Greg Garrett (writer)

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Greg Garrett
Born	November 6, 1961 Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Occupation	Author, professor, preacher
Genres	Fiction, nonfiction, memoir
Subjects	Religion, film, pop culture, spirituality
Notable work(s)	Free Bird, Holy Superheroes!
Notable award(s)	William Faulkner Prize for Fiction (1993)
Children	Jacob and Chandler
[The Other Jesus Official website] The Other Jesus

Greg Garrett (born November 6, 1961, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma) is a writer, professor, preacher, retreat leader, and musician based in Austin, Texas.

Contents 1 Education 2 Literary Career 2.1 Fiction 2.2 Nonfiction and Memoirs 2.3 Other work 3 Professional and Personal Life 4 External Links 5 References

[edit] Education

Born November 6, 1961, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Garrett attended Mustang High School in Mustang, Oklahoma. He then went on to the University of Central Oklahoma, where he received his B.A. in English with a minor in History and was a member of Alpha Chi and Phi Alpha Theta national honor societies. He continued his education at University of Central Oklahoma, receiving an M.A. in Creative Studies (his thesis was a novel, Bicentennial Summer).

Greg received his Ph.D. in English from Oklahoma State University in 1989.^[1] His dissertation was Bloodmetal, a screenplay. He continued his education with post-doctoral studies in Holocaust Studies at University of Oregon in 1997, and received a Masters of Divinity from the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas, in 2007.

[edit] Literary Career

[edit] Fiction

Garrett’s novel Free Bird ^[2] was published in 2002.^[3] It drew favorable critical attention and was a publisher nominee for the 2002 Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. It was also a Publishers Weekly First Fiction honoree and a finalist for the Violet Crown Award for Texas letters.

Cycling, a novel published in 2003^[4], was a finalist for the William Faulkner Prize for Fiction, the James Jones First Novel Fellowship, the Bakeless Literary Prize, and the Violet Crown Award for Texas Letters. It was also a publisher nominee for the 2003 National Book Award.

[edit] Nonfiction and Memoirs

Garrett is the author of several nonfiction works on religion and pop culture, including The Gospel Reloaded: Exploring Spirituality and Faith in the Matrix(with Chris Seay) ^[5][6] (nominated for the 2004 Gold Medallion Book Award), Holy Superheroes! Exploring Faith and Spirituality in Comics^[7][8] (a revised and expanded second edition, Holy Superheroes! Exploring the Sacred in Comics, Graphic Novels, and Film^[9], was published in 2008), and The Gospel According to Hollywood^[10][11]. He is an author of The Voice^[12], a forthcoming contemporary language Bible (his The Voice of Mark^[13] and The Voice of Hebrews^[14] were published in 2008).

Crossing Myself, Garrett’s spiritual autobiography, was published in 2006^[15]. A second memoir, No Idea, is forthcoming from David C. Cook Publishing in 2009. Stories from the Edge: A Theology of Grief^[16], will be published in August 2008.

[edit] Other work

Garrett is also the author of several short stories, book reviews, essays, and scholarly articles. His novella Minuet won the William Faulkner Prize for Fiction in 1993. He won a regional CASE gold medalist for nonfiction and was elected to the Texas Institute of Letters in 2005 for his lifetime literary achievements.^[17]

He also currently writes a theology blog, “The Other Jesus,”^[18] for The Christian Century.

[edit] Professional and Personal Life

Garrett is a professor of English at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, where he has taught since 1989. He has been named Outstanding Professor by Baylor’s student congress and Outstanding Faculty Member by the university administration^[19]. His courses at Baylor include studies of writing, film, and literature. He was the founding director of Baylor’s Art & Soul Festival, a festival celebrating faith and the arts, from 1999-2002^[20].

He is also the Writer in Residence at the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest^[21] and a lay preacher at St. David’s Episcopal Church^[22], both in Austin, Texas.

Garrett also teaches classes, workshops, retreats, and seminars in writing, religion and culture, theology, spirituality, and other topics for conference centers, conferences, schools, universities, seminaries, and organizations around the U.S. and overseas. Recent offerings include “Writing for Peace and Justice” (a course at Ghost Ranch^[23] in Abiquiu, New Mexico) and “Writing the Novel,” a five-week course for the Writers League of Texas^[24].

Garrett currently resides in Austin, Texas. He has two sons, Jacob and Chandler.

[edit] External Links

• The Other Jesus
• Baylor University English Department profile
• Greg Garrett's personal website
• Hints for Writers: An Online Tutorial by Greg Garrett

[edit] References