Background
Powers, John R. was born on November 30, 1945 in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Son of John Francis and JuneRose (Tampier) Powers.
( “It is fast-moving and often downright funny.”—New York...)
“It is fast-moving and often downright funny.”—New York Times “He has recaptured childish innocence and presented it with adult enlightenment—plus a touch of cynicism—yet never with irreverence.” —Book-of-the-Month Club News First confession and its terrors. Eighty-four first graders in a classroom ruled by just one nun. The agony and the ecstasy of Lent. The dubious honor of being declared the worst altar server ever. Dinah Shore and the Blessed Virgin haunting your dreams. This is Eddie Ryan’s world as he grows up in the intensely Catholic world of South-Side Chicago’s St. Bastion’s parish in the 1950s. In this classic coming-of-age novel, John Powers draws readers into Eddie Ryan’s world with deep affection and bittersweet humor.
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Powers, John R. was born on November 30, 1945 in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Son of John Francis and JuneRose (Tampier) Powers.
Bachelor of Science in Sociology, Loyola University, Chicago, 1967. Master of Arts in Radio, television and Film, Northwestern University, 1969. Doctor of Philosophy, Northwestern University, 1975.
Powers wrote four books of fiction, The Last Catholic in America (Dutton 1973), Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up? (Regnery 1975), The Unoriginal Sinner and the Ice Cream God (Contemporary 1977), and The Junk Drawer, Corner Store, Front Porch Blues (Dutton 1992). He also wrote the self-help book Odditude (Human Computer Interaction 2007). These books relate his experience of growing up in 1950"s Chicago.
The first three books, often referred to as the "Eddie Ryan Trilogy," have been re-issued by Loyola Press.
Doctor Powers was awarded two Emmy Awards for his writing. The first in 1984 for Lovers and Lanes which he wrote for WMAQ television channel 5 in Chicago and the second in 1988 for Going Home written for World's Largest Store television channel 7 in Chicago.
Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up? was selected for inclusion on the American Library Association’s list of Best Books for Young Adults in 1975. Powers wrote the libretto to a Broadway musical based loosely on characters and events from his first two novels entitled Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up? that continues to run in venues nationwide.
John was also the author of two one man shows which he also performed.
Powers held a Doctor of Philosophy in Communications from Northwestern University and was a professor of speech and performing arts at Northeastern Illinois University. He received his undergraduate degree in sociology from Loyola University and is a graduate of Brother Rice High School in Chicago. Powers continued to write throughout his life, and was a renowned motivational speaker.
(Donald Cooper returns home after twenty years to purge th...)
(A humorous, nostalgic voyage through Chicago of the 1950s...)
(A humorous, nostalgic voyage through Chicago of the 1950s...)
( “It is fast-moving and often downright funny.”—New York...)
( “It is fast-moving and often downright funny.”—New York...)
(Paperback - 1973)
(Three Volumes. Paperback.)
(Do Black...: Growing up on Chicago's South Side in the 19...)
Married JaNelle Gay Meyers. Children: Jacey Elizabeth, Joy Victoria.