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Pulitzer Prize Finalist Lee Martin At Library

Pulitzer Prize finalist and local native Lee Martin will kick-off the Lawrence Public Library's adult program series September 29.

Staff Report  /  September 22, 2011  /  Views: 210  /   No Comments

Pulitzer Prize Finalist Lee Martin

Pulitzer Prize finalist and Lawrence County native Lee Martin will kick-off the Lawrence Public Library's adult program series at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, September 29.

Martin is the author of four novels, including "The Bright Forever," which was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2006. His other books include "River of Heaven," "Quakertown" and his latest novel, "Break the Skin," which was published by Crown in June.

Other works include the short story collection "The Least You Need to Know" and memoirs "From Our House" and "Turning Bones."

During the opening Night at the Library program, Martin will give readings from both "Break the Skin" and "From Our House," set primarily in Lawrence County.

"I'll also talk about growing up in Lawrence County and my path to becoming an author," Martin said. "It is always great to come back. I hope to see old friends and make some new ones. I'm also looking forward to visiting all the old places."

Martin developed an interest in writing as a child. He began his education in a two-room school in Lukin Township before moving, in the third grade, to Oak Forest in the Chicago suburbs. The family returned to southern Illinois a few years later, residing in Sumner, where he completed high school.

While attending Olney Central College from 1973 to 1975, he was involved in OCC's literary magazine. He joined the literary journal at Eastern Illinois University and began writing short stories at that time.

Martin's fiction and non-fiction have appeared in such places as "Harper's," "Ms., Creative Non-fiction," "The Georgia Review," "The Kenyon Review," "Fourth Genre," "River Teeth," "The Southern Review," "Prairie Schooner" and "Glimmer Train." He is the winner of the Mary McCarthy prize in short fiction and received fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts and Ohio State University, where he was the winner of the 2006 Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching.

Martin's newest novel is told through the first-person narratives of Laney Volk, a shy 19-year-old high school dropout, and Miss Baby, the nearly 40-year-old owner of a Denton, Texas, tattoo parlor. Much of "Break the Skin" action unfolds in the fictional southeastern Illinois communities of New Hope and Mt. Gilead, which also is the setting of Martin's "River of Heaven."

The novel opens with the police coming to question Laney, and she soon finds herself reconstructing a story of suspense, deceit and revenge. Meanwhile, Miss Baby meets a stranger who claims he can't remember his real name or his past. In him, Miss Baby believes she has finally found love. But, Laney and Miss Baby's lives are connected by the actions of Delilah Dade and a horrible crime in Illinois.

"It is another novel of suspense set in a small town - this one having to do with the desire of everyone to love and be loved in return," Martin said. "It also examines the lengths people will go to in their efforts to obtain it at any cost, and of revenge. It is, at the heart, a story of love, no matter how roughed-up and ugly and stained. Laney and Miss Baby are desperate for love. They strive for it. They are two women who live similar lives, even though they don't know each other."

As Miss Baby says at the end of the book, "It was all about wanting to matter to someone, wanting it so badly that you did things you never could have imagined, and you swore they were right, all for the sake of love."

Martin spent about three years working on the novel and its various drafts.

"The challenge in this book was getting the two different first-person narratives because one story is necessary to the other," he said. "Laney's story sets everything in motion and leads to Miss Baby. You have to be patient, and eventually you will see how the two stories intersect."

Martin says he was drawn to the character of Laney, who calls herself "as ordinary as bread from the wrapper."

"She has this great talent for singing, but couldn't bring it to expression because she is too shy and timid," Martin said. "This person became so influenced by Delilah and she mattered so much that Laney would do whatever she could to make her happy. This is the story of a young girl who could have had so much in life if she had made smarter choices."

But, Laney doesn't see those possibilities. "You have to understand what happens to people who start to believe they have no choices," she says in the novel. "People like us."

Martin, who sees writing as "an act of empathy," enjoys crafting and exploring characters who are very different from himself.

"I'm fascinated by characters living on the fringe," he said. "What they desire and fear isn't much different than our desires and fears."

Martin's other novels also include memorable characters, who find themselves coping with loss and guilt.

"The Bright Forever" revolves around the disappearance of nine-year-old Katie Mackey from a small Indiana town on a hot summer evening in 1972. The circumstances surrounding the fateful night are recalled some 30 years later by the girl's summer math tutor, Henry Dees; her brother, Gilley Mackey; and Mr. Dees' neighbors, Raymond R. and his wife, Clare. The novel explores the choices people make that change their lives forever.

Although he now resides in Columbus, Ohio, Martin said the landscape of southern Illinois continues to influence his writing. "River of Heaven" features white squirrels scampering about town, a glittering community Christmas display and a popular lakeside restaurant at the local state park.

The story itself revolves around 65-year-old Sam Brady. He is a man who has resigned himself to a life of loneliness as he attempts to conceal the secrets he harbors regarding both himself and the death of his boyhood friend, Dewey Finn, half a century ago.

Sam admits he purposely avoids others, but he finds it hard to escape his recently widowed neighbor, Arthur Pope. The two eventually forge a friendship as they labor together to build Sam's dog, Stump, an elaborate doghouse.

Sam's past and present collide when his long-absent brother, Cal, returns to Mt. Gilead after getting caught-up in a deadly hostage standoff in Ohio. As the mystery surrounding Cal and his ties to Michigan militiaman Leonard Mink unravels, Sam realizes he can't conceal the truth of Dewey's death forever.

Martin received a master of fine arts degree at the University of Arkansas and holds a doctorate degree from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. He is the director of creative writing at Ohio State University.

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