Howard Bahr

Last updated

Howard Bahr
Born Meridian, Mississippi
LanguageEnglish
Alma mater University of Mississippi
Genre Military fiction
Historical fiction
Notable awards W.Y. Boyd Literary Award for Excellence in Military Fiction for The Black Flower
Michael Shaara Award for Excellence in Civil War Fiction for The Judas Field

Howard Bahr (born 1946) is an American novelist, born in Meridian, Mississippi.

Contents

Early life

Bahr, who served in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War and then worked for several years on the railroads, enrolled at the University of Mississippi in the early 1970s when he was in his late 20s. He received his B.A. and M.A. from Ole Miss and served as the curator of the William Faulkner house, Rowan Oak, in Oxford, Mississippi, for nearly twenty years.

Literary career

He also taught American literature during much of this time at the University of Mississippi. In 1993, he became an instructor of English at Motlow State College in Tullahoma, Tennessee, where he worked until 2006. Bahr is the author of three critically acclaimed novels centering on the American Civil War. He currently resides in Jackson, Mississippi, and teaches courses in creative writing at Belhaven University.

Bahr began his writing career in the 1970s, writing both fiction and non-fiction articles that appeared in publications such as Southern Living , Civil War Times Illustrated , as well as the short-lived regional publication, Lagniappe (1974–75) which he and Franklin Walker co-edited. His first published book, a children's story entitled "Home for Christmas," came out in 1987 and was re-published in 1997 in a different edition (with new illustrations) following the release of his first novel, The Black Flower: A Novel of the Civil War. This latter book, set during the Battle of Franklin in 1864, was a New York Times Notable Book.[ citation needed ]

In 2000, Bahr's second novel, The Year of Jubilo, was released. This novel, set in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War in the fictional Mississippi town of Cumberland, deals with the dehumanizing effects of war and its aftermath on Southern society. The Year of Jubilo, like The Black Flower, was a New York Times Notable Book.

Bahr's third novel, The Judas Field , was released in 2006. In The Judas Field, Bahr again returns to the Battle of Franklin theme, but this time it is through the eyes of one of its participants, again from Cumberland, who travels back to the battlefield in the 1880s to recover the body of one of the fallen, and, in doing so, relives the horror of that fateful day in 1864.

Bahr's fourth novel, Pelican Road, published in 2008, is a novel of the railroads. It is named for its Christmas 1940 setting on "207 miles of ballasted heavyweight main line rail between Meridian, Mississippi, and New Orleans."

Awards

His novel The Black Flower: A Novel of the Civil War received the W.Y. Boyd Literary Award for Excellence in Military Fiction in 1998. [1]

His third novel, The Judas Field was awarded the Michael Shaara Award for Excellence in Civil War Fiction. [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Faulkner</span> American writer (1897–1962)

William Cuthbert Faulkner was an American writer known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based on Lafayette County, Mississippi, where Faulkner spent most of his life. A Nobel laureate, Faulkner is one of the most celebrated writers of American literature and often is considered the greatest writer of Southern literature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alice Walker</span> American author and activist (born 1944)

Alice Malsenior Tallulah-Kate Walker is an American novelist, short story writer, poet, and social activist. In 1982, she became the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, which she was awarded for her novel The Color Purple. Over the span of her career, Walker has published seventeen novels and short story collections, twelve non-fiction works, and collections of essays and poetry.

Barry Hannah was an American novelist and short story writer from Mississippi. Hannah was born in Meridian, Mississippi, on April 23, 1942, and grew up in Clinton, Mississippi. He wrote eight novels and five short story collections.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeff Shaara</span> American novelist

Jeffrey M. "Jeff" Shaara is an American novelist and the son of Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Shaara.

Michael Shaara was an American author of science fiction, sports fiction, and historical fiction. He was born to an Italian immigrant father in Jersey City, New Jersey, graduated in 1951 from Rutgers University, where he joined Theta Chi, and served as a sergeant in the 82nd Airborne Division prior to the Korean War.

<i>Gods and Generals</i> (novel)

Gods and Generals is a novel which serves as a prequel to Michael Shaara's 1974 Pulitzer Prize-winning work about the Battle of Gettysburg, The Killer Angels. Written by Jeffrey Shaara after his father Michael's death in 1988, the novel relates events from 1858 through 1863, during the American Civil War, ending just as the two armies march toward Gettysburg. Shaara also wrote The Last Full Measure, published in 2000, which follows the events presented in The Killer Angels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steve Yarbrough (writer)</span> American author and academic

Steve Yarbrough is an American author and academic, who teaches at Emerson College.

