Creative Writing

September 22, 2022

Author and Creative Writing Professor Philip Gerard to read in celebration of his new book, North Carolina in the 1940s: The Decade of Transformation, at the University of North Carolina Wilmington on Sept. 29.

WILMINGTON, N.C.—Philip Gerard, Department of Creative Writing professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, will read at 7 p.m. on Thursday, September 29 in Kenan Hall 1111.

A native of Delaware and graduate of the University of Delaware with a BA in English and Anthropology, Philip Gerard is the author of fourteen books of fiction and nonfiction, most recently The Last Battleground: The Civil War Comes to North Carolina. His novel Cape Fear Rising, a fictional account of the Wilmington (NC) white supremacist Coup of 1898, was reissued in a special 25th anniversary edition with a foreword by Randall Kenan and an author’s afterword that addresses both the process of writing the novel and the backlash that followed its original publication. His essay collection, The Patron Saint of Dreams, was awarded the 2012 North
American Gold Medal for Essay and Creative Nonfiction by the Independent Publisher (“Ippy”). He has also written eleven documentary television scripts, scores of radio essays, several magazine series, and an award-winning radio drama.

Gerard has appeared on National Public Radio's Weekend Edition, CNN, and C-SPAN, and was a regular commentator on the History Channel. He serves on the Board of Directors of the North Carolina Civil War, Emancipation, & Reconstruction History Center and teaches in the Department of Creative Writing at UNC Wilmington, where he founded the MFA Program. He lives in Wilmington, NC, with his wife, Jill, with whom he co-edits Chautauqua, the literary journal of Chautauqua Institution, NY. In 2019, he received the North Carolina Award in Literature, the state’s highest civilian honor.

This event is free and open to the public. A book signing sponsored by Pomegranate Books will follow the reading.

For further information on UNCW’s programs and events in creative writing, please contact the Department of Creative Writing at 910.962.7063 or crw@uncw.edu.