Poet Gary Gildner visits USC Aiken

As part of the celebrations for the National Day on Writing, accomplished author Gary Gildner held a reading at USC Aiken on Wednesday, Oct. 20. The author of more than 21 books that range from poetry to memoirs, Gildner read select poetry for a group of over 75 students and faculty in Penland 106.  Gildner also peppered his readings with anecdotes from his life, which gave the listeners perspective on the stories told in his poems and a glimpse into a very full and diverse experience.

Gildner grew up in Flint, Mich., and has traveled the world since. He has lived everywhere from Spain to his current location, the Clearwater Mountains in Idaho.  As a Fulbright Scholar, Gildner taught in Czechoslovakia and Poland. His time in Poland inspired his book, "The Warsaw Sparks." In it, he wrote about his experiences coaching a Polish baseball team during their Communist rule. During his reading on Wednesday, Gildner read a few of the poems he wrote during this time and told stories about the men on the only amateur baseball team in Warsaw.

He also spoke about playing baseball as a younger man.  As he tried to impress the scouts attending his games, he did more and more damage to his pitching arm and eventually he lost the ability to play through a game because of the pain. He knew that he would have to find a different profession. When he discovered the work of Ernest Hemingway, he said that he found his alternative to sports and decided to become a writer.

In his writing career, Gildner has earned several national awards and accolades for his work. The National Magazine Award for Fiction, Pushcart Prizes for fiction and nonfiction, the Robert Frost fellowship, the William Carlos Williams and the Theodore Roethke poetry prizes were all awarded to him for various pieces and novels. He's also been a writer-in-residence at numerous schools nationwide and has held two fellowships with the National Endowments for the Arts. He continues to write and tour the country while raising his daughter Margaret.

The subject and muse of several of his poems, Margaret was also the intended audience for the poem with which Gildner ended the night. His poem, "Frog on the Mountain" was a rare children's poem for the author that he wrote as a story to entertain Margaret. As his set ended and the audience filed out of the lecture hall, he spoke with people who were seeking autographs in his books.