| Ethan Gilsdorf | |
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Ethan Gilsdorf in 2010 |
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| Born | September 29, 1966 Lee, New Hampshire |
| Occupation | freelance writer, teacher, poet, author, |
| Nationality | American |
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Influences
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www.ethangilsdorf.com |
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Ethan Gilsdorf is an American writer, poet, editor, critic, teacher and journalist. He was born in Dover, New Hampshire, and raised in the nearby town of Lee. He has lived in Northampton and Amherst, Massachusetts; Brattleboro, Vermont; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Paris, France; and currently lives in Somerville, Massachusetts. He attended Oyster River High School in Durham, New Hampshire, and received his B.A. from Hampshire College and his MFA from Louisiana State University.
Gilsdorf is the author of Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks: An Epic Quest for Reality Among Role Players, Online Gamers, and Other Dwellers of Imaginary Realms (The Lyons Press).[1] The award-winning travel memoir-pop culture investigation is, according to The Huffington Post, "full of encounters, both funny and poignant" and National Public Radio’s “Around and About” describes the book as "Lord of the Rings meets Jack Kerouac’s On the Road.” [2] The subject matter ranges from Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) gamers and live-action role-players, or LARPers, to Harry Potter wizard rockers and World of Warcraft players.[3] Other subcultures and events the book investigates: the legacy of Gary Gygax, The Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) and Pennsic War, DragonCon (aka Dragon*Con), a French castle-building project called Guedelon, J.R.R. Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit fandom, and a journey to New Zealand to see Lord of the Rings film trilogy movie locations.[4] Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks also explores Gilsdorf's own lifelong (and at times twisted) relationship to fantasy and gaming.[5] The book was named a Must-Read Book by the Massachusetts Book Awards.[6]
A regular contributor of travel, arts, food, movies, books, and pop culture stories in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, the San Francisco Chronicle and The Improper Bostonian, Gilsdorf has also written for National Geographic Traveler, Psychology Today, Fodor's travel guides, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Poets & Writers, and The Christian Science Monitor. He is a book and movie critic for The Boston Globe, the film columnist for Art New England, and his blog "Geek Pride" [7] is seen regularly on PsychologyToday.com (Psychology Today). He also blogs for TheOneRing.net [8] and Tor.com.[9]
As a poet, he is the winner of the Hobblestock Peace Poetry Competition and the Esmé Bradberry Contemporary Poets Prize, and has published poems in Poetry, The Southern Review, the North American Review and several national and international anthologies.
He is co-founder of Grub Street, Inc.'s Young Adult Writers Program (YAWP), volunteers as a guest speaker in the Boston Public Schools and leads creative writing workshops in journalism, travel and essay writing, and poetry, as well as book promotion and writing career planning workshops at Grub Street,[10] Emerson College,[11] Mediabistro.com and, for younger students, in schools and community centers. He speaks frequently at conventions (such as Pax, Gen Con and DragonCon), universities, and book festivals nationwide.
Contents |
Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks: An Epic Quest for Reality Among Role Players, Online Gamers, and Other Dwellers of Imaginary Realms (The Lyons Press )
Clausen, Elizabeth (March 18, 2010), "Event to showcase two alumni authors", The Daily Reveille, http://www.lsureveille.com/entertainment/event-to-showcase-two-alumni-authors-1.2194701, retrieved 2010-03-26
