Joyce Dyer
Encyclopedia
Joyce Dyer is a U.S.
writer of nonfiction and memoirs whose most recent memoir, Goosetown: Reconstructing an Akron Neighborhood, tells the story of the author's attempt to remember the first five years of her life growing up in an ethnic neighborhood in Akron called Old Wolf Ledge (known to residents as "Goosetown"), famous for its glacial formations, breweries, and cereal mills. Goosetown is the prequel to Gum-Dipped: A Daughter Remembers Rubber Town, her book about the decades when Akron was the Rubber Capital of the World. In it Dyer provides a loving but complicated portrait of her father and a view of the relationships among Firestone Tire and Rubber Company
, its employees, and the city of Akron
, Ohio
. An earlier memoir was In a Tangled Wood: An Alzheimer's Journey, and she has also edited a collection of essays about place by Appalachian women writers, Bloodroot. Her first book, titled The Awakening: A Novel of Beginnings, was a scholarly study of Kate Chopin, a turn-of-the-century American writer. Joyce Dyer is John S. Kenyon Professor of English at Hiram College in Hiram, Ohio. At Hiram she won the Vencl-Carr Award for Teaching Excellence in 2006, the Michael Starr Award for Teaching Excellence in 1996, and a Paul E. Martin Merit Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1993, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2003, and 2010. Her biography is included in Contemporary Authors, volume 146, and in the New Revision Series, volume 91.
, Ohio
, during the summer of 1947. Her father, Thomas Coyne, was a supervisor for the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company
, and his experiences inspired Dyer to write Gum-Dipped: A Daughter Remembers Rubber Town, the 2004 required summer reading selection for the University of Akron and 2005 required reading for Hiram College. Dyer’s mother was a clerk for the Board of Education in Akron. Dyer graduated with a B.A. in English from Wittenberg University and a Ph.D. in English from Kent State University. She has taught at Lake Forest College in Illinois and Western Reserve Academy and Hiram College in Ohio. In addition to publishing five books, she is the author of numerous literary essays that have appeared in magazines such as North American Review, cream city review, and High Plains Literary Review and in anthologies such as After the Bell, Body Outlaws, We All Live Downstream, What's Normal?, and Educating the Imagination. She has read and lectured at St. Mary's College of Maryland, the Mercantile Library in Cincinnati, Otterbein College, Mount Union College, Appalachian State University, Wittenberg University, and the Great Lakes Writers Festival in Sheboygan, Wisconsin (2011) and served on staff at 826michigan Writers Conference in Ann Arbor, Michigan (2011), the Antioch Writers' Workshop in Yellow Springs, Ohio, the Appalachian Writers Workshop in Hindman, Kentucky, the Wright State University Institute on Writing and Teaching in Dayton, Ohio, and the Highland Summer Conference in Radford, Virginia. She recently served as visiting writer in creative nonfiction for the Northeast Ohio Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing (NEOMFA). Dyer is currently working on two collections of essays and a book about John Brown. She lives in the Ohio Western Reserve with her husband, Daniel Osborn Dyer, a book reviewer and teacher.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
writer of nonfiction and memoirs whose most recent memoir, Goosetown: Reconstructing an Akron Neighborhood, tells the story of the author's attempt to remember the first five years of her life growing up in an ethnic neighborhood in Akron called Old Wolf Ledge (known to residents as "Goosetown"), famous for its glacial formations, breweries, and cereal mills. Goosetown is the prequel to Gum-Dipped: A Daughter Remembers Rubber Town, her book about the decades when Akron was the Rubber Capital of the World. In it Dyer provides a loving but complicated portrait of her father and a view of the relationships among Firestone Tire and Rubber Company
Firestone Tire and Rubber Company
The Firestone Tire and Rubber Company is an American tire company founded by Harvey Firestone in 1900 to supply pneumatic tires for wagons, buggies, and other forms of wheeled transportation common in the era. Firestone soon saw the huge potential for marketing tires for automobiles. The company...
, its employees, and the city of Akron
Akron, Ohio
Akron , is the fifth largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Summit County. It is located in the Great Lakes region approximately south of Lake Erie along the Little Cuyahoga River. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 199,110. The Akron Metropolitan...
, Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
. An earlier memoir was In a Tangled Wood: An Alzheimer's Journey, and she has also edited a collection of essays about place by Appalachian women writers, Bloodroot. Her first book, titled The Awakening: A Novel of Beginnings, was a scholarly study of Kate Chopin, a turn-of-the-century American writer. Joyce Dyer is John S. Kenyon Professor of English at Hiram College in Hiram, Ohio. At Hiram she won the Vencl-Carr Award for Teaching Excellence in 2006, the Michael Starr Award for Teaching Excellence in 1996, and a Paul E. Martin Merit Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1993, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2003, and 2010. Her biography is included in Contemporary Authors, volume 146, and in the New Revision Series, volume 91.
Background
Joyce Coyne (Dyer) was born in AkronAkron, Ohio
Akron , is the fifth largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Summit County. It is located in the Great Lakes region approximately south of Lake Erie along the Little Cuyahoga River. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 199,110. The Akron Metropolitan...
, Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
, during the summer of 1947. Her father, Thomas Coyne, was a supervisor for the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company
Firestone Tire and Rubber Company
The Firestone Tire and Rubber Company is an American tire company founded by Harvey Firestone in 1900 to supply pneumatic tires for wagons, buggies, and other forms of wheeled transportation common in the era. Firestone soon saw the huge potential for marketing tires for automobiles. The company...
, and his experiences inspired Dyer to write Gum-Dipped: A Daughter Remembers Rubber Town, the 2004 required summer reading selection for the University of Akron and 2005 required reading for Hiram College. Dyer’s mother was a clerk for the Board of Education in Akron. Dyer graduated with a B.A. in English from Wittenberg University and a Ph.D. in English from Kent State University. She has taught at Lake Forest College in Illinois and Western Reserve Academy and Hiram College in Ohio. In addition to publishing five books, she is the author of numerous literary essays that have appeared in magazines such as North American Review, cream city review, and High Plains Literary Review and in anthologies such as After the Bell, Body Outlaws, We All Live Downstream, What's Normal?, and Educating the Imagination. She has read and lectured at St. Mary's College of Maryland, the Mercantile Library in Cincinnati, Otterbein College, Mount Union College, Appalachian State University, Wittenberg University, and the Great Lakes Writers Festival in Sheboygan, Wisconsin (2011) and served on staff at 826michigan Writers Conference in Ann Arbor, Michigan (2011), the Antioch Writers' Workshop in Yellow Springs, Ohio, the Appalachian Writers Workshop in Hindman, Kentucky, the Wright State University Institute on Writing and Teaching in Dayton, Ohio, and the Highland Summer Conference in Radford, Virginia. She recently served as visiting writer in creative nonfiction for the Northeast Ohio Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing (NEOMFA). Dyer is currently working on two collections of essays and a book about John Brown. She lives in the Ohio Western Reserve with her husband, Daniel Osborn Dyer, a book reviewer and teacher.
Awards
- Goosetown selected as a finalist for the 2011 Ohioana Book Award in the category of /About Ohio/Ohioan
- Pushcart nomination in essay for "Confessions of a Nail-Biter," 2009
- Pushcart nomination in essay for My Mother's Singer, 2009
- David B. Saunders Award in Creative Nonfiction, 2009
- Co-winner of a chapbook contest sponsored by Word of Mouth Books and Seems, 2009
- Pushcart nomination in essay for "Pallbearer" from North American Review, 2006
- First Place, Writers on Writing Category, Best of Ohio Writers Contest, 2005
- Gum-Dipped a finalist for Book of the Year (autobiography/memoir) by Appalachian Writers Association, 2004
- Pushcart nomination in essay for "Recalling Firestone" from North American Review, 2001
- National Endowment for the Humanities, fellow 1987 and 1988; grant with Reader’s Digest, 1990-91
- The Awakening named one of the best academic books of the year by Choice, 1993
- Midwest Writers’ Conference first place in nonfiction category
- Appalachian Book of the Year for Bloodroot, 1998
- Individual Artist Fellowship from the Ohio Arts Council,1997
Personal Memoirs
- (1996) In a Tangled Wood: An Alzheimer's Journey
- (2003) Gum-Dipped: A Daughter Remembers Rubber Town
- (2010) Goosetown: Reconstructing an Akron Neighborhood
Edited Collections
- (1998) Bloodroot: Reflections on Place by Appalachian Women Writers