Local Author Lifetime Achievement Award - Past Recipents
2007 - Jerome Rothenberg
JEROME ROTHENBERG is the author of over seventy books of poetry including Poems for the Game of Silence, Poland/1931, A Seneca Journal, Vienna
Blood, That Dada Strain, New Selected Poems 1970-1985, Khurbn, The Lorca Variations, Seedings & Other Poems, A Paradise of Poets, and A Book of Witness (All from
New Directions). He has translated from a wide range of poets (Lorca, Gomringer, Schwitters, Picasso, and Nezval, among others), and in the 1970s
and 1980s he edited five major assemblages of traditional and contemporary poetry: Technicians of the Sacred, Shaking the Pumpkin, American a Prophecy,
Revolution of the Word, and A Big Jewish Book. A two-volume global anthology of twentieth-century poetry, Poems for the Millennium (co-edited with Pierre
Joris) was published in 1995 and 1998 by the University of California Press, and another large assemblage, A Book of the Book, appeared in 2001 from
Granary Books in New York.
Since the late 1950s, he has been involved with various aspects of poetry performance, including a theatrical version of his
book, Poland/1931, by Hanon Reznikov and the Living Theater, the Broadway adaptation of Rolf Hochhuth's 1964 play The Deputy,a theatrical staging
of That Dada Strain by Luke Theodor Morrison and the Center for Theater Science and Research, San Diego, in the late 1980s; and a musical version of
Khurbn (with composer Charlie Morrow and Japanese novelist Makoto Oda) produced for the Bread & Puppet Theater in 1995.
With his anthologies and journals such as Alcheringa and New Wilderness Letter, Rothenberg has long been a central mover in the development of an ethnopoetics "as a necessary component of any truly innovative poetics." His first volume of selected poetry, Poems for the Game of Silence, has appeared in French, Spanish, Swedish and
Flemish editions, and he has had six books in French, five in Spanish, and has been translated extensively into German, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese,Serbian,
Polish, Japanese, Lithuanian, Chinese, and Finnish. His work in various areas has been recognized with a Guggenheim fellowship, a Wenner-Gren
Foundation award for experimental ethnopoetic translation, several awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, two PEN Oakland Josephine
Miles Awards for poetry, two PEN Center USA West Awards and the one PEN American Center award for translation, an Alfonso el Sabio Translation
Award, and American Book Award for his selected writings on poetics, and an honorary doctorate from the State University of New York. He has lived in
San Diego County since 1976 and until recently has been a professor of visual arts and literature at the University of California, San Diego.
2006 - Neil Morgan
Born in North Carolina in 1924, Neil Morgan is a journalist, author and lecturer who saw California first as a Navy ensign and has spent the following half-century as one of its foremost social historians. He has interpreted the American West in nine books and for Esquire, Harper's, Holiday, Vogue, Saturday Review, Reader's Digest and National Geographic. From 1950 to 2004 he was with The San Diego Union-Tribune, serving as senior columnist and editor. He was editor of The San Diego Evening Tribune from 1981 until its merger with The San Diego Union in 1992.
His regular column, begun in 1950, won the Ernie Pyle Memorial Award and many other journalism awards. It frequently focused on the foibles and unattained opportunities of Southern California. Its accuracy and readability made Morgan and his column a regional institution for three generations. In 2004, he became a regular commentator on KPBS-FM. In 2005, he became co-founder and senior editor of the regional news and opinion web site, www.voiceofsandiego.org.
His book in 1962, "Westward Tilt," was praised by critics across America as the seminal study of the cross-country migration which made California the nation's most populous state. His recent writing deals with a starkly contrasting in-migration and the deflation of many of Californians' dreams. Other books by Morgan include "The California Syndrome," "Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel" (with Judith Morgan), "San Diego, Where California Begins…and Lives," "Crosstown," "San Diego: The Unconventional City," "Yesterday's San Diego" (with Tom Blair), "Above San Diego" (with Robert Cameron) and "Marines of the Margarita" (with Robert M. Witty).
