Butler Area Public Library: "Killer Angels"

The Read About It! group will be discussing the Pulizter Prize-Winning civil war novel, "The Killer Angels" by Michael Shaara.

Michael Dittman's Bio

Michael Dittman’s Bio

Michael Dittman was raised in Western PA. He attended the College Of Wooster (Wooster OH), where he received a BA in English. After college he traveled in Europe, studying creative writing in the Czech Republic with Czslaw Milosz, Miroslav Holub, James Regan, and Richard Katrovas. He has won the Hicks Prize for Poetry, several Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts grants, the Small Press Distribution Lannan Literary Videos Grant, a Pennsylvania Arts Council Special Stipend Grant Award, a Pennsylvania Artist in Education Grant and the Brennecke Award for Outstanding Scholarship. He was a National Poetry Slam Semi-Finalist, did spoken word with the Lollapalooza tour, and has performed his writings in many locations from Boston to Columbus. Along with his wife, Amy Dittman, he produces and edits the small press literary magazine, Curriculum Vitae.

Mr. Dittman is a tenured instructor at Butler County Community College, where he co- advises the school’s Writer’s Club. He has also taught at schools including Slippery Rock University, Clarion University of Pennsylvania, and LaRoche College. He serves as an online education consultant to several institutions. His literary criticism has appeared in a wide variety of publication such as Greenwood Press’ Contemporary American Women Poets, Xanedu’s Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale: A Coursepack, Pennsylvania English and The Gale Group’s American Literature Archive. The play, Forfeit, written with Amy Dittman, was produced at Slippery Rock University. In addition, his poetry and prose has appeared in a variety of journals including Plainsong, Ginger Hill and many others. Mr. Dittman serves on the board of the Oil Region Indie Music Fest and the Venango County Digital Film Fest. He also curates the online Arts and Culture blog www.venangago-go.com

Mr Dittman is the author of the books Jack Kerouac: A Biography (Greenwood Press) which Midwest Book Review called, [A] top pick for high school to college-level collections....Dittman focuses on the facts surrounding [Kerouac's] life and literature and provides many alternative views of these events which students should find intriguing”; The Beat Generation (Greenwood Press) hailed by MBR as.". . .a superb body of scholarship that is strongly recommended for inclusion into academic and community library American Literary History reference collections and college level supplemental reading lists" ; and the Pittsburgh-based thriller Small Brutal Incidents (Contemporary Press) which was the book Contemporary chose as its entry in the National Edgar Awards Competition.

Currently Mr. Dittman lives in Western Pennsylvania with his family where he enjoys swimming and cycling competitively and hiking and is working on his next novel.

Butler Area Public Library

Friday, March 26, 2010

"Killer Angels" - April 1, 2010

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Michael Dittman

Michael Dittman's Bio

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