In 1942, director Eugene Goossens called upon American composers for fanfares to play before each of his orchestra’s performances. The Second World War was raging, and while the United States had remained neutral, the attack on Pearl Harbor in December of 1941 had drawn the nation into the fighting.
It was a time of fear and uncertainty. Most of the fanfares were dedicated to soldiers or sailors. But of all the fanfares of the 1942 season, only Aaron Copland’s, Fanfare for the Common Man, has withstood the test of time. And to me, especially after my experiences over the past month and a half, it feels only fitting that it was commissioned by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.
My acceptance speech for the 2026 Golden Pen Award from Writers of the Future has made the rounds since that April Friday in Hollywood. It’s been frequently summarized, and at times slightly misquoted. And the line I felt most important has frequently slipped through the cracks:
“Cincinnati is a place where ordinary people do extraordinary things every day.”
One of the proudest moments of my life came on September 25, 2021. As of that day, I’d officially lived most of my life in Cincinnati. Since I arrived here in 2003 to attend the University of Cincinnati, this city has played host to some of the worst and greatest moments of my life. But on balance, as I said in my speech, I feel it has given me more than it could possibly take. It has given me a career. All of my closest friends. It’s given me a family, a home. A life. And it was the first place I’d ever visited where I truly felt I belonged.
When I and my fellow Volume 42 winners left LA for home, none of us knew exactly what awaited us. We knew that after toiling in obscurity for the most part, we’d now won international awards. We were now published authors. I think all of us, whether we admitted it or not, had the vague notion that we’d be overnight celebrities. Our awards and publishing credits would open doors. We’d be lauded and celebrated. Recognized at last.
Since then, many of my fellow authors have expressed their disappointment, some of them publicly through posts on Substack, at how nothing seems to have changed. Local news seems largely disinterested. Bookstore managers hear about Writers of the Future, Vol. 42 and just shrug. It’s unfair; I can personally vouch for both the skill and character of every single one of my eleven fellow Volume 42 winners. They all deserved to come home to a hero’s welcome.
Needless to say, coming back to a major city with a vibrant book scene, I had fairly low expectations.
But for the first time in years, I had underestimated Cincinnati.
Every time I’ve visited a bookstore, I’ve been greeted with enthusiasm. Every copy of Writers of the Future, Vol. 42 I’ve handed out to them has been swiftly read and praised. I’ve had two signing events, and expect more. And the last one was an unqualified success. I’ve been interviewed by a local radio personality. And the day after I returned home, I had my second phone interview with a local publication. This time, it was the Cincinnati Enquirer: the biggest local newspaper, which actually owns the domain cincinnati.com.
There are a lot of local writers here, even more than I’d realized. New bookstores are popping up all the time. The biggest local bookseller, Joseph Beth, is essentially a fully-independent version of Barnes & Noble, with an entire section devoted to local authors and artists. But the moment people found out I’d won a major award, and learned my story was set here in Cincinnati, their faces lit up.
More than anything, Cincinnati loves seeing her own succeed. And now, I was one of her own. Decades after I’d adopted Cincinnati as my home, I realized it had adopted me, too.
Carmen, the publicist for Writers of the Future, has worked tirelessly to get my name out there. Among other things, he reached out to both my hometown newspaper the Sharon Herald and the Youngstown Vindicator: the newspaper of nearby Youngstown, Ohio, which frequently reports on news from Sharon. The Herald never got back to him. The Vindicator told him they didn’t do articles on local authors, mere weeks before my mother noted an article in their newspaper that was, in fact, about a local author.
Those two newspapers cover news in small towns. They seldom have much to talk about (the Herald especially). Neither of them considered me noteworthy. But the Cincinnati Enquirer, a newspaper covering a metropolitan area of over one million people, with a distribution that dwarfs that of the Herald and Vindicator combined, did. Gillian, a reporter for the Enquirer, interviewed both me and my illustrator, Nathan, then showed up at one of my signing events to meet us.
As it turns out, my reception here in Cincinnati has been one of the warmest of any of the Volume 42 winners. I’ve been greeted with smiles and excitement, haven’t had a single door slammed in my face. Not because my story was really good. Not because I won first place in last year’s third quarter. Not even because I won the Golden Pen.
But because I’m from Cincinnati. And if you embrace this city, it will love you right back. – MK
Writers of the Future, Vol. 42 is now available, through Amazon and wherever fine literature is sold. It includes my winning story, “In Living Color’: the only story I’ve ever written that takes place in Cincinnati.
Michael T. Kuester 
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