flickr.com/photos/whinendineSix years ago, Margaret Benedict remembers being riveted by an article in Investor's Business Daily on the life and times of Joyce Clyde Hall, the highly-driven founder of Hallmark Cards. At the time, Benedict was reaching the end of a long career as a fifth-grade teacher in St. Charles.
"I've always loved biographies. They've always been my favorite genre," Benedict, who lives in Kirkwood, said last week. (In fact, she required her students to read eight
lulu.comThe number of short-story collections about St. Louis is embarrassingly thin; offhand, we can only think of two: The Middle of the Night by Daniel Stolar, out in 2004, and now Joe's Black T-Shirt by Joe Schwartz, out last month.Schwartz works full-time in the film department of the St. Louis Public Library. Joe's Black T-Shirt is his first book, composed over the course of four months between the hours of four and six in the morning.In an introductory author's letter, Schwartz writes:
Jennifer SilverbergPhillips and Andy.Carl Phillips, a Washington University professor, has been named a finalist for the National Book Award in poetry for his latest collection, Speak Low. This is Phillips' third National Book Award nomination. The awards ceremony will take place November 18 in New York City."I am honored, surprised,
excited -- and above all, grateful to think that my work might resonate
with someone besides its maker," Phillips said yesterday in a Wash. U. press release. But
