Book Nook Vick Mickunas

A long-time Dayton Daily News editor reconstructed his family history. There's heartbreak here and also inspiration.

Columbus native Hanif Abdurraqib is a poet, essayist, music critic, and please forgive the use of this term; social media influencer.

Music historian Deke Dickerson's biography of the music legend Merle Travis. Travis made his first record in Dayton while performing under an assumed name.

Lawrence Block has published over 200 books. He is now in his eighties and his output has been greatly reduced. Even so, he is still full of surprises. A few years ago he told me that he had probably published his final novel. Then he wrote "Dead Girl Blues." I assumed that would definitely be it though, that he was finished with novels. Fortunately I was wrong, Lawrence just put out yet another fine novel, "The Burglar Who Met Fredric Brown." Over the years I have interviewed him five times. During this conversation he offered up a tantalizing hint, thathe is working on something. He would not say what. I cannot wait to find out what it is.

Hap Cawood was for many years the editor of the editorial pages for the Dayton Daily News. Hap is the author of the novel "The Miler." His daughter Shuly is a prolific writer. Shuly writes poetry, prose, fiction, non-fiction, essays, short stories, and memoir. Over the years that I have hosted the program I have interviewed fathers and daughters but never at the same time. For example, James Lee Burke has made many appearances on the show. His daughter Alafair Burke has too. I would love to interview them together. I doubt that will ever happen though. When I had the chance to have Hap and Shuly together in the studio I knew that it could be something special. I surprised them when I suggested that perhaps they might want to interview one another. I did not give them any advance warning about my plans. Even so, they still agreed to do it. So that's what we did!

Last year Vick Mickunas received an email from the author Ralph Keyes. He's known Ralph for over 25 years. And Ralph has written many superb books. He went to Antioch College and lived in Yellow Springs for decades. Now Ralph lives in Portland. He e-mailed Vick to tell him about a book he thought he'd might want to cover. It was a picture book for children; "Watercress" by Andrea Wang.