Kratz Center for Creative Writing Presents Robert Girardi

Release date: May 01, 2008 |

Goucher will present a reading by Robert Girardi — novelist, screenwriter, and spring writer-in-residence of the college’s Kratz Center for Creative Writing — at 8 p.m. on Thursday, May 1, during Alumnae/i Weekend.

The reading is free and open to the public and will be held in Haebler Memorial Chapel. The author will also be available to sign books after the reading. Call 410-337-6333 for more information.

Girardi lived much of his childhood in Greece and France, where his father was stationed to work for the CIA. His education was rife with biblical tales and Greek myths, which have suffused his writing with dramatic moral crises, mysticism, and supernatural occurrences.

His published fiction includes the novels Madeleine’s Ghost, The Pirate's Daughter, Vaporetto 13, and The Wrong Doyle; and a collection of novellas, A Vaudeville of Devils –7 Moral Tales. His nonfiction has appeared in The Washington Post, Washingtonian Magazine, Writer's Harvest, Crisis Magazine, and The New Republic.

The New York Times Book Review praised Girardi for his “sensuous prose that unapologetically invokes the supernatural,” and The Detroit Free Press called him “an author of substantial gifts … remarkable descriptive ability, subtle humor, and an uncanny ability to create tactile and luminous sense of place.”

Girardi has also written teleplays for the network television dramas Judging Amy and Joan of Arcadia. Major Hollywood producers have optioned several of the dozen or more original screenplays he has written.

Barnes & Noble selected Girardi for its Discover Young Writer Series, which highlights forthcoming works by new or underappreciated writers, and he received the James Michener Fellowship, which allows promising graduate students to work full-time on coursework and writing.

He attended the University of Virginia, where he studied English and studio art, and the University of Southern California’s Graduate Film School. He earned an MFA from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

Established in 1999, the Kratz Center for Creative Writing at Goucher College brings nationally recognized authors to campus for lectures and readings as well as semester-long residencies. These authors work closely with students and provide them with a stimulating environment in which the highest quality of writing is encouraged. The Kratz Center functions cooperatively with the undergraduate creative writing program, enhancing and expanding the curriculum with distinguished guest writers and new course offerings.