2005 - Jackson J. Benson
Jackson J. Benson is the 2005 recipient of the San Diego Public Library
LOLA (Local Author Lifetime Achievement) Award. The LOLA Award is an annual
award presented to a writer who has a distinguished writing career and
whose work has provided significant enrichment to the San Diego community.
Author, editor and retired professor Jackson J. Benson received the City of San Diego Public Library’s 2005 Local Author Lifetime Achievement (LOLA) Award at a special reception at the Central Library on Jan. 29.
Born and raised in San Francisco, Dr. Benson graduated from Stanford University and received M.A. from San Francisco State University and his Ph.D from the University of Southern California. From 1966 to 1997 he served as professor of English and comparative literature at San Diego State University, where he taught 20th century American literature.
Dr. Johnson has been honored with fellowships from the Ford Foundation, Social Science Research Council and Guggenheim Foundation, and he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1976. He was chairman of the academic advisory committee for the PBS television series "The Pacific Century," and played a prominent role in the PBS "Frontline" documentary "Losing the War with Japan." Both won Emmy awards.
Twice a fellow of the National Endowment for the Humanities, he has written or edited 15 books on modern American literature. Among them are the authorized biography, “The True Adventures of John Steinbeck, Writer” (1984), which received the PEN-WEST USA Award for nonfiction; and the authorized biography, “Wallace Stegner” His Life and Work” (1996), which won the David Woolley and Beatrice Cannon Evans Biography Award. He also co-edited the collection marking the centennial of John Steinbeck’s birth, “American and Americans and Selected Nonfiction (2002). Dr. Benson’s most recent book, “The Ox-Bow Man: A Biography of Walter Van Tilburg Clark” (2004) received the Wilbur S. Shepperson Book Award.
A third generation Californian, he divides his time between a home in La Mesa and a cabin in the northern Sierra Nevada. He is married to Sue Ellen Benson, a middle school teacher with the San Diego Unified School District for 25 years.
2004 - Chalmers Johnson
Chalmers Johnson is the 2004 recipient of the San Diego Public Library LOLA (Local Author Lifetime Achievement) Award. The LOLA Award is an annual award presented to a writer who has a distinguished writing career and whose work has provided significant enrichment to the San Diego community.
Author and retired political science professor from UCSD, Chalmers Johnson has received the 2004 Local Author Lifetime Achievement (LOLA) Award at a special reception at the Central Library on January 31, 2004.
Born in 1931 in Arizona, Dr. Johnson earned a B.A. in economics and an M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, Berkeley. He first saw Japan and Korea in 1953, when he served in the Navy during the Korean War, and he lived and worked in Japan with his wife, anthropologist Sharon K. Johnson, nearly every year from 1961-98. From 1962-88, he taught political science at Berkeley, and then moved to San Diego to teach at the University of California, San Diego. He retired in 1992.
At Berkeley he was chairman of the Center for Chinese Studies from 1967-72. Johnson has written numerous articles and reviews and more than a dozen books on Asian subjects. For "Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire," he received the 2001 American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation. His latest book, "Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic" was published in 2004.
Dr. Johnson has been honored with fellowships from the Ford Foundation, Social Science Research Council and Guggenheim Foundation, and he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1976. He was chairman of the academic advisory committee for the PBS television series "The Pacific Century," and played a prominent role in the PBS "Frontline" documentary "Losing the War with Japan." Both won Emmy awards.
In 1994, Johnson co-founded the nonprofit Japan Policy Research Institute to promote greater public awareness and understanding of Japan's role in world affairs, and of Asian area studies. He currently serves as the institute's president. Mr. Johnson joins a distinguished group of past LOLA Award recipients, including William Wagner (1997), Robert Wade (1998), LoVerne Brown (1999), Leroy V. Quintana (2000), Steve Kowitt (2001), William Murray (2002), and Chet Cunningham (2003).
2003 - Chet Cunningham
Chet Cunningham is a prolific writer of both novels and non-fiction,
and has published 298 books through major publishers. He comes from a
newspaper background so he is geared to producing writing everyday.
