Kansas author Max Yoho reveals his writing philosophy to a captive audience during a presentation at Paola Free Library on May 12. (Photo by Kevin Gray / Republic@republic-online.com)
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Captivating readers with humor and poetry
Max Yoho engages audience during performance at Paola Free Library
By Kevin Gray, Staff Writer
No wonder Kansas author, Max Yoho, enjoys writing so much.
“As a writer, you can do anything you want,” he said.
Yoho revealed his writing philosophy while sharing bits and pieces of his humorous fiction at the Paola Free Library on May 12. Having come to writing as a widower and after his retirement as a Topeka machinist in 1992, Yoho wrote and published his first book, “The Revival,” in 2001.
“The Revival” won the J. Donald Coffin Memorial Book Award of the Kansas Authors Club in 2002. With publication of “The Moon Butter Route” in 2006, Yoho became the only Kansas author to place two books on the Kansas Center for the Book’s Favorite Kansas Books list. Other notables on this list include Truman Capote’s “In Cold Blood,” Robert Day’s “The Last Cattle Drive,” and L. Frank Baum’s “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.”
But it’s the humor in Yoho’s short fiction and poetry that appealed to his listeners. About the book “Felicia, These Fish Are Delicious,” he said, “There is no Felicia. There isn’t a fish. I had always wanted to write a book with this title.” Here, Yoho offers readers his hilarious poetry, essays and short tales.
In “The Moon Butter Route,” Yoho’s youthful character, Wally Gant, runs up against bootleggers and moonshiners in southeast Kansas during prohibition. Yoho recounted from the book, “Twelve-year-old Wally Gant is growing up in the southeast corner of Kansas. This rich mining area, known as the ‘Little Balkans,’ has attracted immigrants from many countries. Used to having a little wine with their meals and their sacraments, these newcomers, along with many of their American neighbors, find the Kansas laws on prohibition unbelievable. There must be some mistake! Still, as some wag said, ‘Kansans will vote dry as long as they can stagger to the polls.’”
“The Revival” developed as a coming-of-age story. Simply “blame the boy,” Yoho said about an 11-year-old boy growing up in Kansas.
“When I began writing this story, the characters were doing their own thing. ‘All right you guys,’ I said, ‘go ahead and write the damn book.’ And they did.”
Revival turned into a book about Edwin J. Stamford, Yoho’s alter ego, a freckle-faced boy of average size, who couldn’t manage to avoid trouble. How, for example, did Edwin cut his toe while learning to shave?
“Revival,” he said, “was my first experience at seeing how people would react to my strange way of thinking.”
Yoho, who was born in Colony, Kan., in 1934, moved with his family to Atchison in 1944 and then to Topeka in 1949. At Washburn University, he wrote for The Review, the student newspaper. That was it until 1992, when he bought his first computer and began writing “The Revival.” He also published “Tales from Comanche County” in 2002 and “Felicia, These Fish Are Delicious” in 2004.
His books, published by Dancing Goat Press, can be found online at http://www.dancinggoatpress.com/.
“The Revival” and “Tales from Comanche County” are available as unabridged audio books from Books in Motion.
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“As a writer, you can do anything you want,” he said.
Yoho revealed his writing philosophy while sharing bits and pieces of his humorous fiction at the Paola Free Library on May 12. Having come to writing as a widower and after his retirement as a Topeka machinist in 1992, Yoho wrote and published his first book, “The Revival,” in 2001.
“The Revival” won the J. Donald Coffin Memorial Book Award of the Kansas Authors Club in 2002. With publication of “The Moon Butter Route” in 2006, Yoho became the only Kansas author to place two books on the Kansas Center for the Book’s Favorite Kansas Books list. Other notables on this list include Truman Capote’s “In Cold Blood,” Robert Day’s “The Last Cattle Drive,” and L. Frank Baum’s “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.”
But it’s the humor in Yoho’s short fiction and poetry that appealed to his listeners. About the book “Felicia, These Fish Are Delicious,” he said, “There is no Felicia. There isn’t a fish. I had always wanted to write a book with this title.” Here, Yoho offers readers his hilarious poetry, essays and short tales.
In “The Moon Butter Route,” Yoho’s youthful character, Wally Gant, runs up against bootleggers and moonshiners in southeast Kansas during prohibition. Yoho recounted from the book, “Twelve-year-old Wally Gant is growing up in the southeast corner of Kansas. This rich mining area, known as the ‘Little Balkans,’ has attracted immigrants from many countries. Used to having a little wine with their meals and their sacraments, these newcomers, along with many of their American neighbors, find the Kansas laws on prohibition unbelievable. There must be some mistake! Still, as some wag said, ‘Kansans will vote dry as long as they can stagger to the polls.’”
“The Revival” developed as a coming-of-age story. Simply “blame the boy,” Yoho said about an 11-year-old boy growing up in Kansas.
“When I began writing this story, the characters were doing their own thing. ‘All right you guys,’ I said, ‘go ahead and write the damn book.’ And they did.”
Revival turned into a book about Edwin J. Stamford, Yoho’s alter ego, a freckle-faced boy of average size, who couldn’t manage to avoid trouble. How, for example, did Edwin cut his toe while learning to shave?
“Revival,” he said, “was my first experience at seeing how people would react to my strange way of thinking.”
Yoho, who was born in Colony, Kan., in 1934, moved with his family to Atchison in 1944 and then to Topeka in 1949. At Washburn University, he wrote for The Review, the student newspaper. That was it until 1992, when he bought his first computer and began writing “The Revival.” He also published “Tales from Comanche County” in 2002 and “Felicia, These Fish Are Delicious” in 2004.
His books, published by Dancing Goat Press, can be found online at http://www.dancinggoatpress.com/.
“The Revival” and “Tales from Comanche County” are available as unabridged audio books from Books in Motion.