Negro Digest - Freedom Archives

~erepecEive~-
On writers and writing : The University
of Iowa Press will publish in
June the first book by Cyrus Colter,
a Chicago lawyer who has been quietly
writing for years and publishing
occasionally in the literary quarterlies
. A collection of his stories, The
Beach Umbrella and Other Stories
won the $1,000 Iowa Prize for Short
Fiction . The vote for Mr . Caper's
work was unanimous by the threeman
final jury (Kurt Vonnegut, Vance
Bourjaily and Gina Berriault). One
of the judges said the following of
the Chicago writer : "Cyrus Colter is
what a writer is and always has been
-a man with stories to tell, a milieu
to reveal and people he cares about .
The reader becomes absorbed, learns,
and finally cares in the same way"
. Two collections of the works of
the late Henrv Dumas are in the
works . Eugene Redmond and Hale
Chatfield are the editors . The books
94
CYRUS COLTER
(Continued from page 50)
will be published by Southern Illinois
University Press . . . October House
has agreed to bring out a collection
of Redmond's poems, The Eye In
The Ceiling . . . John A . Williams'
fine, under-rated novel, Sissie, is
now available in an Anchor paperback
edition ( $1 .45 ) . In a new introduction,
Mr . Williams writes: " . . .
Although it may not always appear
so, I wished to offer a testimony of
love to the members of my family,
known and unknown, dead and living,
good, bad or indifferent, black,
white, and red, and to say in some
crude way (how could one even
begin to say it with precision?) that
I understand ; that it has been hard,
but fair, because that was the challenge,
that was the way things were,
and we accepted the challenge and
still lived, though we were not expected
to . Although guilt for living
may drag at our feet, it is our physical
presence that most causes our
elation . And you could not feel guilt
if you did not have a presence, if
you were not alive and functioning."
Sissie is about the travails of a black
family . . Poet Julius E . Thompson's
collection of poems, Hopes Tied
Up In Promises, is available from the
poet (3226 Graduate College, Princeton
University, Princeton, N . J . ) or
from his publisher (Dorrance &
Company, 1809 Callowhill Street,
Philadelphia, Pa .) . . . Addison Gayle
Jr .'s second book, a collection of personal
essays, The Black Situation, is
scheduled for April publication .
On the educational front: The National
School Public Relations Association
(a non-black group) published
a special report entitled "Black
Studies in Schools," which details
March 1970 NEGRO DIGEST