.

The author and frequent New Yorker contributor won the Thurber Prize for American Humor for his lighthearted book on parental guidance, “Lamentations of the Father.” Frazier, who in 1997 received the inaugural Thurber award, will receive $5,000, prize organizers said.

Other previous Thurber winners include David Sedaris, Christopher Buckley and Jon Stewart and the co-authors of “America [The Book].”

The prize is named for the late humorist and cartoonist James Thurber and is sponsored by Thurber House, a nonprofit literary center based in Thurber’s former residence in Columbus, Ohio.

American Book Awards

NEW YORK — A critical work on black intellectuals and an anthology of the late Chicano poet Jose Antonio Burciaga are among this year’s winners of American Book Awards.

The awards, now in their 30th year, are given for outstanding work of multicultural literature and are sponsored by the nonprofit educational organization, the Before Columbus Foundation.

Recipients also included Houston A. Baker’s “Betrayal: How Black Intellectuals Have Abandoned the Ideals of the Civil Rights Era,” “The Last Supper of Chicano Heroes: Selected Works of Jose Antonio Burciaga” and Claire Hope Cummings’ “Uncertain Peril: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Seeds.”

COMING TO BOOKSHELVES

Celebrating ‘Peanuts’ strip

RIVERSIDE, N.J. — On Oct. 2, 1950, the world was introduced to a comic strip that would eventually become an unparalleled cultural icon. More than 60 years later, the classic “Peanuts” strip appears in more than 2,200 newspapers in 75 countries in 25 languages.

Andrews McMeel Publishing is honoring Charles M. Schulz’s strip’s 60th anniversary with “Celebrating Peanuts: 60 Years” ($75, 544 pages). It will be published in November.

Combined dispatches