John Christgau's novel SPOON was published by Viking Press and praised as a “Candide of the Wild West.” The novel won the Society of Midland Authors prize for “Best Fiction.” ENEMIES, a non-fiction account of the World War II alien enemy internment program, was published in 1985 by the Iowa State University Press and nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award for non-fiction. SIERRA SUE II appeared in 1995. His prizewinning historical monograph Collins Versus The World has been published worldwide and details the long fight by WWII Japanese American renunciants to regain their citizenship. MOWER COUNTY POEMS appeared in 1998. THE ORIGINS OF THE JUMP SHOT: Eight Men Who Shook the World of Basketball, was released in March of 1999 as a Bison Original from the University of Nebraska Press. TRICKSTERS IN THE MADHOUSE: Globetrotters vs. Lakers 1948 was published in 2006. Sony Pictures has purchased motion picture rights. THE GAMBLER AND THE BUG BOY, the story of a horse racing fix in southern California on the eve of World War II, appeared in October of 2007 from the University of Nebraska Press. KOKOMO JOE: The Story of the First Japanese American Jockey in the U.S. appeared in October of 2009. His most recent non-fiction books are: BATTLE OF BIRCH COULIE, MICHAEL AND THE WHIZ KIDS, and INCIDENT AT THE OTTERVILLE STATION, all published by the University of Nebraska Press. His most recent novel, BLIND BILL YARK: The Story of the First Blind Pitcher in Major League Baseball, will be published as an e-Book in 2016.
Christgau has been awarded fellowships and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Peninsula Foundation, the William Sinclair Trust, The Diamond Park Farm LLC, the National Park Service, and the Haven Foundation. His three one-act plays--“Zip,” “The White Line,” and “The Master Tailor’s Wife”--were performed under a grant from The California Civil Liberties Public Education Project. His three act play THE ANTHRAX FACTORY: An Anti-war Romantic Comedy, will be performed in the Bay Area in April of 2016.