<i>To the Last Man</i> (Shaara novel)

To the Last Man: A Novel of the First World War (2004) is a historical novel written by Jeff Shaara about the experience of a number of combatants in World War I. The book became a national best seller and received praise from people such as General Tommy Franks.

Marie Jakober was a Canadian novelist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert J. Mrazek</span> American politician

Robert Jan Mrazek is an American author, filmmaker, and former politician. He served as a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives, representing New York's 3rd congressional district on Long Island for most of the 1980s. Since leaving Congress, Mrazek has authored twelve books, earning the American Library Association's top honor for military fiction, the Michael Shaara award for Civil War fiction, and Best Book from the Washington Post. He also wrote and co-directed the 2016 feature film The Congressman, which received the Breakout Achievement Award at the AARP's Film Awards in 2017.

Richard Sidney Slotkin is a cultural critic and historian. He is the Olin Professor of English and American Studies, Emeritus at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, and, since 2010, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Slotkin writes novels alongside his historical research, and uses the process of writing the novels to clarify and refine his historical work.

Donald McCaig was an American novelist, poet, essayist and sheepdog trainer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philip Lee Williams</span> American poet

Philip Lee Williams is an American novelist, poet, and essayist noted for his explorations of the natural world, intense human relationships, and aging. A native of Athens, Georgia, he grew up in the nearby town of Madison. He is the winner of many literary awards including the 2004 Michael Shaara Prize for his novel A Distant Flame, an examination of southerners who were against the Confederacy’s position in the American Civil War. He is also a winner of the Townsend Prize for Fiction for his novel The Heart of a Distant Forest, and has been named Georgia Author of the Year four times. In 2007, he was recipient of a Georgia Governor’s Award in the Humanities. Williams's The Divine Comics: A Vaudeville Show in Three Acts, a 1000-page re-imagining of Dante's magnum opus, was published in the fall of 2011. His latest novel, Emerson's Brother, came out in May 2012 from Mercer University Press

Cornelia Nixon is an American novelist, short-story writer, and teacher. She has lived much of her mature life in the San Francisco Bay area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brad Watson (writer)</span> American writer (1955-2020)

Wilton Brad Watson was an American author and academic. Originally from Mississippi, he worked and lived in Alabama, Florida, California, Boston, and Wyoming. He was a professor at the University of Wyoming until his death. Watson published four books – two novels and two collections of short stories – to critical acclaim.

Madison Percy Jones (1925-2012) was a novelist born in Nashville, Tennessee. He published almost a dozen novels, and was considered "one of the major figures of contemporary southern letters".

The Michael Shaara Award for Excellence in Civil War Fiction is an annual literary award awarded to the writer of a work of fiction related to the American Civil War. The award was started by Jeffrey ("Jeff") Shaara,, and named for his father, the writer of historical fiction Michael Shaara, (1928–1988), who won the 1975 Pulitzer Prize for the 1974 novel of the American Civil War, The Killer Angels, about the Battle of Gettysburg, in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and later made into the Ted Turner-produced movie in 1993, Gettysburg, by director Ronald Maxwell. The original novel and movie later became the inspiration for son Jeff's prequel Gods and Generals, (1996), and sequel The Last Full Measure, (1998), set of novels of which Gods and Generals was also made into a film in 2003 by Turner and Maxwell focusing on the earlier part of the war with Confederate General Thomas J. ("Stonewall") Jackson. The younger Shaara has also since written several other novels and series of historical fiction about the American Revolutionary War, Mexican–American War, World War I and World War II. He later returned to the theme of the Civil War with a set of works focusing on the western theatre of the war,.

Robin Oliveira is an American author, former literary editor, and nurse, who is most known for her debut novel, My Name is Mary Sutter, published in 2010. Her second novel, I Always Loved You, was published by Penguin on February 4, 2014.

W.Y. Boyd Literary Award for Excellence in Military Fiction is awarded annually by the American Library Association for "the best fiction set in a period when the United States was at war." The award intends to recognize "the service of American veterans and military personnel." It was funded by William Young Boyd II.

The Black Flower is a 1997 historical fiction novel written by Howard Bahr. It received numerous accolades, including being named a New York Times Notable Book. Shelby Foote, author of The Civil War: A Narrative, recommends it highly. The Black Flower was nominated for a Stephen Crane Award for First Fiction, and won the W.Y. Boyd Literary Award for Excellence in Military Fiction in 1998.

References

  1. http://www.ala.org/awardsgrants/awards/2/all_years Boyd Award Recipients List
  2. "Michael Shaara Prize". Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College. Archived from the original on 7 August 2011. Retrieved 9 August 2011.