Ex Libris

Books by JMU Alumni

Articles of Faith

2000 University of Iowa Press
ISBN 0-87745-726-3
By Elizabeth McGrath Oness ('82)

With her book, Articles of Faith, Elizabeth McGrath Oness captured the 2000 Iowa Short Fiction Award, a national competition juried by the Iowa Writer's Workshop. Oness tackles vast emotional terrain in her new book, including the loss of innocence to sexual betrayal and the helplessness of parents before their children. "Oness' stories are written with a deceptive simplicity," says Anna Esaki Smith, author of Meeting Luciano. "This book is a wonderful collection of insight and empathy."

Oness recently completed her first novel, Twelve Rivers of the Body, and she has won numerous literary awards, including an O. Henry Prize and the Chicago Tribune's Nelson Algren Award. She directs marketing and development for Sutton Hoo Press and lives in La Crosse, Wis., with her husband and son.

The Mount Dorans: African-American History of a Florida Town

2000 Eschar Publications
ISBN 0-9623839-8-8
By Vivian W. Owens ('72)

Vivian W. Owens' newest book takes readers back in time to look at early settlers of the small Florida town, Mount Dora. The book offers a positive, inspiring story of a simple, common folk, who dealt with the harsh realities of racism in some unique ways. Florida won statehood in 1845, and by 1850, African-Americans had firmly planted their seeds in the soil of a city surrounded by beautiful lakes. By the 1920s, tourism thrived, and the Mount Doran settlers found themselves uprooted, battling racism head-on.

Owens grew up in Mount Dora, and began her writing career with the nationally-successful book Parenting for Education. In 1994, her first novel for teens, Nadanda The Wordmaker, won a Writer's Digest Award. Many of her books are used as educational resources. Owens has also published two young adult novels, I Met a Great Man and I Met a Great Lady. She lives in Waynesboro with John and their three children.