Circle of Sawdust Wins Gold Literary Titan Book Award!

Congratulations to Rob Mermin, whose memoir has won a 2024 Gold Literary Titan Book Award in the nonfiction category! Circle of Sawdust: A Circus Memoir of Mud, Myth, Mirth, Mayhem and Magic chronicles Mermin’s path from young performer to founder of Circus Smirkus.

Circle of Sawdust is a personal story of the wild characters, fascinating personalities, remarkable histories, and behind-the-scenes world of traditional traveling circuses. Here is a true-life tale about a boy’s impulse to run off and join the circus and then—through doubt, failure, loss, and tragedy—pursue the implausible vision of starting his own circus. With humor and passion, Mermin writes about the precarious life of a creative artist, the ups and downs of taking risks, and the idealistic struggle to hold onto a dream.

“There is a magical quality in this book,” says Alla Youdina, former creative director of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. “Yes, it is a circus story, but it is really about the struggles of pursuing a dream, reaching it, and having the courage to push beyond it. It is highly entertaining, masterful storytelling! It reads like a Chaplin silent film, from laugh-out-loud comedy, to moving us to tears, completely capturing the essence of a life in circus.”

The Literary Titan is an organization of professional editors, writers, and professors that reviews fiction and non-fiction books in many different genres, conducts author interviews, and recognizes talented authors with their Literary Titan Book Award.