He has written under a number of pseudonyms such as J.D. Bondie, Cathy
Cunningham, Kit Dalton, Dirk Fletcher, and Keith Douglass. Mr. Cunningham
was born in Shelby, Nebraska. He received a bachelor's degree in journalism
from Pacific University and a master's degree in journalism from Columbia
University. He is an army veteran of the Korean War, in which he received
the Combat Infantryman's Badge.
Mr. Cunningham began the San Diego Writers Workshop for novelists
and other writers 38 years ago, and it still meets regularly. In 1994,
he founded the nonprofit corporation, San
Diego Book Awards Association, to recognize local writers of books.
This competition for the best book in 18 different categories as well
as for unpublished short stories, novels, and poems awards a prize of
$100 and certificates to the winners. The association also sponsors the
Read-4-Fun program aimed at fifth graders to encourage them to read more.
Free books are given to students who do 200 pages of outside reading and
turn in a book report. The Read-4-Fun committee now works with 15 schools
and just over 2,000 students. Last year the nonprofit group gave away
3,000 books.
In 1998, Mr. Cunningham was named as San Diego Writers' Monthly Man of
the Year. This award is given annually by SDWM to a man or woman who in
its opinion best typifies the spirit that not only involves writing excellence
and achievement, but also a broad and consistent outreach to fellow writers,
as well as the community at large. Mr. Cunningham is married with two
grown children. He lives with his wife Rose Marie in San Diego, where
he has resided for the past 42 years.
2002 - William Murray
William Murray is a renowned and prolific writer. He was born in New
York City, but spent much of his childhood in Europe. He served in the
U.S. Air Force before attending Harvard University and the Manhattan Conservatory,
where he received classical music training in opera. Mr. Murray was a
staff writer and editor for The New Yorker magazine and in 1955 he published
his first novel. He has received many awards and honors, including the
American Library Association's Notable Book of Award for The Fatal
Gift, in 1982 and for the Last Italian: Portrait of a People
in 1991. Four of his novels have been selected as Notable Books of the
Year by the New York Times Sunday Book Review. He has also been honored
for his translations by the Pirandello Society of New York.
From California, Mr. Murray has contributed regularly to a number of
publications including The New Yorker. For a number of years he was also
a drama critic, first for Los Angeles Magazine, and then for New West.
He has also written five original plays, all of which have been produced,
and wrote a television script for the PBS series, "Visions."
Many of Mr. Murray's novels have been optioned for motion picture production and two such novels - The Sweet Ride and Malibu, have been produced. His series of mystery novels take place either partly or fully in the San Diego - Del Mar area.
2001 - Steve Kowit
Steve Kowit is a renowned contributor to American poetry. He is the author of several books of poetry and has published a guide to writing poetry. He has won a National Endowment Fellowship in Poetry, the Paumanot Poetry Prize, the Atlanta Review Poetry Prize, the Oroborus Book Award, and a San Diego Writing Center Award. His most recent poetry collection, The Dumbbell Nebula, part of the new California Poet Series, was selected as a Notable Book of the Year by the San Francisco Chronicle.
Steve Kowit is a native New Yorker. He received a B.A. degree from Brooklyn
College, a Master of Arts degree from San Francisco State College, and
a Master of Fine Arts degree from Warren Wilson College. He was an animal
rights activist for several years and organized the first animal rights
organization in San Diego. Mr. Kowit has made his home in San Diego for
the past 24 years and currently lives in the back-county near Tecate.
He is a faculty member at Southwestern College in Chula Vista and teaches
poetry workshops around the West.
2000 - Leroy V. Quintana
Leroy V. Quintana is a renowned contributor to contemporary American
poetry. He explores traditional Mexican folklore and storytelling devices
in his discussion of themes such as war, self-discovery, village life
and modern societies' impact upon Chicano and Native American cultures.
His works have been acclaimed for their provocative combining of oral
tradition with modern methods of composition. He is the author of several
books and has won the American Book Award twice. His work is represented
in numerous anthologies and has been the subject of several studies. Mr.
Quintana is a native New Mexican. He received his B.A. in English from
the University of New Mexico, a Master of Arts in English from New Mexico
State and another M.A. in counseling from Western New Mexico University.
