Dallas Wiebe

Dallas Wiebe (1930–2008) was an American writer, poet, and a professor of English. He is best known for his 1969 controversial novel, Skyblue the Badass. The Newton, Kansas native was also a founder of the writing program at the University of Cincinnati, where he served as professor in the Department of English from 1963 until 1995. Some of his other works include "Night Flight to Stockholm," The Transparent Eyeball, Down the River: A Collection of Ohio Valley Fiction and Poetry, "Skyblue on the Dump", "Skyblue's Memoirs," Our Asian Journey, Going to the Mountain, The Kansas Poems and The Vox Populi Stories.

Early life and education Wiebe was born in Newton, Kansas. He completed his undergraduate education at Bethel College. He attended graduate school at the University of Michigan, where he co-founded the "John Barton Wolgamot Society".

Wiebe co-founded the Cincinnati Poetry Review in 1975 He also co-founded the Cincinnati Writer's Project (CWP) in 1987.

He continued to write and publish works throughout his life. He retired from university work in 1995.

Skyblue on the Dump censorship issue In 1967, New Yorker Carl Gorton happened to read Wiebe's short story, "Skyblue on the Dump" in Farmington Public Library's copy of The Paris Review #39. Disturbed by the content of the story, The removal was reported in The New York Times, where Gorton was quoted as stating that the story "'should not be available to minors" or made available "at the expenditure of taxpayers' dollars."' The editor of The Paris Review, George Plimpton, denounced the censoring of the magazine in the June 1967 New York Newsday article titled "Literary Lion Roars Back." Students from the State University of New York-Farmingdale publicly protested the censorship outside of the South Farmingdale library branch. "Sonnet," published in The Paris Review, 1963 In the Late Gnat Night, 1965 "Skyblue on the Dump," published in The Paris Review, 1966 Skyblue the Badass, 1969 "Night Flight to Stockholm," published in The Paris Review, 1978, and included in the 2912 anthology Object Lessons. The Transparent Eyeball: Stories, 1982 The Transparent Eyeball, 1984 The Kansas Poems, 1987 Going to the Mountain, 1988 Skyblue's Essays, 1995 Our Asian Journey, 1997 Skyblue's Memoirs, finished in 1972, excerpts published in 2003 The Vox Populi Stories, 2003 The Saying of Abraham Nofziger: A Guide for the Perplexed, 2004 The Notebook of Laura Bonair: and other stories, 2005 Fer Fio's Journey, 2005 The Nofziger Letters, 2005 On the Cross: Devotional Poems, 2005 The Nofziger Letters II, 2006 The White Book of Life, 2006 The Sayings of Abraham Nofziger II: An Enchiridion for the Pious, 2007 Monument: On Aging and Dying, 2008

Edited: Down the River: A Collection of Ohio Valley Fiction and Poetry, 1991

Unpublished: Slapsticks (a portion of this work was published in 1999)

Awards

1998 Governor's Award for Individual Artist Individual Artists Grant from the Ohio Arts Council, for a portion of his unpublished work Slapsticks Pushcart Prize