Gildner, Gary
August 22, 1938 –
Place of Birth: West Branch, MI
Place of Principle Residence: Grangeville, ID
Biography:
Gary Gildner was born to Jean and Theodore in 1938 in West Branch, MI. He attended Michigan State University, receiving his B.A. in 1960 and his M.A. in 1961. Gildner worked as an instructor at Northern Michigan University, a Professor of English at Drake University and a McGee Professor of Writing at Davidson College. In addition he has been a Fulbright Lecturer both at the University of Warsaw and in Poland and Czechoslovakia, as well as a writer in residence at Michigan State University and a distinguished visiting writer at Seattle University. He is best known for his eight books of poetry, with The Bunker in Parsley Fields winning the Iowa Poetry Prize. Gildner has lectured at the Library of Congress, the Academy of American Poets, and the Manhattan Theatre club, as well as approximately three hundred colleges and schools in the U.S. and abroad. His awards include Pushcart Prizes in fiction and nonfiction, a Robert Frost Fellowship, and the William Carlos Williams and Theodore Roethke poetry prizes. Gildner lives with his family in Grangeville, Idaho.
Selected Works:
- Clackamas (1991)
- Jabon (1981)
- The Runner (1978)
- Bredahl (1973)
- The Bunker in the Parsley Fields (1997)
Awards:
- 1970 Robert Frost Fellowship, Bread Loaf
- 1971, 1976 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships
- 1972, 1973, 1975, 1976, 1978 Yaddo Fellow
- 1974 MacDowell Colony Fellow
- 1976 Theodore Roethke Poetry Prize, Poetry Northwest
- 1977 William Carlos Williams Poetry Prize, New Letters
- 1979 Helen Bullis Poetry Prize, Poetry Northwest
- 1986 National Magazine Award for Fiction
- 1986 Pushcart Prize for Fiction
- 1985, 1986, 1988 Stories cited in The Best American Short Stories
- 1996 Iowa Poetry Prize for Bunker in the Parsley Fields
Critical Reception:
“His characters are aware of being alive, and when we read Gary Gildner, we are, too.”
—Richard Goodman, The New York Times
“Gary Gildner makes everything seem so right, as if telling it just the way it happened.”
—National Public Radio
Relevance of Place to Author’s Work:
Gildner achieved his B.A. and M.A. at Michigan State University, and there worked briefly as a visiting writer in residence.