Joyce Dyer Explained

Joyce Dyer (born Joyce Coyne) is a U.S. writer of nonfiction and former university professor at Hiram College. Born in Akron, Ohio, many of Dyer's works focus on her family and the Ohio experience.

Life

Joyce (Coyne) Dyer was born in Akron, Ohio. Her father, Thomas William Coyne, was a supervisor for the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company and her mother clerked for the Akron Board of Education. Dyer graduated from Wittenberg University (in Springfield, Ohio) with a BA in English and earned a PhD in English from Kent State University. After completing her PhD, Dyer taught English at Lake Forest College, Western Reserve Academy, and then Hiram College, where she was the first director of the Lindsay-Crane Center for Writing and Literature and held the John S. Kenyon Chair in English for many years., she was professor emerita at Hiram.

Joyce married fellow writer and educator Daniel Osborn Dyer.

Work

Dyer has written six nonfiction books, as well as numerous essays for literary periodicals. Dyer has also edited two collections of essays, Bloodroot: Reflections on Place by Appalachian Women Writers and From Curlers to Chainsaws: Women and Their Machines.

Dyer's first book, The Awakening: A Novel of Beginnings, was an academic study of late-19th-century author Kate Chopin. She then turned to memoirs, writing In a Tangled Wood: An Alzheimer's Journey about her mother's last years.

Her father's experiences at Firestone Tire and Rubber Company inspired Dyer to write Gum-Dipped: A Daughter Remembers Rubber Town, a commercial success. Gum-Dipped attempts to reconstruct the centrality of the rubber industry to midcentury Akron, Ohio through Dyer's relationship to her father. Dyer then wrote a prequel, Goosetown: Reconstructing an Akron Neighborhood, which describes Dyer's early childhood in Old Wolf Ledge (also called "Goosetown", because of the backyard geese many local German immigrant families kept).

Finally, from 2011 to 2021, Dyer wrote Pursuing John Brown: On the Trail of a Radical Abolitionist, a mix of memoir, biography, public history, and travel writing that analyzes the troubling life of its eponymous figure.

Personal memoirs

(1996) In a Tangled Wood: An Alzheimer's Journey
(2003) Gum-Dipped: A Daughter Remembers Rubber Town^[1]
(2010) Goosetown: Reconstructing an Akron Neighborhood^[2]

Other nonfiction

(1993) The Awakening: A Novel of Beginnings^[3]
(2022) Pursuing John Brown: On the Trail of a Radical Abolitionist^[4] (winning honorable mention in Civil War Monitor's yearly "Best Civil War Books")

Edited collections

(1998) Bloodroot: Reflections on Place by Appalachian Women Writers^[5] (named Appalachian Book of the Year)
(2016) From Curlers to Chainsaws: Women and Their Machines^[6] (winning the Independent Book Publisher Gold Medal Award for anthology)

Other Awards

David B. Saunders Award in Creative Nonfiction (2009)
Individual Artist Grant from Ohio Arts Council (1997, 2013)
NEH-Reader's Digest Teacher-Scholar Award, full-year sabbatical (1990; one winner per state)

References

Review of Gum-Dipped:Pendarvis. Edwina. Spring–Fall 2005. 1/2. Journal of Appalachian Studies. 41446684. 312–314. none. 11.
Review of Goosetown:Hatfield. Sharon. Fall 2011 – Winter 2012. 1–2. Appalachian Journal. 43488531. 171–172. none. 39.
Review of The Awakening:Knight. Denise D.. Winter 1995. 2. American Literary Realism, 1870-1910. 27746617. 88–89. none. 27.
Reviews of Pursuing John Brown:
- News: McIntyre . Barbara . April 10, 2022 . Book talk . Akron Beacon Journal.
- February 1, 2022 . Nonfiction book review . Kirkus Reviews.
- Jordan, Brian Matthew. Indiana Magazine of History, Vol. 118, No. 4, pp. 334-335.
- Sanders, Andrew W. "Book Notes." The Journal of Southern History, Vol. 89, No. 2, May 2023.
Reviews of Bloodroot:
- Ewen. Lynda Ann. Fall 1998. 2. Journal of Appalachian Studies. 41446402. 340–342. none. 4.
- Higgins. Anna Dunlap. . 1. Southern Quarterly. 161. none. 37.
- Joyner. Nancy Carol. Fall 1999. 3. NWSA Journal. 4316694. 195–197. none. 11.
- Ross. Paul E.. Fall 1998. 1. Appalachian Journal. 40934884. 57–60. none. 26.
- News: Whited. Lana. May 10, 1998. The Roanoke Times. Literary women reclaim their culture.
- Wilson. Janey. 10.1353/aph.1998.0086. 2. Appalachian Heritage. 63–65. Project Muse. none. 26. 1998.
- Kirkus Reviews. Nonfiction book review. March 1, 1998.
Reviews of From Curlers to Chainsaws:
- Byl. Christine. May–June 2017. 3. The Women's Review of Books. 26433370. 8–9. The lexicon of labor. 34.
- McEntarfer. Heather. June 2016. Literary Mama. Review.
- Pesses. Michael W.. August 2018. 10.1080/00497878.2018.1507592. 6. Women's Studies. 679–680. none. 47.