He is a Vietnam War veteran and has taught at several colleges. Currently
he is a professor of English at San Diego Mesa College.
1999 - LoVerne Brown
LoVerne Brown spent her early life in sparsely populated places - The Aleutian Islands, her grandparents' homestead in Wisconsin, and in lumber camps and iron mine company towns along the Brule River in Upper Michigan. At the University of California, Berkeley, she began a lifelong association with a group of poets brought together by the Oakland Tribune columnist Ad Schuster. Later she worked as a reporter in Juneau, where she interviewed many notable personalities including Will Rogers. Subsequently, she and her husband published a weekly newspaper, The Westward Alaskan, in Seldovia.
During the early years of her marriage, she ghostwrote two books - No
Life for a Lady and Consultation Room - both of which won national
awards. When her children were young, she frequently wrote humorous poems
about them; and the poems often appeared in popular magazines such as
the Saturday Evening Post and The Ladies Home Journal.
Ms. Brown was a resident of Ocean Beach since moving to San Diego in
1950. In 1952, she went to work for the City of San Diego and stayed until
her retirement in 1974. She has taught creative writing classes in Fresno
and San Diego, and in 1976, she founded the Ocean Beach Poetry Circle.
Her first book of her own poetry, The View from the End of the Pier
(Gorilla Press, 1983), was published by Steve Kowit and Ocean Beach Poetry
Circle friends as a gift for her 71st birthday.
Over the past 20 years, Ms. Brown participated in dozens of local poetry
readings. In 1988, she was selected as one of several local poets to read
their work on television in conjunction with a 13-part PBS series called
Voices and Visions. In 1994, she participated in the first Border
Voices poetry festival in Balboa Park. In 1995, three of her poems
were used as examples of poetry in Steve Kowit's book In the Palm of
Your Hand: The Poet's Portable Workshop (Tilbury House, 1995.) In
1997, she won first place in the poetry division at the Third Annual San
Diego Book Awards for her third book The Under Side of Snow.
LoVerne Brown passed away on November 25, 2000.
1998 - Robert Wade
Robert Wade is the author of 46 novels, primarily in the area of mystery
and suspense. Thirty-three of the novels were written in collaboration
with the late Bill Miller.
Robert Wade was born in San Diego. While in school, he began collaborating
with Bill Miller on school newspapers, plays, and radio scripts. While
attending San Diego State College, they edited the largest weekly newspaper
in the city, the East San Diego Press. Graduating in 1942, they each joined
the Air Force and after the war they resumed their partnership.
In 1946, they published their first crime novel, Deadly Weapon,
about an Atlanta private eye who comes to San Diego to track down a killer.
The novel Guilty Bystander introduced the San Diego private eye
Max Thursday who appeared in a number of their novels. Robert Wade and
Bill Miller wrote under the pseudonym Wade Miller, Will Daemer, Whit Masterson,
and Dale Wilmer. In 1961, Bill Miller passed away. After Miller's death,
Robert Wade continued to write alone as Whit Masterson and under his own
name. Mr. Wade has received the following awards: Edgar Allan Poe Award
from the Mystery Writers of America in 1956 and the Life Achievement Award
from the Private Eye Writers of America in 1988. Mr. Wade has also served
as editor of various publications for the Zoological Society of San Diego
and as book critic/columnist for the San Diego Union-Tribune.
1997 - William Wagner
William Wagner was a noted chronicler of the San Diego aviation history.
Through writing and photography, he lovingly recorded and meticulously
preserved San Diego's aviation history.
Mr. Wagner worked for many years at Teledyne Ryan Aeronautical. While at Ryan,
he compiled an expansive archive of documents, film photographs and publications
that make up the Ryan Aeronautical Library. He was frequently called upon
by experts to verify information about Charles Lindbergh.
Mr. Wagner was the author of several books, including biographies of T. Claude Ryan and Rueben H. Fleet. Mr. Wagner served on the board of directors of Doctors Hospital and its successor Sharp Cabrillo Hospital.
Mr. Wagner passed away on May 26, 2000.
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