Skip to main content

Writer Gary Gildner to Speak at Westminster College

Posted on Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Westminster College's Bleasby Colloquium will host award-winning writer Gary Gildner for a reading of his work Monday, Oct. 6, at 7 p.m. in the Sebastian Mueller Theater of the McKelvey Campus Center. The event is free and open to the public.

A poet, novelist, and writer of short stories and nonfiction, Gildner's many books of poetry include First Practice, Letters from Vicksburg, Blue Like the Heavens, and Cleaning a Rainbow. His nonfiction includes the recently reissued Warsaw Sparks, an account of Gildner's attempt to bring baseball to Poland during his year there as a Fulbright lecturer; and My Grandfather's Book, a memoir and meditation on the immigrant experience in America. His short stories can be found in The Crush and Somewhere Geese are Flying.

A native of West Branch, Mich., Gildner earned undergraduate and master's degrees from Michigan State University, and taught at Northern Michigan, Marquette, and Drake Universities and Reed College. He now lives and writes in Idaho's Clearwater Mountains.

Gildner has been a Robert Frost Fellow at the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow, a Yaddo Fellow, and a McDowell Colony Fellow. His poetry has won Theodore Reothke and William Carlos Williams prizes.

"I came to know Gildner's work through his Vicksburg Letters book," said Dr. James Perkins, Westminster professor of English emeritus and coordinator of the Bleasby series. "His work is clear and powerful. The audience is in for an exciting evening any time Gildner stops here."

Gildner will sign copies of his works following the reading. Cleaning a Rainbow and Warsaw Sparks are available in the Westminster bookstore.

This colloquium is part of the George Bleasby Colloquia, a series of literary events in honor of the late Dr. Bleasby, who chaired the Department of English at Westminster from 1954-75.

Contact Dr. David Swerdlow, Westminster professor of English, at (724) 946-7345 or e-mail dswerdlw@westminster.edu for more information.

Gary Gildner