National award-winning author of “The Warsaw Sparks” to speak at Harding
National award-winning author of “The Warsaw Sparks” to speak at Harding
SEARCY, Ark. — Prestigious literary critics from the Georgia Review to
the New York Times have praised writer and poet Gary Gildner
throughout his writing career. Among his most recognized books, “The
Warsaw Sparks” recounts his experiences as an ex-baseball player
coaching in communist Poland in the 1980s. Other books he is well
known for are “Blue Like the Heavens,” published in 1984 as his first
book, and “My Grandfather’s Book,” which was named a Top 10 University
Press Book of the Year by ForeWord Magazine.
The Harding University English Department will host Gildner Thursday,
Sept. 30, at 7 p.m. in Cone Chapel at Harding. The event will be free
and open to the public. Refreshments will be served, and a book
signing and question-and-answer session will follow.
“His subject matter is nature and ordinary people, two things most of
us can relate to,” Dr. John Williams, Harding English Department chair
and professor of English, said. “But he also provides telling
insights into his subjects, performing well the artistic role of
‘defamiliarizing’ the ordinary things and people of life to show their
unique value.”
Gildner has published more than 20 books in all the major genres,
ranging from fiction to nonfiction to poetry, and has received a
National Magazine Award for Fiction, Pushcart Prizes in Fiction and
Nonfiction, two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, the
Robert Frost Fellowship, the William Carlos Williams and Theodore
Roethke Poetry Prizes, and the Iowa Poetry Prize.
Gildner’s campus visit is part of a special tour he and his wife,
Michele, are taking part in, a trek from their home in Idaho to
Athens, Ga., to participate in a ceremony Oct. 13-14 sponsored by The
Georgia Review honoring the late Raymond Andrews, a Georgia writer and
friend of Gildner’s.
For more information, contact the English department at 501-279-4421.
Harding had a record enrollment this year of more than 6,800 students
from 49 states and over 50 foreign countries. It is the largest
private university in Arkansas and attracts more National Merit
Scholars than any other private university in the state. Harding also
maintains campuses in Australia, Chilé, England, France, Greece, Italy
and Zambia.
